Differences between Bar Exam Essay Answers and Law School Essay Answers

If you ever hear of excellent law students who graduated at the top of their class but then go on to fail the bar exam, it is often because they write law school essay answers in response to bar exam essay questions. There are key differences between bar exam essay answers and law school essay answers. If you write a law school essay answer in response to a bar exam essay question, you will not score high on your bar exam essay answer.

Here, we tell you the key differences between bar exam essay answers and law school essay answers so you can be mindful of them when you study for the bar exam.

Differences between Bar Exam Essay Answers and Law School Essay Answers

There are less issues to analyze in bar exam essay answers.

In a law school essay answer, you were undoubtedly expected to “hunt” for issues in a fact pattern and address several issues, sub-issues, and sub-sub-issues as they arose. In a bar exam essay answer, you will likely be addressing two to three issues in total on most exams, including the multistate essay exam.

The issues are usually clearer on bar exam essays.

Law school exams tend to have open-ended question calls like “Discuss.” Bar exam questions usually contain a “call of the question” which tells you exactly which issues to discuss or points to address in your essay answer. Thus, there is less guessing about what you are supposed to discuss in a bar exam essay answer.

You do not have to argue both sides in most bar exam essay answers.

This is one of the critical differences between bar exam essay answers and law school essay answers. When answering a law school exam question, you are expected to argue both sides for each issue presented (and sometimes these arguments could spin out into sub-arguments and sub-sub-arguments).

You do not have to argue both sides when answering a bar exam essay question. For the vast majority of issues, you are expected to state the rule, apply the law, and conclude. This application does not generally require arguments on behalf of each party. Rather, it requires analyzing whether each element of a law has facts to support it to reach an accurate conclusion on that issue.

Occasionally you will be asked to argue both sides in a bar exam essay answer. However, this is the exception and not the general expectation.

The conclusion matters on bar exam essay answers.

Many law school professors do not award many points to conclusions. Some professors do not award any. On law school exams, your analysis is valued significantly more than a conclusion as oftentimes there is not just one “right” answer.

Bar exam essay exams require conclusions for each issue and oftentimes there is a “right” or a better answer. Points are awarded for arriving at the correct conclusion on a bar exam essay answer.

Bar exam essay answers tend to be shorter than law school essay answers

Another key difference between bar exam essay answers and law school essay answers is that most bar exam essay answers are shorter than law school essay answers. In general, you have less time to write an answer to a bar exam essay question. So bar exam essay answers are shorter and more concise than law school exam answers.

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Differences between Bar Exam Essay Answers and Law School Essay Answers