Preparing for the October California Baby Bar Exam

Hello,

This is the inaugural issue of our California First Year Law Student's Examination (FYLSX) Newsletter. The aim of this newsletter is to help you in your preparations to take, and ultimately pass, the FYLSX. Of course, we may mention a few of our products and services, but our primary intention with this newsletter is to provide you with substantive advice regarding FYLSX preparation even if you are not enrolled in one of our FYLSX programs.

In this issue, we consider:

A. When to Start Your Review For the October FYLSX
B. Creating a Study Schedule For Your FYLSX Review
C. The Importance of Essay Practice During Your Review
D. Early-Bird, Newsletter Only Discounts for Our October Writing Programs
E. Next Issue Preview

A. When to Start Your Review For the October FYLSX
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We are often asked, when should I begin preparations for the FYLSX? Our answer can be a bit surprising: You already started studying for the FYLSX. Through your law school courses, you began the arduous process of learning the concepts and black-letter law tested on the FYLSX.

However, there is an important aspect to FYLSX preparations that individuals typically do not consider until late in exam preparation, if at all: learning how to take the exam to receive a passing score. The question individuals should be asking themselves instead is, when should I begin learning how to take the exam to receive a passing score? The answer we provide to this question is always the same: as soon as possible. Even if it's writing just one practice essay per week and critically evaluating your answer (a time commitment of just 1-2 hours a week), we highly suggest you begin the process of learning how to write passing essays as soon as possible.

B. Creating a Study Schedule For Your Baby Bar Review
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After learning when to begin FYLSX preparation, the natural, subsequent inquiry we often receive is, what should my FYLSX review include? In our experience, any review should include sufficient preparation and review for an individual to confidently, comfortably, and ably complete all four essays in the morning and 100 multiple choice questions in the afternoon on the day of the October FYLSX.

To reach this goal, we suggest the creation of a personal, calendar-based study schedule that includes the following elements: a substantive review of the law, the creation of a personal reference system for the substantive law (e.g., outlines), practice essays with critical evaluation of your practice answers, and practice multiple choice questions with critical evaluation of incorrectly answered questions.

The length of this study schedule is highly dependent upon the time an individual can commit, on a weekly basis, to FYLSX preparation. To determine how long your study schedule should be, we suggest the following formula: 80 divided by the hours per week you can devote to FYLSX prep equals the number of weeks you should study for the FYLSX (80 / hours per week = weeks in your study schedule). In our experience, an individual can successfully prepare for the FYLSX on a full-time, uninterrupted basis in two weeks (80 hours). For example, if you can spend 7 hours per week studying (e.g., 4 hours Saturday and 3 hours Sunday), then your study schedule should be approximately 11.5 weeks long (80/7 = 11.4).

To help you in creating a personal, calendar-based study schedule, we offer our Free FYLSX Calendar Solution. Our FYLSX Calendar Solution includes sample schedules based upon reviews lasting 12 weeks, 4 weeks, and 2 weeks. These schedules provide a great template for the creation of your personal study schedule, which can be modified and tailored to fit the exact length of your review.

You can obtain our FREE October 2010 FYLSX Calendar Solution at:

http://barreviewsolutions.com/catalog/fylsx/calendarsolution

C. The Importance of Constructive Essay Practice During Your Baby Bar Review
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For almost every individual we have helped pass the FYLSX, the primary obstacle in passing the exam has been an inability to write passing essays, not a lack of knowledge of the substantive law tested. For most individuals, the cause of this inability to write passing essays is two-fold: 1) individuals do not write enough practice essays and 2) individuals do not practice essays constructively.

Frequency of essay practice is an important element to consider as you prepare for the FYLSX for a number of reasons. First, an individual can only become comfortable and familiar with the time pressures of a 1-hour essay through practice. Second, an individual needs to build-up exam fitness to comfortably and ably answer four essays in four hours. For some individuals, sheer mental exhaustion by the third or fourth essay interferes with their ability to effectively answer these essays. However, if you gradually trained yourself to answer multiple essays in one sitting, then the four essays on exam day will be neither surprising nor exhausting.

In addition to frequency of essay practice, your essay practice needs to be constructive. The goal of essay practice should not be simply to COMPLETE the practice answer. Instead, the goal should be to IMPROVE your practice answer. To improve your practice essays, your answers must be critically evaluated. Of course, critical evaluation, critique, and feedback from a trained eye can be invaluable in the process to improve your practice essays to a level that will receive a passing score on the actual exam.

Our essay writing programs for the October FYLSX are designed to address these two important elements of FYLSX preparation: frequent and constructive practice. Our programs vary in length from 24 essays for our Ultimate program to 6 essays for our Fundamentals program. However, each program is based upon the same progressive feedback system, which enables you to systematically and progressively improve your essays by incorporating lessons-learned into subsequent practice essays.

In addition, all of our essay writing programs include our on-demand FYLSX Essay Solution Workshop, which explains and illustrates how to write passing essays for the FYLSX. You can learn more about our essay writing programs for the October 2010 FYLSX at:

http://barreviewsolutions.com/ca-baby-bar-exam-fylsx

Regardless, of whether you choose to enroll in one of our programs or not, we highly suggest that your essay practice be both frequent and constructive.

D. Early-Bird, Newsletter Only Discounts for Our October Writing Programs
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To receive Newsletter discounts in your inbox, Subscribe to this Newsletter.

E. Next Issue Preview
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In future issues of this newsletter, we will provide a regular feature entitled "Essays In-Depth" where we will identify, discuss, and remedy common mistakes individuals make when writing essays for the FYLSX. The next issue will address the element of Duty in a prima facie case of Negligence.

Study smart,

- The BarReviewSolutions.com Team