Preparing for the essays is easier than one would think. In its own way, it is actually quite a bit easier than preparing for the multi-state multiple choice questions, which occasionally can focus on little details that are easy to miss. But the essays are all about bigger picture issues, so above all want you want to get in your mind are the main concepts.

Another comforting aspect of the essays is that even if you get the law wrong, sometimes your analysis is just as or more important than the law. The State Bar Association of California, for example, have released sample answers that got the highest scores that actually have incorrect law within them. But the State Bar realizes that when you become the lawyer, you're not going to pulling the law out of your brain, but rather after looking it up in a book. Hence, minor mistakes in your knowlege of the law is not a huge problem. What they are primarily looking for is your ability to spot issues, and your ability to actually apply the law.

My recommended format for preparing for the essays is as follows: after you have carefully read through a subject outline as explained in previous pages, go again to a quiet place and stack up all the same essays and essay answers that you have for that subject. You should have at least 6-15 essays, which again can be retrieved from the State Bar Association itself, PMBR, BARBRI, or e-bay sales of books from those three entities.

Now pick up the first essay. Act as if you are taking an examination. Give yourself 15 minutes to read the essay carefully, and 5 minutes to prepare an outline. Really try your best, don't give in to a temptation to immediately look at the answers. When you've given it your best shot -- the kind of full shot that you would give a question on the actual exam -- then look at the answers.

Now look at the answers very carefully. If you see a bit of law or perspectives on the law in there that you didn't understand before, add appropriate notes to your outlines. Make sure you understand what you missed the first time around and how.

Now, immediately, take your fake little self-test again. Give yourself 20 minutes as described above, and see if you can answer the essay question and outline an answer with as much detail as the sample answers. You'll probably fail, even though you just looked at the answers, because there is just too much information. Just try your best.

Rinse, wash, and repeat. Keep doing this until you can quickly write out a more or less accurate outline that includes all the points in the model answer. Then move on to the next question, and pursue the same approach.

Again, the strength of this approach is that you are constantly honing your ability to face a fact pattern, address issues that come up, sketch out outlines as quickly as can be and formulate an answer.

Once you get to Week Five and Week Six, you should be timing yourself to meet the tough standard of the actual exam. Typically, for a three hour period they'll give you three essays (although this may differ from state to state). So for each essay they will give you one hour. Plan to read the essay question in 5 minutes and to outline it in 10 minutes. You will also want to write out your essays a couple times too, to get used to that feeling. When you do that, do it in three hour sprints of three essays, just as in the exam itself.

After a while, and certainly by Week Six, you should be using your essay questions like large flash cards. Scramble them up, and then toss a question at yourself. Read it quickly, then whip out the outline in 5 minutes, and then go to the next question, and the next one.