When you watch Emeril cook, he often uses three vegetables together for flavoring --he refers to them as the trinity --onions, peppers and garlic. You might think about the bar exam in a similar fashion. It's about the Essays, MBEs AND PTs. All three parts are essential.
It can be hard, after failing the bar exam, to know if one should re-take a full service bar review and re-focus efforts on all three portions of the exam (and all of the substantive subjects tested on the bar) or whether to focus in on those areas that were weakest on the last exam.
While it makes sense to strengthen weaker areas, the key is to do that without diluting the successes you had last time around. You don't want to be the student, for example, who on her first bar exam did well on the MBEs but failed because of the PTs, then trains the second time on PT skills, neglecting MBEs, only to find she fails a second time because of low MBEs.
If you prepare a stew or soup with too many onions, you don't omit the onions next time around, you simply use fewer onions ---or, perhaps, (for balance), the same amount of onions but more peppers and celery.
Another analogy is keeping a healthy body --it's done by focus on diet, exercise, AND rest. All the exercise in the world won't help if you feed your body poorly, or are too tired to function well.
Three can be a powerful number --in cooking, health and on the Bar Exam. Success on the Bar Exam requires success in all three portions --the MBE, Essays and PT. So, if you failed the bar because of one of those areas last time --this next time, work to train all three skills areas with a bit of extra help in the weaker areas but all the while maintaining the strengths you came in with! Don't skip the PTs, Essays, OR MBEs, and don't skip the onions!
Comments