Preface

• Author: Sara J. Berman
• Profession: Concord's Assistant Dean of Bar Support Programs and is also the Assistant Dean of Academic Support and Bar Support at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, California
• Pages: 9-11

ix

PREFAC E

is Teacher’s Edition is designed to serve faculty who are developing or growing bar

support eorts in law schools. Pass the Bar Exam is a stand-alone volume for students

to help them plan and navigate the road to bar success. e Teacher’s Edition, used in

conjunction with the text, can help faculty design their own bar support courses and

workshops and assist in one-on-one counseling of students who are preparing for the

bar exam.

I have taught both curricular and extracurricular programs in a number of law

schools for decades, live and online. I have also taught and created bar review courses

for the same number of years. In those capacities, I have worked with students at the

top and at the bottom of their classes. Eective bar support helps all of those students,

the ones who are struggling and those who may not “need” the help but often appreci-

ate it, and benet from it, the most.

I have written this guide in the rst person and speak directly to faculty charged

with teaching bar support courses and directing bar support programming. My goal

is to give such faculty some ideas, a foundation to build upon. With the text, this

Teacher’s Edition, and practice exam questions, you should have the makings of an

eective curricular bar support (essay, PT, and/or MBE classes) or extracurricular

bar support (group eorts such as workshops, and one-on-one student assistance)

program. I include a syllabus below for what could be a one or two semester course

entitled, “Professionalism, Practical Skills, and the Bar Exam.” Note: All references in

this guide to “the text” refer to Pass the Bar Exam.

e Appendix includes a compilation of exercises from the text as well as informa-

tion on appropriate questions for class and homework. You will see as you read the

text that a signicant part of achieving success involves students completing practice

exams under timed conditions. One recent study found that “[O]n average, graduates

who passed the bar exam on their rst try took almost twice as many practice tests as

those who failed.”1 I often see successful students completing three and four times as

many practice exams as those who fail.

Bar support can assist with practice exam writing at every level, from professors

motivating and encouraging students to do their own practice exam work to lead-

ing in-class exercises with practice tests. Because they dier so greatly in dierent

jurisdictions, the text intentionally does not include specic practice exams. e text

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