Let’s talk about the clock. It can feel like a relentless enemy sitting next to you in the exam room. When the proctor says, “You may begin,” the natural physiological response is a massive spike in adrenaline. Your heart rate goes up, your breathing gets shallow, and your brain screams: Go, go, go.
I’ve learned over years of practicing law and tutoring candidates for this test: rushing without thinking can get you into a lot of trouble on the Bar Exam.
When you rush, you misread the call of the question. You miss the word “not” in a multiple-choice fact pattern. You write an essay without structure, resulting in a disorganized brain dump that tired graders hate to read.
You absolutely have to move fast on the bar exam. But you have to do it systematically. As one of my former students said: You need to learn how to “take your time in a hurry”. Here is how you execute good decision-making and deep analysis even when the clock is breathing down your neck.
1. The “Slow Down to Speed Up” Essay Outline
The biggest mistake candidates make on the essay portion is putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) the second they finish reading the prompt. They feel the 30- or 60-minute countdown and think that every second not spent writing is a wasted second.
This is a trap. If you don’t take the time to outline, you will inevitably write yourself into a corner, realize halfway through that you missed a major issue, and have to backspace a whole paragraph. That is a waste of time.
Force yourself to spend the first 10 minutes of your allotted essay time doing nothing but reading and jotting down what you think are the most obvious issues. Once you have that roadmap, the actual writing phase gets easier. You will type much faster and produce a significantly more coherent, higher-scoring essay because much of the issue-thinking is already done.
2. Stop Skimming the MBE Facts
On the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), you have an average of 1.8 minutes per question. That is tight, but it is enough time…if you use it correctly.
Panic makes candidates skim. They glance over the facts looking for buzzwords, jump to the answer choices, and immediately fall for a distractor designed specifically for skimmers. The examiners intentionally bury the most critical, outcome-determinative facts in the middle of dense, boring paragraphs.
You have to read every single word of the fact pattern deliberately. Read the call of the question first so you know what subject you are in, and then read the question again more methodically. It takes maybe 15 extra seconds to read carefully rather than skim, but it saves you 45 seconds of agonizing over two answer choices because you missed the fact that the plaintiff was a foreseeable victim. Precision saves time.
3. Quality Analysis Beats Volume
When people are in a hurry, they tend to overcompensate by writing everything they know about a subject. If the question asks about battery, they write an entire treatise on all intentional torts.
Bar graders do not give you points for regurgitating irrelevant law. They give you points for applying the specific law to the specific facts and answering the question in the prompt. When you feel rushed, remember that you don’t need a ten-page essay to get a passing score. You need a concise rule, a tight application of the facts to that rule, and a clear conclusion. Cut the fluff. Get in, hit the legal issues, aggressively use the facts, and get out.
4. Hit the Reset Button
At some point during the exam, you are going to look at the clock and realize you are behind. Panic will set in. Your brain will freeze.
When this happens, you have to break the circuit. Close your eyes, put your hands flat on the desk, and take three deep, slow breaths. It sounds cliché, but taking 15 seconds to lower your heart rate and re-oxygenate your brain will do more for your score than spending those 15 seconds staring blindly at a property question you don’t understand. Regain your composure, write what you think, and move on to the next question with a clear head.
Mastering the Pace
Learning to stay cool under pressure isn’t an innate talent; it’s a trained skill. Over the years, candidates have reached out to me looking for the best bar exam tutor to help them write better Essays and PTs or improve their performance on the MBEs, but what they often discover they need most is a strategist—someone to teach them how to navigate the mechanics of the test itself.
You have to respect the clock, but you cannot let it dictate the quality of your legal analysis. You have to take your time, even in a hurry. If you need help mastering this rhythm, learning to outline efficiently, and building a strategy that maximizes your points under pressure, visit www.strategicbarcoach.com. Let’s make this bar exam your last.