“What did you find helpful when taking the bar exam?” is a question I’m never actually asked. But I’m going to tell you anyways, and perhaps you’ll find some of this beneficial.
1) Do Your Best to Relax
I know this is easier said than done, but do your best to relax. At the end of the day this is just a test and you’ve taken hundreds, or even thousands, of them. Try to be confident and don’t be afraid of this exam. This is a passable test, whether it’s your first time or you’re a repeat taker. I tutored a woman who had failed six times (in part because English is her second language), and she passed on her seventh attempt. You can too.
When I took the bar exam, I wore silly T-shirts of pro wrestlers from my childhood to help keep my mood light (sadly I’m not joking). This is probably not something you’d be interested in doing, but if there is anything that helps keep you calm or relaxed (that isn’t barred or against the rules) go for it. Or you can always just think of this:
Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay
2) Don’t Listen to Chatter About the Exam
There will always be a few people who will be blathering on and on during the breaks about which answer they chose on an MBE question or what they wrote on some essay answer. Don’t listen. They might not have any idea what they’re talking about, so it doesn’t mean that your answer was wrong if it was different from whatever they’re saying. Paying attention to these types of people can cause you needless anxiety, so it’s best to ignore them.
3) Stay Positive
On the MBE there will likely be a few questions about issues that you don’t recognize. This happens on every exam. They might be new topics they’re testing (25 of the 200 MBE questions are test questions that do no count). If this happens don’t panic, and just take a deep breath and see if there are a couple of answers you can eliminate.
If by some chance the test isn’t going as well as you had hoped, don’t get down on yourself. Don’t carry any negative emotion from one question to the next, or from one session to the next. If you feel like things aren’t going well, think of every single question as a brand new opportunity to right the ship.
Remember this is a scaled exam. If there is a question about a topic that wasn’t covered in your commercial bar exam course for example, it’s very likely that many other people aren’t prepared for it either. If there are parts of the exam that you find really difficult, it’s very likely that many others do too.
Keep doing as well as you possibly can until the very end of the exam. This exam is a marathon, so just keep fighting from start to finish. Best of luck!