CRASHING INTO FIRST CLASS: LAW SCHOOL EDITION- PART 4

 

ACING THE BAR FINALS

The Bar Finals has a reputation for being one of the most difficult examinations to prepare for and write. It’s the dark cloud that hovers above every single student at the Nigerian Law School. During the nine months spent preparing for the examination, people’s mental and physical health sometimes takes a plunge. Some people give up either before the examination or right after the first paper. Some suffer from high levels of anxiety and nervous breakdowns, which result either in falling terribly ill or in going blank during the exams. And the fear doesn’t end after the exams. In the long months of waiting for results, people get panic attacks, second-guess every answer, worry that they made fatal mistakes, and spend hours in prayer, pleading for mercy and a miracle.

However, in all this, people tend to forget that the period spent at the Nigerian Law School is just a phase in life. While your result in the Bar Finals can determine which entry-level roles you gain access to, it does not ultimately determine the trajectory of your life. You can still go on to do great things, even if you have to write the Bar Finals more than once.

Why am I saying all this as an introduction? If you have not yet entered the Law School, knowing this will help you build the mental fortitude needed to come through the Bar Finals victorious. If you are already at NLS, this will give you the comfort of knowing that you are not alone. Almost everyone there feels the same self-doubt, fear and panic. This is a tough hill to climb, but it does not necessarily determine how your life will turn out.

Anyway, let’s have a conversation about the Bar Finals. This might be my longest post in this series, so I urge you to take a little time to go through it, as what I am about to say might be the difference between succeeding at the Bar Finals and making costly mistakes that would rob you of the grades you have worked so hard for.

So let’s get onto it, shall we?

 

THE DREARY WEEKS BEFORE THE BAR FINALS

About one month before the exams, everyone, even the most unserious, gets the reality check that they are about to write the most important exam of their lives. You see, even if some people are not particularly interested in getting a first class, nobody wants to suffer through nine months at NLS only to fail and have to retake the exams. It’s not a pleasant experience. So even the lazy, the partygoers, the serial daters, the sleepers and all spring into action during that period and begin scrambling for ways to ensure they pass the Bar Finals at the first attempt.

But even for those who have been fighting the good fight right from the beginning of lectures at NLS, this period is usually dreary and, dare I say, terrifying. You come face to face with the fact that the number of days you have left to prepare for the exams is very limited. By that time, many people stare at the volume of work they believe they need to cover and begin doubting all the work they have done.

It is at this point that you might begin to hate the fact that your brain is not a computer, that you have to go over things you may already have read up to three times, while still dealing with some of the new topics introduced after the externship. You might begin to realise just how many things have slipped out of your memory because it has been weeks or months since you last looked at them.

But it’s alright. As I said before, this is a universal experience. You can never finish reading satisfactorily for the Bar Finals. Even if you have covered all the topics three to five times already, there is always that one case you might not remember, that one procedure that is fuzzy in your brain or that one principle you know but whose important details you have forgotten. It is not due to a lack of diligence on your part, especially if you have been putting in the effort right from day one.

So what do you do one month before the Bar Finals?

First, draw up a plan for your final revision. Since you will not have time for in-depth revision before every paper, this plan is essential. Of course, if you have been reading right from the beginning of Law School, this will be your third, fourth or even fifth read, so covering these topics will be a lot faster than it used to be. Map out a detailed plan that takes account of your reading speed, how many hours you can read in a day, how many hours you need to sleep, etc.

Give full attention to your weaker courses, but not at the expense of the others.  Once a strong course is neglected, it becomes the new weakest course and the problem simply migrates. Understand your areas of weakness, and then find ways to solve any problems you have with any topic or area in a course. If you have not really learned how to answer problem questions to the Law School standard, use the weeks before the exams to perfect this skill.

Ensure that you prioritise past questions in your revision. In fact, if you have read all the topics three times or more, I would advise that you drop the notebooks and use past questions for your revision. During my time, I found a compilation of the questions most frequently asked in Law School exams, and my friend and I used it to revise.

Of course, your plan should not involve gambling with any topics simply because the topics are unpleasant or difficult to read. Unless you have a prophetic insight as to exactly what would come out in exams, you need to understand that any topic can manifest itself as a compulsory question. Any topic. So making dangerous gambles is simply a recipe for tears, panic and confusion in the exam hall.

Your plan should also not involve changing your reading strategy. At one month to exams, it’s too late to start looking for a new strategy to tackle your reading. You have to stick to the reading pattern that you have been using, knowing that it is what works for you. All you have to do is to refine and optimise it for the few weeks that you have to prepare.

After mapping out your strategy, LOCK IN. Hard. Remember that you have just one chance to get the best result you can at NLS. There are no real second chances. Until the Law School system changes, if you fail, you cannot get a first class or second class at your next attempt. You can only get a pass.

With the awareness that the opportunity to get a decent grade only comes once, know that you are going to have to make a lot of sacrifices. You are going to have to sacrifice sleep, leisure, comfort, relaxation etc. You are going to have to sacrifice the time you spend with your friends, your partners, the time you spend on calls, the time you spend on your phone, the time you spend on social media.

You cannot be reading on your bed in your room one month before the exams, when you know that every minute counts and you cannot slack. You cannot afford to keep up playful fights with sleep when you study. You cannot afford to read with a group of people who always turn reading sessions into gist sessions. You cannot afford to do anything that wastes your precious time.

During my time, to combat sleep, especially during revision week when we were done with lectures, I completely left my room with nothing but my reading phone and my jotters. I spent the month before exams camping in the common room, where the general atmosphere and background activity made sleeping difficult. I only went back to my room occasionally to use the restroom, eat, etc. I would head to the common room very early in the morning, around 6 to 7 a.m. when the sun had come up, and I would stay there until around 11 p.m. I would then sleep for about four to five hours, wake up by 3 or 4 a.m., spend some time in my room reading by torchlight while waiting for the sun to rise fully, shower, eat and head back to the common room to continue my reading.

The one month, particularly the revision week right before exams was very monotonous for me. Days stretched, occupied with nothing but endless reading. It was stressful and tiring especially since I had long abandoned coffee and energy drinks due to fear of a breakdown, but I knew that I had only one chance to get the first class that I had been dreaming of and praying about. I just kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to be in law school forever, that this was just a phase, and that it would all soon be over. All I needed to do was to give it my all and then I could rest and be happy later.

However, I must warn you not to push your body past its natural limits. Don’t make reckless decisions and overwork yourself. Don’t take dangerous combinations of energy drinks and coffee in an attempt to make your body lose the ability to sleep. You cannot read 24 hours a day. You are not a robot and you need time to sleep. So, even though you will need to cut down your sleeping hours, do ensure that you set aside at least four to five hours every day to rest your body and your mind.

You will have lectures until a week before exams. Please do not skip classes, and above all, do not miss your revision classes. Lecturers usually drop gems and hints as to what could come out in the exams, and you do not want to miss them. Also, important announcements are usually made during the revision classes. I know it will be difficult to combine attending lectures with your reading, but remember that doing so benefits you. You do not want to be the one person completely confused about how to answer a question that everyone else understands because you missed the revision classes.

 

SURVIVING THE EXAM WEEK

After the week of revision, you are hurtled straight into the long-awaited and dreaded exam week. The exams come back to back, and the only time you have a bit of a break is between the MCQs and the theory papers. In exam week, you are expected to perform outright wonders: to write a series of exams back to back, recover quickly even when you have made mistakes in the exam hall, eat well, sleep well, and revise 15 bulky topics for the next paper the very next day. You are expected to do all this without breaking down, without falling sick or having a health crisis, without having a mental crisis, and without losing faith and hope.

Acing the exams becomes less about who has studied the most and more about who is the most resilient and dogged, and who is able to regulate his or her body best. And I must confess, I was not the best at doing this, especially at regulating my body. I had taken malaria medication during the revision week so that I would not fall sick during exam week, but I completely lost my appetite that week. I could no longer eat, and after buying food and wasting it a couple of times, I gave up on eating entirely. My sleep schedule was not great either, although I deliberately built sleep into my routine, resting after every exam before reading for the next. Even so, some days I ran on only three hours of sleep.

So what exactly do you do during exam week? I’m going to divide this into different parts.

 

WISE DECISIONS TO MAKE DURING EXAM WEEK

Here’s a hard pill to swallow. No matter how much you have prepared in the months leading up to the exam, all your efforts can be undone if you are not extremely careful during exam week. So know that excelling in the Bar Finals is the result of making consistently wise decisions throughout that week.

 

YOUR MIND

Starting with your mind, you have to be calm during exam week. Fear can cause serious damage and completely destabilise you if you let it. Take out time before every examination to pray and calm yourself down. Remember that you have tried your very best and just pray for grace in the exam hall.

Then, before exams, you should ensure that you have arranged all logistics, including the clothes you will wear during exam week, opting, of course, for comfortable, loose and breathable clothing that permits full mobility. You should also have purchased everything you will need for the exams long before exam week. Knowing that you have made all the necessary arrangements does something to your brain. It calms and relaxes you, and makes you feel organised and ready to take exam week by storm.

You should also have a plan for how you will revise the night before every examination. During the revision week, you should have sifted out the problem topics you will need to revise. If remembering authorities, sections and cases is a big issue for you, plan to use the night and morning before the exam to go through all the authorities. It is important to have this plan in place. I wish I had structured mine better, because there were nights before examinations when I was genuinely confused about how to go about my revision. And this is coming from someone who had spent her revision week flagging difficult concepts she felt she needed to go through again. I think my major challenge was that I had no idea how little time I would have to revise after each exam.

However, one plan that I was glad that I stuck to was to focus on authorities the morning before each paper. Even if I was not strong on all the principles after struggling to cover up through the night, I would leave the rest and focus on revising authorities. This was a strategy I carried right from the university after understanding that while I loved and was very good with remembering sections, I struggled with remembering cases. Doing this ensured that the cases were fresh in my mind as I entered the examination hall.

Generally, having a plan for revising the night before exams will save you a lot of mental stress. You can come back from each exam and go straight to reading as planned, instead of spending precious time deciding which course to tackle first. But remember that you have about 10 to 15 hours of revision between examinations, and even 15 is a stretch because you still have to eat and sleep. So ensure that your plan factors in the time you have and how fast you think you can cover concepts within it.

Importantly, you need to guard your heart and mind during the exam week and even before then. Ensure that you avoid negativity or anything that would discourage you or get you unnecessarily anxious during the exam week. Just before and during the exam week, there would be a lot of negative talk going around, people expressing their fears and all, but do not let them transfer their fear to you. Also do not nurture the fears that threaten to spring up in your mind. Whenever a negative thought surfaces in your heart, pray and then let it dissipate as you focus on what is important, which is reading your book and getting ready for the exams.

 

YOUR BODY

You cannot joke with the state of your body during exam week. Taking care of the things that put your body in its optimal state, like food and sleep, is not an indulgence during this week; it is part of your strategy.

So I would advise that you try as much as possible to get some sleep before examinations. It might not be possible to finish your revision, but don’t sacrifice sleep for it. After all, if you have been studying, you have a lot of information in your residual memory, and if you sacrifice sleep, your brain might get dull and it will be difficult to retrieve that information when writing the examinations. Also, acing the Bar Finals requires a lot of focus, precision and attention to detail, and an exhausted mind can easily skim past crucial information when reading the exam scenarios.

However, ensure that you don’t go to sleep after 7 a.m. Don’t decide that, because exams start at 11 a.m., you are going to crash for just a few hours at 7 a.m. That’s how you oversleep and miss your exams. Almost every year, someone oversleeps and misses an exam. That’s an automatic fail, and I am sure you do not want to be that sob story.

Despite what I said earlier about completely losing my appetite during exams, I would advise you to eat well during exams. It’s best to eat before every exam, but if you know that you are prone to stomach upsets, eat after each exam instead, or, if you must eat in the morning, eat very early so that you don’t have stomach trouble during the exam. It also goes without saying that you should ensure that you are properly hydrated before exams.

 

RIGHT BEFORE EXAMS

It’s very important to arrive early for every examination. You should be close to your hall at least an hour before the exam, even if you decide to hover outside to do some last-minute revision. However, you should be seated in the exam hall at least 20 minutes before the scheduled start. This is very important so that you can settle in comfortably, write your examination number on every paper, pray and calm your mind before the paper starts.

Remember that anything can destabilise you during exam week, and arriving late is one of the surest ways to distress your mind before an exam. By the time it’s 20 minutes to the exam, no revision you do is really worth it anymore. It is better to miss those 20 minutes of last-minute reading than to have the gate locked on you, be made to stay outside while others start their exam, and then start yours 15 minutes later. I can tell you for free that by the time you enter the hall late, your mind will be in disarray. If you are emotional, you might already have cried a little outside. So you will need 10 extra minutes to calm yourself down and arrange your papers before starting the exam.

So yes, arriving early is very important to avoid losing 25 to 30 minutes of precious exam time that you cannot recover. In the Bar Finals, extra time is not given. Once the three hours are up, the exam stops across all campuses. So you cannot waste any time.

During my time, I had a routine whenever I entered the exam hall. First, I would find my seat, write on the booklets which would serve as my Section A and Section B booklets, write my exam number on all papers, go and ease myself so that I didn’t feel pressed during the exam, then rest my head, say a short prayer and wait for the exam to start. If the exam started late, I might use the opportunity to walk over to my friends and discuss a few concepts I had not been able to revise.

Also ensure that you avoid equipment failure. Bring enough pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, etc., so that if something happens to one item of stationery, you have another to replace it. Imagine how horrible it would be for your pencil to break in the middle of the MCQs with no replacement or even a sharpener. Also, ensure that the pens you bring have been tested and that you can write comfortably and quickly with them. But do not bring any contraband, such as watches, phones or large jewellery, so that you do not get into trouble with the examiners.

 

ONCE THE EXAM STARTS

In the Nigerian Law School, MCQs last for an hour, while theory questions last for 3 hours. The invigilators do not give a shred of extra time and once time is up, everyone is expected to stand up, leave their exam booklets in the hall, and walk out. If you are caught still writing after time, it is considered malpractice and you could be heavily penalised.

You are given two booklets: one for Section A (questions 1 to 3) and one for Section B (questions 4 to 6). Questions 1 and 4 are compulsory, and you must answer one more question from each section. If you answer a question in the wrong booklet, for example question 3 in the Section B booklet, you get no marks for it. You are the one who designates which booklet will be for Section A and which will be for Section B.

Answer booklets are usually already placed on the desks before candidates are ushered into the examination hall. Once the question papers arrive, the entrance doors are locked until the papers have been distributed and the exam has started; only then are latecomers checked and let into the hall.

So what do you do once the invigilators announce that you may start writing? Well, first, you should already have located the clock in the examination hall, planned your time management strategy and allotted time for each question. For the MCQs, I would recommend that you allot about 5 to 10 minutes to each course. For the theory questions, allot about 40 to 45 minutes to each compulsory question and about 30 minutes to each optional question. The goal is to give yourself buffer time to address the difficult areas in every exam, review your answers and ensure that your papers are in order before you leave the exam hall.

Once you have allotted time for each question, stick to the time that you have allotted. Honestly, it would save you in courses like Civil Litigation and Property Law Practice where you have a lot of things to write. Always check the clock at intervals to monitor how much time you’ve spent. And if you’re spending too much time on a question, like charges in Criminal Litigation or a draft in any other course, leave some space to complete it subsequently and move to the next.

The very first thing you should do once the time starts is to read every question and sub-question before writing anything. Use a pen or pencil to underline important details such as names, numbers of days, jurisdiction, etc. Then select the optional questions you will answer. You can do this either before answering any question at all or after answering the compulsory questions. Of course, you do not need to start with the compulsory questions; you can start with whichever one you know best. However, it is advisable to start with the compulsory questions, because they carry more marks and take the most time, and if you have not been prudent with your time on the optional questions, you could end up meeting the compulsory ones with the least time and the most fatigue.

In selecting the optional questions to answer, please ensure that you read all the optional question scenarios and the questions under them before you start answering any of them. A lot of people rush into an optional question because the scenario looks easy at first glance, only to realise that they truly know the answers to only about three of the seven or so sub-questions. They then waste precious time wondering whether to cancel what they have written and move to the other optional question, or to continue with the one they have started, knowing that they will not get full marks for it.

I did not take selecting optional questions lightly. I would first read through all the optional questions and choose the one that I knew would not leave me stuck at any point. I would sometimes abandon a question even though I liked the scenario and was good at the topic, simply because it had parts I was unsure of. There is no point answering some parts brilliantly and the rest poorly when another question lets you answer competently throughout.

I remember that in my Property Law Practice examination, I had to choose between a question on leases and one on wills. Even though I was stronger in leases, I quickly realised that there was a sub-question in the leases question that I knew nothing about. I judged that I had at least some idea about each of the wills sub-questions and went ahead to answer that question. The same thing happened in Ethics, where I had to choose between an RPC-based question (I have generally been averse to RPC questions because of the unique marking standard for Ethics questions) and another on topics like ADR and law office management. I realised that I had forgotten some of the law office management material, so I chose the RPC question and answered it competently.

In choosing your optional questions remember that you’re not proving anything by running to answer the complicated questions. It’s not a fight to prove how brilliant you are, but to hit all the right points. If you have the option, always choose the questions that will be easier and quicker for you to answer. They have the same marks, after all.

Once you have made your selections and read your questions properly, you can go straight into answering them. I will say more below about how to answer questions, but never dwell on a confusing question. Answer the ones you are 100 percent certain of first and leave space for the confusing ones, but do not leave those spaces blank. Write something for every question, even when you are not very confident about your answer. Remember that you can still get some marks for an imperfect answer, but you get nothing for a blank page.

However, you must ensure that you understand a question fully before you start answering it. Some people advise reading the question first, then the scenario, then the question again. Although you should not waste too much time reading and thinking instead of answering, I would advise that you give yourself enough time to understand the question properly. One of the worst things that can happen in the exam hall is to realise two pages into an answer that you completely misinterpreted the question and have to cancel what you have written and start afresh.

In answering your questions, you have to be detailed. Analyse every angle of the question before giving your conclusion. Write down everything that is relevant to the question, but do not go off point. Learn to write fast so that you do not have to choose between quality and finishing all the questions. This is why you should practise answering exam questions under timed conditions.

Also, you must be thorough and show exceptional attention to detail. Going the extra mile and picking up a few additional points can be the difference between a 2.1 and a first class. It’s also important to think outside the box when answering your questions. In every examination, there’s that one question that is more of a test of brilliance and ability to think outside the box than anything. That question is often the one that people fail or get confused by, so it makes a lot of difference to be the one who thinks outside the box and is able to grasp what the question requires.

Remember that it does not matter how many words or pages you write. A long answer might score poorly and a short one could score well, simply because the short one hits all the right points. In fact, writing too much could be counterproductive. You can hit the right points with a few well-chosen words or sentences. Go straight to the point; there is no need to tell stories when writing your answers.

It often happens that you think you have finished answering a question, only to realise later that there are a few things you did not add. This is why it is important to leave at least four lines after each answer to make room for additions.

You also need to understand that legibility preserves marks. You don’t need perfect handwriting, but it must be easy for the examiners to read. Examiners have to mark thousands of scripts, and if they cannot read an answer easily, they will not read it generously.

If your handwriting is less than perfect, like mine, make your letters big enough and write one point per line. Leave sufficient spacing. Don’t sacrifice the legibility of your work simply because you don’t want to collect extra sheets. It’s better to ask for extra sheets several times than to squeeze answers into spaces so small that the examiners have to strain their eyes to read them. But if you think you will need extra sheets, ask for them before you run out of paper. You don’t want to be unable to write while you wait for the invigilator to bring extra paper.

Remember also to write your answers in full sentences. If asked to list, begin with something like ‘The Business Organisations under the Companies and Allied Matters Act are:’ before giving the list. Never dish out mere phrases or clauses as your answers.

Again, every single minute of the three hours (or one hour) you have to write the examination is very important. So use the time properly, try as much as possible to avoid mistakes, and remain focused and detailed until time runs out.

Now, let’s turn to the specific question types in the Bar Finals.

 

HOW TO TACKLE YOUR MCQS

First, before entering the exam hall, you should have practised MCQs so much that you can answer all 100 questions within 30 to 40 minutes. This ensures that, even if you spend more time than expected, you will finish within the one hour allocated.

In answering your MCQs, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to assume that the courses are arranged on the OMR sheet in the same order as on the question paper. That is a grave mistake. Even if the order looks the same, double-check before you begin answering, to avoid heartbreak. Trust me, if you are gunning for a first class, you do not want to lose 20 marks because of a careless and easily avoidable mistake.

Having dealt with time, let us turn to tactics. Here are a few other things you should note:

1. Don’t read your questions sloppily. Although you have to answer the questions quickly, a lot of mistakes can occur in both theory and MCQs if you do not learn to read quickly yet effectively. Use a pen or pencil to underline as you read if that helps you pick out all the essential details.

2. Don’t let your mind wander as you read your questions. Ensure that you get every essential fact, and don’t overlook important elements and rush to select an answer just because it seems right.

3. Most questions that look too straightforward have a catch. Your job is to find it.

4. Be careful with questions containing ‘except’, ‘not’, ‘which of these is not’, etc.

5. Formulate your own answer to the questions before you look at the answer choices.

6. When you leave any question unanswered, tick it on your question paper so that it is easy to locate when you come back to it.

7. Don’t waste time overthinking your answers once you have carefully chosen them. You do not have the time for that.

Most importantly, keep track of the time while writing the exam. Do not be so consumed by the questions that you lose track of it. Doing so might mean forfeiting a whole 20 marks for an entire course. However, don’t get fidgety for fear of not finishing on time. If you have done enough practice, trust me, you will easily beat the one-hour mark.

 

HOW TO TACKLE THEORY QUESTIONS

There are many formats of Bar Finals theory questions. However, I will focus on the most common format: the problem question, with the instruction to "comment on the propriety or otherwise" of some action.

If you have been through NLS, you already know the cardinal parts of the answer. It involves stating clearly whether the action of the named party is proper or improper, setting out the reasons and applicable rules supported by authorities, applying them to the facts, and concluding by restating your earlier answer. In Law School, this format is referred to as “PRES”: P for Point of View (the straight yes or no answer), R for Reason, E for Evidence and S for Summary, comprising application and conclusion.

This applies generally to all courses except Property Law Practice, where some questions require starting with the general rule, then the exceptions, then the authorities, then application and conclusion.

There are variants of these questions. First, there are ambiguous questions, where you are not given sufficient facts to give a straight yes or no answer. In that case, your answer has to be conditional. For instance, where there is an indication that someone meets some of the requirements for an entitlement but the question does not say whether the person meets all of them, you cannot simply answer that the person is entitled. Your answer has to state clearly that, while the person meets certain conditions, he is entitled only if he also fulfils the other requirements.

Second, there are assumption sub-questions, which introduce new facts in the middle of a question. Whenever you come across one, you must answer that sub-question, and that sub-question alone, on the new facts. Unless the instructions specifically apply the new facts to later sub-questions, those later sub-questions should be answered on the original scenario.

Third, there are ethical questions. Sometimes it is easy to spot an ethical question, but sometimes it is less obvious. I think a good rule of thumb is this: if a question concerns an impropriety that does not relate directly to any concept taught in the course, it probably calls for an analysis of the RPC. 

Remember that in answering your questions, you cannot just cite principles without correct application. Once there is a problem question, you must apply whatever rules you have stated to the facts to present a real connection. If you do not include an application, your answer will be weak and incapable of producing the grade that you desire.

Where you are genuinely unsure of the answer, you may present alternatives, but do this sparingly, as it can look like fishing for answers and cost you marks. You could also write everything you know on the concept, so that whatever the examiner wants has a chance of being on the page.

Importantly, you cannot afford to neglect sections and authorities if you are gunning for a first class. Yes, you can pass without citing a single authority, but it will be very difficult to get a first class without them. Those half marks allocated for authorities add up, after all. However, where you are pressed for time or your memory fails you, concentrate on the principles instead of wasting time trying to remember the authorities.

 

COURSE DEMANDS

What I have described is the general format for answering questions, but some courses have their own peculiarities. The first is Ethics. Ethics appears to be the easiest course to read, but it is notorious for having the strictest marking scheme. In fact, in some Ethics questions a separate mark is allocated for a section and another for a case, instead of the usual approach in which citing one authority earns the full mark.

Also, when it comes to RPC questions, I would advise that you do not paraphrase the rules when citing them. In fact, you should not even paraphrase while reading the RPC, because when you paraphrase, you could unintentionally leave out important parts of a rule that could be the basis of an entire question. If you are lucky, you could be asked a question that relates to just one rule, but often compulsory questions cut across multiple rules, and you have to figure out carefully all the relevant rules in order to get top grades.

So handle your Ethics answers with care. Be direct but write extensively, cover all bases and do not paraphrase the rules as you cite them.

Another unique course is Property Law Practice. Apart from the jurisdiction issue, you are expected to lay a proper foundation before answering a Property Law Practice question. This means that, in addressing a problem question, you need to go through all aspects of the topic that relate directly or indirectly to the question, e.g. stating all the exceptions even though the question addresses only one. Some argue that IRAC works better than PRES for Property Law questions, but honestly, I used PRES in every course.

The other courses do not have unique methods of answering. Of course, you should be prepared to draft a lot in Civil Litigation, to state a lot of procedures in Corporate Law Practice, and to encounter a possibly complex drafting question in Criminal Litigation.

In determining how to answer questions in certain courses, attendance of revision classes plays a crucial role because the lecturers sometimes drop tips on how they want questions to be answered.

 

WHAT IF YOU’VE MADE A MISTAKE IN THE EXAM HALL?

In the midst of that chaotic examination week, you could make a terrible mistake in the exam hall. You could write your answers in the wrong booklets. You could misinterpret an instruction and veer off course in your answer, only to realise the mistake much later. In your MCQs, you could skip a question, forget that you skipped it, answer the next question in the space meant for the previous one, and continue in that way. Or, even worse, you could fill in a course in the wrong section of the OMR sheet.

Of course, the ideal thing is to be so cautious that you do not even make such nerve-wracking mistakes in the first instance. But life happens, and people do mess up.

So what happens when you realise in the exam hall that you have made a terrible mistake?

I know your first reaction would probably be to flip out. That’s understandable, but it’s unwise. A crash-out is not going to help you. In fact, it is detrimental, because when you work yourself into a frenzy, you lose the mental clarity to think of a way out of the situation.

So first things first, calm down. If you discovered the mistake in the middle of exams, be grateful to God that you discovered the mistake while you can still rectify it. Then start thinking, with a clear and calm mind, of how to fix your mistake.

The worst mistake I can remember making was writing a correct answer, overthinking it, cancelling it, and then realising that my original answer was correct when I did not have enough time to rewrite the three pages I had cancelled. It was panic-inducing, but I had to pull myself together and think. Eventually, I figured that I could run correction fluid over my cancellation (luckily, it was just a straight line through the pages) and rewrite any letters covered by the fluid. After doing so, I added a note so the examiner would understand my error and correction.

There, crisis averted without crashing out.

A less serious error was drafting an entire motion and then realising that I had not included the “brought pursuant to…”. Unfortunately, it was a Civil Litigation question and there were about five minutes left. There was not enough time to cancel and redraft. Since the omission was small, I used correction fluid again to erase about two pages of the motion, divided each line into two, and then, as legibly as I could, wrote in the missing part.

If I had made the more serious mistake of writing an answer in the wrong answer booklet, I would equally have tried to fix it without rewriting. I would simply have torn out the answers written in the wrong booklet and reattached them to the correct one. The only situation in which I would have had to ‘rewrite’ my answers would have been a mistake in my MCQs. Even then, I would first have ticked the correct answers on my question paper so that transferring them to the correct places would be easier.

 

WHAT TO DO 10 MINUTES BEFORE THE END OF EXAMS

So it’s 10 minutes to the end of examinations. The invigilators have informed you of that fact, and the exam hall is getting restless. People are scrambling to finish their answers and you may even be among the people that have a couple of questions that you are yet to attempt.

What do you do?

My advice is to understand that avoiding errors is more important than finishing a couple of answers. The errors I mean are failing to write your exam number, failing to indicate which booklets are for Section A and Section B, and the all-too-common problem of answering in the wrong booklet, discussed above. The last few answers may carry about 5 marks, but costly mistakes could mean losing up to 25 marks. So tidy up your work as you near the end of the exam, even if you have not finished writing. Arrange your answer sheets and ensure that your exam information is on every sheet. Tie your extra sheets securely together. Write down the questions you answered, in the order you answered them, in the space provided.

If you have finished writing with 10 minutes to go, don’t just relax. Use the opportunity to read all your questions again and carefully review your answers. Nobody is perfect, and that last-minute review can save you a few marks. In all, remember that it is a battle to the very end, and at no point should you relax until the exam is over.

 

DISAPPOINTED AFTER A PAPER? HOW TO MOVE ON FAST!

So what if you realise your mistakes too late? What if you realise that you got one or several answers wrong, misinterpreted a question, glazed over a question and missed answering it, mixed up jurisdictions, or charged a dead man?

It’s a horrible feeling to assume that you got an answer right in the exam hall, only to realise that it was wrong after exams, or to take a guess in an uncertain question only to realise that you guessed wrong. It’s even worse when you seem to be the only one among your friend group or study mates that messed up the question. It can really make you second guess your brilliance and doubt your capacities.

I remember that during my Property Law Practice exam, I was so confused about a particular question that it ended up being one of the last I answered, and even then I simply made an assumption about what the answer could be. After the exam, I realised that I was probably the only one among my friends who had not recognised it as an ethical question. I felt very stupid, to be honest, and it fed my fear that I was not smart enough for the first class I desired. Even worse, that question was one of about three that I was certain I had messed up in one way or another, and I was not sure about a few others. I felt really bad and it took me some time to recover, but it was not even my most devastating post-exam experience.

My most devastating experience came after my MCQs, when I realised that I, who had targeted nothing less than 18/20 in every course, might get 14/20 in Civil Litigation. I had started by getting the very first Civil Litigation MCQ wrong, on something that was literally in the first paragraph of the slides for the topic. Oh, I was depressed the night after the MCQs, and the depression ran into Sunday. At one point, I realised that I would not get out of my pit unless I left my room and found some comfort in my friends. I was the only one reading in my room at the time, and that experience led me to camp in a reading room with a group of my mates for the rest of the exam period.

You see, when you are targeting a first class and make a series of mistakes in the very first paper, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is probably not worth it to keep pushing. With the grading system, if you have messed up one course, the A’s you get in the other courses can seem irrelevant.

But let me reassure you. Even Best Graduating Students do not get 100% in all their courses. After all, there has never been a BGS who was the best in every course, which means they lost a few marks in some courses. And you do not need 100 to get a first class; you need 70 in all courses. This means you can afford to lose up to a whopping 30 marks per course. Your mistakes would have to be severe for you to lose more than 30 marks in an examination, especially if you are not losing marks simply for not knowing how to answer exam questions properly. If you have mastered the art of answering exam questions for optimal marks, my dear, getting two or three questions wrong will probably cost you about 10 marks. That’s still an A.

Even after losing up to six marks in my Civil Litigation MCQs, and then making a few silly mistakes and glazing over a sub-question in the theory paper, I still made an A in the course. In fact, I was a prize winner in Corporate Law Practice, emerging as the ^second best and the best female student in the course, yet I could not recall all the conditions for a person to be an independent director in question 1. I also did not give the best answer on the issue of a company having pioneer status. So you have not lost your chance at a first class just because you got a few questions wrong.

So, first, calm yourself down when you realise your mistake. Better still, discard your question papers as soon as you leave the exam hall so that you do not discover mistakes in the first place (this will also help while you wait for your results, so you do not waste time grading yourself). Put the materials for that course in a box and promise yourself that you will not try to verify your answers, because that can end only in a little relief or a lot of pain.

Then, flee from all forms of group exam analysis after exams. Don’t talk about the exam with anyone, don’t engage in that unproductive use of time in a week where time is as scarce and valuable as a rare jewel.

Unfortunately for me, even though I tried, I must admit that I didn’t adhere to these instructions all too well. I was the academic secretary and the known ‘smart girl’, so I was always getting accosted with questions regarding the exam, which, some of the time, would end with me realising one mistake or the other.

But if you have gone to investigate or have conversations about the paper and you’ve realised that you made a mistake, have a support system. Talk to God, your friends, your parents, and anyone that you know can offer you the comfort to keep on pushing through the rest of the week. And remember again that a mistake does not automatically mean that you’ve lost the chance at the grade you desire. We are not robots and mistakes are normal. So just keep pushing till the end.

 

CONCLUSION

I know this has been a long read, and if you are about to write your exams in a few weeks, I hope the time you have spent reading it has not been wasted. As a final tip, I want you to know that the Bar Finals does not reward intelligence alone. What it rewards is accuracy, structure, understanding and the absence of avoidable errors. If you take care of your body, sleep, arrive early, make wise decisions in the exam hall, check jurisdiction, read every question carefully before answering, read all the optional sub-questions before choosing, write legibly and to the point, and refuse to discuss papers after the exam, you will have eliminated most of the ways in which well-prepared people fail. Getting the grade you deserve and desire depends largely on the choices you make during that week, and if you play the game right that week, you have a very good chance of a first class.

I pray that God will be with you during your exam week. I pray that He strengthens you and gives you the wisdom, understanding and mental fortitude to keep pressing on to the end. And most importantly, I pray that God gives you a sound and clear mind as you write your exams.

2 Timothy 1:7 says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Hold on to this scripture as an anchor, and I trust that God will grant your heart’s desires. I look forward to hearing your testimonies.

Good luck!