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Feedback and Practice Questions: How to Prepare for the Bar Exam

Kaplan Bar Review

Feedback and Practice Questions: How to Prepare for the Bar Exam
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Regular and systematic practice coupled with detailed expert feedback is generally accepted as one of the best practices for learning.  Bar Exam practice and feedback ensure that students know and understand the substantive content that they are learning. 

While lectures and reading casebooks or outlines are helpful and necessary to introduce legal concepts, provide context, and solidify an understanding of the doctrine, they are mostly passive in nature. Active learning through guidance and practice, expert feedback, and self-reflection allow students to more fully understand how to best improve their performance when they attempt to apply legal principles. 

Using Expert Guidance to Prepare

Grader feedback facilitates students’ development as independent learners and advances their bar readiness. Students will more aptly monitor, evaluate, and regulate their own learning when they have expert guidance along their bar exam learning journey.

To accomplish this goal, Kaplan provides unlimited essay grading from certified essay graders. This feedback goes far beyond merely providing an essay score—the feedback is extensive and aligns to and assesses the standards set forth by state bar examiners.

Our expert graders provide in-line commentary, a detailed breakdown of performance for each IRAC element within each of the key issues being tested, final grader commentary explaining the reason for the overall score, and an overall score presented on the state scoring scale. This feedback leads to meaningful engagement and essay improvement.

The Importance of Practice Questions

Practicing with released questions previously administered on a past bar exam also facilitates learning and helps students improve their scores on the multiple-choice section of the bar exam. Students are able to learn through practicing these questions—first by applying their knowledge and second by reviewing detailed answer explanations that highlight important facets of the rules that are being tested. Ample practice opportunities with released questions allow students to become accustomed to the format, content, and style of actual bar exam questions.

Thus, there are no surprises on exam day. This type of practice with past Multistate Bar Exam questions advances learning and leads to bar success.

With practice, expert guidance, and detailed feedback, students gain greater fluency with the breadth of material that is tested on the bar exam and master how to properly apply the content. This approach has a direct impact on confidence levels, score performance, and ultimate exam outcomes.