Should I Retake the Bar Exam?

Encouragement for Bar Exam Repeaters

Should I Re-Take the Bar Exam?

Failing the bar exam can be a devastating experience. It can feel like the halting of one’s legal career, a roadblock to fulfilling one’s hopes, goals, and dreams. Humiliation, embarrassment, discouragement, and self-doubt can too easily creep-in and attempt to overtake one’s thoughts and direction for the future. Questions arise. What am I going to do now? What did I do wrong? Should I re-take the exam? Maybe I should try taking it in a different state? And so on, and so forth …

Grieve

If you failed the bar exam, know this: it’s okay to grieve. It’s okay to allow yourself time to get over the emotional aspect of having failed. Just try not to stay in that realm for too long. Otherwise, you might become complacent and overly fearful of your future. Grieve for a little while, then get back up, and move forward.

Self-Evaluation

Once you have moved beyond the grieving stage, do a self-evaluation. Ask yourself if you really want to be a lawyer. Having a J.D. degree does not necessarily mean that you have to practice law; it is merely the path we are expected to take after graduating from law school. Equally important is the fact that once you do pass the exam, you still do not have to practice law.

Again, practicing law is what we are expected to do with our J.D. degrees and our esquire pedigrees. You do not have to take the “traditional” lawyer route. You can use your degree to do a myriad of things, and you can use your esquire name to help boost your potential for income or add credibility to your already existing non-legal employment or business endeavor. You do not have to be a practicing lawyer to be a success in life!

To Re-Take or Not Re-Take

Following your own self-evaluation and introspection of your role in the legal profession, decide whether or not you want to re-take the exam. Determine what factors you think contributed to your failing score.

What was your environment like when you were studying?
Were there too many distractions?
Was the bar review prep course you took the right course for you?
Did the course clutter your mind with an overload of information?
Was your failing score a result of not knowing the black letter law?
Was it a result of exam anxiety? …
Try to pinpoint your area(s) of weakness so you can tweak your study plan.

If you decide not to re-take the exam, that is certainly okay. Keep in mind, however, how far you have come with your education, how expensive it was to earn that J.D. degree, and how much time and money you have already invested in the bar exam itself. Write down the pros and cons of not re-taking the exam.

If the pros outweigh the cons, then do not re-take it. But if the cons outweigh the pros, then for your own sake, re-take the exam. Eventually you will pass it—it’s just a matter of time. And remember, just because you pass the exam and get licensed does not necessarily mean that you have to practice law. Your esquire name carries weight in and of itself.

Tweaking Your Re-Take Plan

Now that you have evaluated your situation and have decided to re-take the bar exam, you need to consider tweaking your study plan. Make your study plan unique to your own study methods and habits. Too often, the major bar review courses have a one size fits all study plan. Maybe it would be best to skip the major bar review course this go round. After all, you have the study materials. Now you just need to actively study (again), know the black letter law, and do practice questions.

Courses such as Adaptibar have an online library of MBE practice questions. Hiring a bar exam tutor might also be helpful, depending on the tutor and your specific needs. Whichever route you choose, tweak your study plan so that it’s unique to you. Recall what study techniques helped you succeed in law school and implement those methods into your bar exam studies.

Some Re-Take Pointers

Review your bar scores.
Determine which subjects you scored well on and which subjects you scored poorly on.
Study to improve your weak subjects, but be sure to continue reviewing your strong subjects.
Study the MBE subjects first and then study the Florida law distinctions.
Start small and gradually take on larger chunks of material.
Begin studying earlier than you did with the prior exam.
Write your own outlines or note cards; make them clear and concise.
Do not create an “air” of studying; rather, “actively” study the subjects.
When doing practice questions, your goal should be about quality, not quantity.
Use the Florida Board of Bar Examiners study guide to help improve your essay writing.
For a $50 fee you can order a copy of your ungraded essays from the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. (Rule 4-16.2.)

Comparing your essay writing style with the board’s “Selected (model) Answers” can be quite helpful!

If you are a Florida Bar Exam repeater and you have a question regarding re-taking the Florida Bar Exam, feel free to reach out to us. We will attempt to assist you to the best of our abilities. Thank you and kind regards.

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FL Bar Exam Mock MC [Set 1]

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Posted Apr 17, 2014

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