Regarding the Ohio Bar

In the immortal words of one of my old profs, “What are we doin’ today, folks? We’re passin’ the bar today!” He would exclaim this at the beginning of every class, while simultaneously slamming his briefcase down, leaning back in his chair, and propping his cowboy-boot-clad feet up on the table. He wasn’t wrong. I include this little story to remind you that you have been passing the bar, every day, in class, for the last three years.

This is the time for review and for practicing strategies for the types of questions that appear on each portion of the exam. For the Ohio Bar, these portions are:

The Multistate Performance Test – two closed universe writing problems that you will knock out of the way Tuesday morning

The Multistate Bar Exam – multiple choice questions that you will crush on Wednesday

The Ohio-specific essays – six on Tuesday afternoon, and six on Thursday morning

Then you are free to cruise up the road to Cedar Point and cut loose. That’s what I did the day after my exam in 2012. Worth it.

The Law Library has a guide all about the Ohio Bar Exam. One particularly useful resource in the Law Library is the set of Ohio Bar essay questions, with published answers, covering 1992 to the present. Use these for extra practice with issue spotting, outlining, and getting an even better grasp of the Ohio examiners’ style.  You can also check out sample essay questions on the Supreme Court’s website, which include samples of the MPT. For tips on the essay questions and MPT, and a breakdown of the grading, see our Logistics page.

A few more tips:

Go to the Essay Advantage workshop.

Take a sweater or jacket with you every day. At my exam, it was uncomfortably hot and stuffy on the first day, then freezing the second day. Coincidence?

Bring extra pencils with good erasers.

Keep up with your review program.

And remember …