Hello July 2022 Cal Bar Exam takers!  You’re on deck!

Your exam will be in person.  As per the Announcement:

The next California Bar Exam is scheduled for July 26–27, 2022. The exam will be administered in person. 

Link to the announcement is here:

https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/California-Bar-Examination/July-2022-California-Bar-Exam

No info yet on whether you’ll need to wear a mask to the exam.  I’m guessing the new FAQ will publish that info.

Registration deadlines:

Remember, these people ARE NOT JOKING.  If you don’t register for the exam by June 1, welcome to February 2023.

If you’re interested in tutoring, please contact me ASAP.  I have a few spaces left for the July exam.  Need some budget-friendly resources?  Books available with a discount coupon!  Go to the books page and get your books today.

Hello everyone,

The Cal Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners had its monthly meeting on Friday/Saturday of last week and one of its closed session items was to talk about contingency planning for the Feb. 2022 exam.  While no announcements have been made about a final plan for in-person v. remote exam, the Cal Bar’s Twitter feed may have provided an answer.  At 12:46 pm today, the Cal Bar announced that it was hiring proctors.  I’m guessing that doesn’t happen if we have a remote exam.  We shall see.  Announcement below:

Hello everyone!

The Cal Bar’s Committee on Examiners has its monthly meeting this week, on Jan. 28-29.  One item of interest is in closed session:

II. EXAMINATIONS

A.

Action on Pending Testing Accommodation Appeals. (Christina Doell) [Closed pursuant to Bus. & Prof. Code §6026.7(c)(3), §6026.7(c)(4), and Gov. Code §11126(c)(1).]

B.

Discussion of Contingency Planning for February 2022 Bar Examination. (Audrey Ching) [Closed pursuant to Bus. & Prof. Code §6026.7(c)(2) and Gov. Code §11126(c)(1).]

Link to the agenda for the full Friday-Saturday meeting here:

https://board.calbar.ca.gov/Agenda.aspx?id=16575&t=0&s=false

I strongly recommend that the Committee continue the front-facing comments it’s provided to everyone throughout this process:  in person testing, Feb. 22-23 exam date.

Mercifully, it appears that the Omicron variant is retreating/plateauing/cresting.  The LA Times indicated as much in an article on January 19.  But in today’s LA Times, we have an even STRONGER indication of such a pattern in the location centers of Bar Exam testing.   As noted in today’s article:

The improvement is most pronounced in places like Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, where health officials have voiced increased confidence in recent days that the coronavirus test positivity rate, as well as daily new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, have either stabilized or begun to convincingly decline.

“This downward trend is encouraging, and it signals that we’re likely to have passed the peak of Omicron transmission and are beginning to see a real decline in the number of newly infected individuals,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

Candidly, any positive comment from LA County Public Health Director Ferrer is GREAT news for the status quo argument of Feb. 22-23 exam testing.  If LA County had an overwhelming Omicron problem, she’d put up the red flag, and if LA County forces LA testing for the Cal Bar to go remote, then the whole state would.

More evidence from the article of a receding trend:

California’s Omicron surge appears to have peaked in the week of Jan. 10-16, when the state was recording about 122,000 new coronavirus cases a day. That figure has since dropped to 96,000 cases a day, according to state data released Tuesday that reflects cases reported through Monday.

Here’s the most compelling evidence we need:

Compared with their Omicron peaks, daily coronavirus case rates have dropped by 39% in L.A. County, 33% in Orange County, 25% in San Bernardino County and 21% in Ventura County, according to a Times analysis of state data released Tuesday.

Regionally, Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Greater Sacramento area have also observed declines of 25% to 28%.

“We are past the peak,” said Cody, the Santa Clara County health officer. “And we’re just beginning to see early signs that that our hospitals may be seeing a little bit of a reprieve.”

So let’s be clear:  from this article, LA County is down 39%, Bay Area is down 25%, and Sacramento is down 28%.  The article mentions San Diego, the fourth site, and says:

Yet the San Joaquin Valley and rural Northern California have yet to begin a persistent drop. In Southern California, San Diego and Riverside counties have also yet to observe the same.

No, San Diego hasn’t gone down 25-39%, but it hasn’t increased, either.  So if 3 sites are down 25-39%, and one is unchanged/has a much less drop, none of that is evidence that there’s going to be a massive flareup in four weeks.

My sincere hope is that the Cal Bar internalizes this data and decides this weekend that there’s nothing to see here, and no reason to go remote.  The consequences of going remote are severe:  candidates are rumored to need several weeks to find locations to take the test that aren’t at home (due to too many people/animals at home to take the test in a quiet, solitary setting or internet reliability is a problem), plus the NCBE extorted all jurisdictions by saying that due to the spat with Examsoft, MBEs will be available in “late March” (March 23 or 30, probably).  That means exam administration is delayed a month, that means grading gets pushed back, and that means results get pushed back to June, and that crimps the study schedules for those who fail the February exam.

Let’s NOT go there, Cal Bar and Cal Supreme Court.  The Omicron is receding.  Let’s mask up, be vaccinated or prove negative, and let’s get this exam in.

Finally, a note from our friends in Washington:  a recently published “Exam Health Safety Plan for COVID-19”:  in-person exam, while taking proper precautions.

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According to the ABA Journal, the 1st, 2d, 5th, 7th, and Federal Circuits are conducting oral arguments by Zoom or teleconference.

The ABA Journal also reports:

The Northern District of California said it would delay all criminal and civil jury trials through Jan. 26, impacting proceedings at its courthouses in San Francisco; Oakland, California; and San Jose, California.

The Central District of California announced that it would delay all civil and criminal trials for three weeks through Jan. 24.

“Given the increased rate of transmission of COVID-19 in the Central District of California due to the omicron variant, conducting jury trials would place court personnel, attorneys, parties and prospective jurors at undue risk,” the court’s statement said. “Accordingly, a temporary suspension of jury trials is necessary to protect public health and safety, as well as ensure the continuous performance of essential functions and operations of the court.”

The federal court in Connecticut announced Monday that it will delay trials set to begin before Feb. 1. The court’s order cited the risks of seating jurors close to each other and the “reduced ability to obtain an adequate spectrum of prospective jurors due to the public’s perceptions of the risks associated with jury service.”

Reuters reported Tuesday that an increasing number of federal courts are delaying trials, including in Washington, D.C., New Jersey and Maryland. State courts in Ohio, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland and Hawaii had also announced delays.

In some jurisdictions, trials are still going ahead. In New York, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore of the New York State Court of Appeals said in-person proceedings will continue, but the state courts will be “monitoring the metrics very closely, assessing the situation in each courthouse and staying ready to pivot quickly to make any and all appropriate adjustments necessary to respond to problem areas or new public health guidance.”

Hello y’all!

A nice little bombshell today from the NCBE, the organization who administers the MBE for bar exam jurisdictions.

Evidently the NCBE and Examsoft aren’t getting along.  The NCBE just announced that if a jurisdiction switches from an in-person to a remote bar exam format, “remote testing using NCBE exam materials is no longer an option for the February exam dates.”

So… a few options present themselves:

1. Hold your exam in person (come what may), and paper materials and status quo start date of February 22.
2. Pull a Nevada:  hold the exam remotely, hold it at the status quo start date of February 22, and NO MBE.
3. Use the Examsoft equivalent program of ILG Exam360, have the NCBE use that service for its MBE administration, and hold the exam on the same dates – status quo
4. OR… as the NCBE states below, force a bar exam jurisdiction to postpone its exam to late March and provide MBEs then.

No, I’m not making this up.  See below.

From the NCBE:

Update on Status of February 2022 Bar Exam

https://www.ncbex.org/news/status-update-feb-2022-bar-exam/

The Cal Bar’s latest FAQ (published January 10) seems to be a bit of a sea-change in tone.  Yes, each iteration of the FAQ has indicated, in #1, in person, paper paper paper, party like it’s 2017.  BUT the escalation of the FAQ for the COVID testing section (#5) about full vaccination, negative PCR test, antigen test deadlines, no sufficient proof of vaccination, no entry into the exam, and of course all of the reports of schools going remote or extending remote, Grammys being cancelled, etc. all seemed towards an inevitable transfer to a remote exam.

But this week’s FAQ (1/10) has more of a feel that the exam’s going in person.  Their tone now seems to be:  we’re doing this in-person (see #1, in person, paper paper paper), but if you’re feeling squeamish about doing this in-person thing, you can always ring the bell and opt out, and if you get COVID and can’t show up, you can get a 95% refund.  That sounds a LOT like the Super Bowl in LA rationale:  we’re just going to push forward and it’s going to happen, no matter what’s going on around us.

But as with all lawyers, we have ONE little disclaimer:  if a public health authority “relevant to the testing center locations issues different mandates for in-person gatherings” then we’ll get back to you.

What I interpret that to mean is that if LA County says you can’t hold an in-person bar exam at the LA County sites, the exam will be administered remotely for everyone in the state.  I believe that the Bar is tone deaf about its question 13, a new question altered from #7 a week ago (“What if there is a winter COVID-19 surge?  What if there is a new variant?)

Guess what, folks?  It’s not a new variant.  It’s Omicron, and it’s been here for months!  Call it winter, call it Omicron.  It ain’t new, and it’s GOTTEN A LOT WORSE.  LA County case counts are doubling every two days.  Criminal trials have been suspended two weeks.  Eight UC’s have gone remote and five have doubled (for now) it’s remote calendar.  And just yesterday, Nevada became the first state to announce a remote, non-MBE exam.  So it’s not a new surge, and we don’t need a new variant to go remote, because the current one continues to get worse.

Questions #11-14 are listed below.

11. In light of the recent surge in COVID cases, I don’t want to travel to take this test in person. Can I withdraw from the exam at this point due to my concerns about COVID?

• Yes. The Office of Admissions is seeking to provide in-person testing conditions that are safe for all test takers, proctors, and staff. But we understand that some people might nonetheless have concerns about the in person environment. If you would like to opt out of this exam due to concerns you might have with an in-person exam, you may do so. You will be given a full refund if you withdraw by January 18, 2022, by 11:59 p.m. PST.
• To make a refund request, please submit a General Request in your Applicant Portal with the subject “Withdrawal for COVID concerns,” and request your refund in the body of the request. If you ask to withdraw from the exam for this reason after January 18, 2022, you will not receive any refund.
• 12. I withdrew before you put this information out about allowing an additional reason to withdraw with a full refund. How can I get more of my application money back?

• All those who withdrew before this information was published will be contacted, and their additional fees will be refunded.
• 13.  What if there is a new variant or another serious surge?

• If public health conditions change and a public health authority relevant to the testing center locations issues different mandates for in-person gatherings, we will update all applicants for the February 2022 bar exam accordingly.
• 14. What happens if I test positive for COVID-19 and cannot come to the exam?

• If you have COVID-19, or any illness, that prevents you from attending the February bar exam, you may apply for the existing 95 percent medical refund of fees. Documentation must accompany any request for medical refund.

Check the FAQ daily for updates.  For now they seem to be issuing updates on Mondays (1/3, 1/10), but as with everything else, that can change quickly as well.

My advice:  prepare as if the exam is in-person, AND prepare as if the exam is remote.  Have your logistics ready to go about where to take the exam, etc., either way.  Practice essays with paper fact patterns and digital fact patterns.  Practice PTs with paper Library and File, and with digital Library and File.

Take care and stay safe and healthy!

Steven

Announced on 1/10.

Exam held over two days, and no MBE.  People who were going to handwrite the exam could still do so at the State Bar’s office, but spacing is limited so it sounds like no guarantees.

NOTICE TO FEBRUARY 2022 BAR APPLICANTS

THE FEBRUARY 2022 BAR EXAM WILL BE HELD REMOTELY DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS 

The Supreme Court of Nevada has ordered holding the February 2022 bar exam remotely due to COVID-19 concerns, as was done successfully with the July 2020 and February 2021 bar exams.   The February 2022 bar exam will be held over two days (February 22-23, 2022) and the MBE will not be given.  There will be seven (7) Nevada essay questions and two (2) Nevada Performance Test questions.  Additional information, including the registration and testing schedules, computer registration schedule and testing protocols will be included in the Notice to Appear that will be emailed to all February 2022 bar exam applicants in mid- January.

Applicants who signed up to handwrite the exam:   You will be permitted to take the exam in-person at the offices of the State Bar of Nevada in Las Vegas if you elect to do so.  As there will be limited space at the State Bar’s offices due to social distancing requirements, we will honor this election on a first come-first served basis.  Alternatively, applicants who signed up to handwrite the exam may elect to take the exam remotely by computer.  Please provide us with your decision via email by no later than January 14, 2022 at admissions@nvbar.org.

Dates & Locations

From New York Times, January 7

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

The February 2022 Cal Bar (and to some extent, the UBE) applicant pool are wondering about the impact of the Omicron variant on the administration of the February 2022 Bar Exam.  Here’s what we know:

The Cal Bar has issued four updates to its FAQ document since October 1 (12/1, 12/14, 12/17, and 1/3).  The updates have mainly focused on what kinds of testing applicants need to take to take the exam in person (e.g., as of 1/6:  vaccination by 2/8, negative PCR test between 2/20 – 2/22, or negative antigen test between 2/21 and 2/22).

To date, as of 1/6, the Cal Bar has not changed a syllable of its FAQ #1, which indicates that we are returning to normal (e.g., party like it’s 2017, in person exam, paper materials for essays and PTs, scratch paper).

However, the big question is whether the Cal Bar will indeed remain an in-person exam for February 2022.  If the Cal Bar decided to go remote a la October 2020/Feb. 2021/July 2021, when would it need to make this decision?  Who approves this decision?  And how does a student prepare with all this uncertainty in the meantime?

Here’s what we know for now.  Disclaimer:  at Cal I was a history major, not epidemiology, immunology and not public health.  And no, don’t rely on this blog post to your detriment.  Your exam, not mine, personal responsibility, folks.

The lay opinion from a history major suggests that everything around us looks terrible in terms of trends from the Omicron variant.  Examples:

• Omicron numbers are doubling in LA county every 2 days per the LA Times
• LA County is suspending criminal trials for two weeks per the LA Times
• 8 UC campuses have delayed in-person classes and have gone remote for 2-3 weeks (for now).
• My law school (UC Hastings) announced on December 23 that we were going back in person on January 10. Seven days later, on December 30, Hastings announced that we were going to have most courses on Zoom for 3 weeks, with in-person classes currently slated to resume on January 31.
• 8 Cal State schools have delayed in-person education and will begin school on Zoom, per the LA Times. Long Beach State, for example, will begin school on January 20 and operate via Zoom for 3 weeks.  That means in-person operations will begin no earlier than February 10.
• Requirements for return to in-person operations have intensified, not reduced. For example, students and staff at many schools are required to have booster shots, not merely one or two shots as appropriate, to set foot on campus.
• More than 70% of coronavirus cases in LA county were among adults younger than 50 for Dec. 22-28, per the LA Times.
• Rates among youngest adults (18-29) are 8x higher than they were one month ago. Adults in the 30-40 year old range are 6x as high as per the LA Times.  Guess what the ages are of the typical Cal Bar applicant?
• The Grammy’s (an indoor event with a lot of people seated near each other for a few hours) were cancelled.
• Sporting events have been postponed

That said, is Omicron less serious than the prior surges of COVID-19?  Seemingly.  Yes, Omicron is far more transmissible than prior forms of COVID-19.  But cases generally seem less severe.  Fewer deaths.  Hospital beds aren’t filling up as quickly.  According to the LA Times, Omicron appears to be “more infectious to the airways, but less infectious to lung tissue, where infections contribute to respiratory problems and death.”

And as reported on January 1 in the LA Times, COVID-19 patient hospitalizations jumped 48% from a week prior, but those 5,433 patients are a fraction of the 20,640 who were hospitalized in early January 2021, and the all-time peak was 21,938 on January 6.  Hospitalizations have risen most dramatically in the last month in So Cal and in the Bay Area (double the rate), while Sacramento’s count increased 30%.

According to Bob Wachter from UCSF, supposedly Omicron should peak around mid-January and then recede relatively quickly.

Note the recommendations from state and local officials.  Per the LA Times on January 1, state and local officials “have indicated no need for new orders closing certain businesses or mandating people to stay at home, but they have looked at bolstering requirements in certain settings for vaccinations or negative coronavirus tests.”

And the California Department of Public Health, really the final arbiter in our state on decisions about in-person v. remote events, announced a new order on December 31 that requires “those at indoor events with 500 or more attendees to show either proof of full vaccination or a recent negative test to enter. The order will go into effect Jan. 15. Currently, only indoor events with 1,000 or more attendees are subject to the requirement.”

In other words, businesses aren’t shutting down.  People aren’t being forced to stay at home (except for undergrad and grad students at certain California schools).

So… what are the logistics moving forward?

My guess is that if the trends continue that the Cal Bar Exam COULD be moved to a remote exam and not conducted in person.  That’s my guess, and that’s not informed by any inside information.  I think if the move to a remote exam occurs, it would need to occur between January 15 – 31 so that students can find places outside their home (if needed) to take the exam.  Living in a loud area, too many people living with you to realistically take the exam in a quiet area, internet not reliable at home, etc.  Law schools would need to prepare to allow former students to take the exam there as needed.  Etc.

The Cal Bar would need to consult with the California Dept. of Public Health (especially if the CA DPH forces the exam to go remote), the Cal Bar must make a recommendation to go remote, and ultimately, the Cal Supreme Court must issue an order to hold the exam remotely.  I hope that these entities are already consulting with each other and that a decision is made soon about what to do.  Students deserve to know as soon as possible if the exam is in-person come what may, or if the exam will be remote.  A January 15-31 window is responsible.  A Valentine’s Day surprise would be difficult to implement logistically I would think.

As a Bar applicant, what should you do?  Prepare for both options NOW.  The registration deadline has passed.  So that means if you’re taking this exam, you have an exam site.  If the exam site is in person, great.  If the exam goes remote, what are you going to do?  Where are you going to go?  Start developing that plan NOW.  Take the exam at home?  Going to a law school?  Taking the exam at a hotel?  Local law library?  Public library?  Figure it out.  NOW.  Don’t wait.

What about practicing exams?  For MBEs, take some questions online for practice.  For essays, you can get exams online and practice them online from the Bar’s site or my stie.  Same with the PTs.

Don’t wait until the last minute.  Have plans for in-person vs. remote about where you’ll take the test.  Practice on hardcopy and online so that regardless of how you’ll take the exam, it won’t be a shocking event to you.  Stocks going down 20 points, not 2000 points.

Hang in there!  Happy 2022 everyone!

It’s difficult, but not impossible.

Here are my best tips to help you pass the bar exam on the first try.

You’ve finished law school, but the journey to becoming a practicing attorney isn’t over yet. Before you can hang out your shingle and start passing around business cards, you’ll need to pass the bar exam.

You’ve probably heard horror stories of friends and classmates who had to take the bar exam two or three (or more) times before they finally passed. Isn’t there a way to speed this process up?

Despite what you may have heard, it is possible to pass the bar exam on the first try. You just need to know a few tips.

As a law professor and tutor for more than 20 years, you could say I wrote the book on the California bar…literally. Allow me to give you a few tips on how to pass the bar exam quickly so you can get to work.

1. Prep Ahead Of Time

Success, like a sourdough starter, doesn’t happen overnight.

You have to lay down the groundwork within your first few semesters of law school if you want to give yourself the very best chance of a winning score.

Yes, it’s possible to pass the bar with only two weeks of hardcore study (I’ve seen it happen). But no one can goof off through all three years of law school and pull out a passing grade on their first stab at the bar exam.

By the end of your first semester of law school, you should be writing outlines and taking practice essays. Get your head in the game from the get-go.

2. Get Rid of Distractions

If you truly want to pass the bar exam on your very first try, you need to be laser-focused on that goal. Put everything else on the back burner.

If you’re single. Stay that way. Don’t start a relationship during bar review. You’re committed to the exam. If you’re with someone, don’t break up with them. It’s impossible to study with your emotions in turmoil.

Don’t allow yourself to develop any addictions during this time, either. Alcohol, cocaine, even caffeine pills are not your friend. You have no idea how addictive substances and behaviors can quickly become the most important thing in your life.

Right now, passing the bar is the most important thing.

3. Learn How to Study

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Making flashcards is not studying!

The best way to understand material is by condensing it down again and again until you’ve reached the core principle. After that, everything else will fall into place.

Remember this, kids. Studying isn’t about cramming facts into your head. It’s about understanding what they mean and being able to apply them in real life. This is true whether we’re talking about science, literature, or the law.

4. Find a (Great) Program

I can’t tell you how many people have failed the bar exam after being so confident that they had it in the bag.

The bar exam is not law school. The bar exam is not a practice essay. The bar exam is its own animal.

The best way to pass the bar exam is by seeing how others have done it. Take a course, listen to a lecture, start a program. But remember that not all bar prep courses are created equal.

Some only cover one or two phases of the exam, rather than all three. Some just give you a “thumbs up” on your practice essay without ever telling you what you did right or wrong. Most don’t customize their content around the areas you need to work on.

I created my own system of bar prep by systematically analyzing the bar exam year after year until I developed a method that just worked.

But I don’t just have one system. Oh, no. That would be too easy for me and too hard for you.

For a quick, “oh-crap-it’s-the-night-before-and-I-have-no-idea-what-I’m-walking-into” approach, read my books, The Trigger List and WINNIN’ TIME! Or, sign up for my next free webinar. For a more in-depth dive, take one of the many courses available on my website.

And for the most dedicated tutoring that’s individually suited to your struggles and schedule, I offer 1-on-1 private tutoring from anywhere in the world. (Oh yeah…I’ve got three versions of this plan as well!)

If You Don’t Pass…Don’t Stress

As much as it pains me to say it, not everyone will pass the bar on their first try. I didn’t. Even Michelle Obama didn’t.

You won’t be the first to fail on your first try and you certainly won’t be the last.

But the secret is not to let yourself wallow in misery and “woe is me”-ism. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and ask yourself what else you can try the next time.

I guarantee that, by the time you’ve built a successful and lucrative career as an attorney, you won’t even remember which questions you got wrong.

Need Help? I’m Here!

No matter how many times you’ve taken the bar exam in the past, my system can help you.

Between my books, courses, and my private tutoring programs, I offer the most useful bar prep of any other program in the country. In fact, I’m one of only three bar exam tutors who focuses on all three phases of the exam 1-on-1.

Whether you need a quick-fix solution or have four months until the next exam, I can give you the tools, the knowledge, and the support you need to pass the bar exam.