What the heck is an index?
In law school, you’re introduced to a ton of new words and phrases. One term you probably didn’t hear much of in law school, however, is “index”. But once you begin studying for the Ontario bar exam, that’s all anyone is going to be talking about. Which index are you using? Are you even using an index? Be prepared to hear a TON of questions along these lines. Which begs the question, what exactly is an index?
An index is exactly what you might expect it to be. It’s an alphabetical list of terms, subjects, etc. with references to the places those terms, subjects, etc. can be found in your study materials. Ultimately, it’s designed to make the bar exam easier. Rather than having to flip through pages at random in order to find information about, say, directors’ duties, you can just open up your index and find out which page(s) of your study materials make reference to that topic. Then, you can flip to those pages and, just like that, you have all the information you need to answer any question about directors’ duties. As you can probably see, this ends up saving you a TON of time, which is important given that the bar exam is timed.
As others have noted, however, there is a learning curve attached to using a bar exam index. As a result, you should make sure that you use your index while taking practice exams. In other words, do NOT leave it until test day to learn how to actually use your index.
Fortunately, there are a ton of resources out there that outline some strategies when it comes to using indices effectively. A few of our favourite pieces of advice include:
Tab your indices
It’s one thing to have an index. On test day, however, you want to be able to flip through it fast. That’s why we recommend tabbing all of your indices. That way if you get a question on, say, “costs”, you can flip to your “C” tab and find the costs reference within your index relatively quickly.
Identify a keyword
As you’ll notice from our practice tests, the bar exam is basically just a bunch of mini fact patterns. When reading these fact patterns, you need to be able to identify the “key issue” lurking beneath the surface. For example, a fact pattern might note that Party A offered to settle with Party B but that Party B rejected that settlement offer. The fact pattern might then note that Party A ultimately succeeded at trial and is wondering whether this has any implications for costs. As a result, the keyword or “key issue” for this specific fact pattern might be something along the lines of “settlement offers - costs.” Once you find this term in your index, you can flip to the relevant page number in your materials and answer the question. It’s as easy as that!
We should note, however, that not everyone thinks that indices constitute a useful strategy (check out this Reddit discussion, for example: Ontario Bar Exam Indicies 2021-2020 : LawCanada (reddit.com)). That said, assuming you do decide to adopt the index approach you can get access to FREE (and reputable) indices courtesy of the students at U of T. As we mention on our FAQ page, a simple Google search along the lines of “University of Toronto Bar Exam Index” should point you to the proper link.
