HELP!!! I FAILED THE ONTARIO BAR EXAM!!!
A few weeks ago, licensing candidates received an email from the Law Society containing some important information: Whether they PASSED or FAILED the barrister and solicitor portions of the bar exam. (Side note: why does the Law Society use red font, even if you passed?!)
For those of you who passed both portions of the exam, CONGRATS!!! Contrary to common belief, Ontario’s bar exam is no joke. And so if you passed both parts—particularly on your first go around—you should be proud of your accomplishment.
If, on the other hand, you were unable to pass one or both portions of the bar exam, don’t be discouraged!!! Plenty of super smart people fail on their first (or second) attempt. BUT, in order to pass, those who fail often require a change in approach. So in this post, let’s talk about some potential shifts in strategy that will help put you on the path to success…
The FIRST piece of advice we’ll offer is simple: DO PRACTICE EXAMS!!! We know, we know—practice exams can be nerve-racking and discouraging. BUT (and this is an important “BUT”), you’ll never know how prepared you are if you aren’t doing multiple practice exams from several different test providers. It’s one thing to read over all of the Law Society’s materials. But you’re still doing a disservice to yourself if you aren’t practicing applying those materials to bar exam-like questions. And this only comes from doing practice tests. In addition, practice tests can be a great way to get over test anxiety and bolster your confidence on test day (particularly if you start scoring well on them). So put the nervousness and fear of failure aside and start doing practice tests—trust us, you’ll be happy you did!
The SECOND piece of advice we’ll offer is also simple: READ WITH A PURPOSE!!! We get it, the bar exam study materials are boring, long, and dense. And so it’s easy to start glossing over them without obtaining actual comprehension. But this is a recipe for disaster. Regardless of how boring the study materials are, you need to try to understand each passage. If you catch yourself mindlessly glossing over a paragraph stop and re-read it. Then ask yourself whether you understood what that passage was getting at. If you don’t, re-read it. If you do, it often helps to put a one or two sentence summary of the paragraph’s main point in the margins of your study materials.
Okay, time for one LAST piece of advice for those of you about to re-take the bar exam: IF YOU DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO A QUESTION, MOVE ON!!! Often times, candidates fail the bar exam because they get hung up trying to answer ONE question. This, in turn, results in them having to guess on a BUNCH of other questions. Obviously, this is terrible time management. And so, as frustrating as it might be, if you don’t know the answer to a question (or think you the know the answer but can’t locate it in your study materials), move on! Yes, you can make note of that question and circle back to it and the end if you still have time. But, in the meantime, make an educated guess and skip to the next question. There’s no point in wasting tons of time on a single question if it ends up preventing you from answering a bunch of different questions.
TLDR: (1) do MULTIPLE practice tests from DIFFERENT test providers; (2) read with a PURPOSE (don’t just gloss over the study materials); (3) if you don’t know an answer, skip to the next question!
Good luck to those of you re-writing Ontario’s bar exam!!! Because we think practice tests are so important (and because we basically told you to buy some), take 30% off any of our practice tests with PROMO CODE: REWRITE. Stay tuned for other bar exam advice and FREE practice questions!!!
