Adam Ferber is the former Examinations Director for the State Bar of California and grader of 40 California Bar and First-Year Law Students’ Examinations. He provides intensive, individualized tutoring and coaching to applicants for both exams. Contact Adam at www.ferberbarreview.com or, on Facebook, at Ferber Bar Review – Student Resource Group.
How Knowing the History of Columbia Can Help You Ace the Performance Test
“Lionel Hutz – court appointed attorney. I’ll be defending you on the charge of …Murder One! Wow! Even if I lose, I’ll be famous.” (Cartoon) lawyer Lionel Hutz
If you’ve watched television at all over the past 20 years, you probably know about the Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield (exact state still unknown). You may also know a lot about Mr. Hutz, Disco Stu, Lake Springfield, Duff Gardens, and all the people and places that make the town feel like home to us as well. But how much do you know about the State of Columbia, the fictional locale of the bar examination’s performance test?
Since its establishment, along with the PT almost thirty years ago, much has come to light about Columbia. Its law offices grow by at least two every time the bar examination is given. They include Castro & Ruz, Sanquist & Davis, and one particularly successful firm named after my two sons. In its state courts (including the county courts of Jackson and Galena) and the federal courts in its Northern and Southern districts, lawyers have litigated claims to sunken treasure, mistreatment of animals, forced medical treatment, and theft of trade secrets. So long as the performance test is given, hitherto unknown Columbians will have their moments in the sun, just as have Ralph Panine, Kai Banerjee and my personal favorite, investigator Johnny Ripka.
Why should you be interested in this history? Why should you even consider taking precious study time off just to read through the libraries and files of long-ago litigated battles in this fanciful place?
Because each time you read a performance test and the selected answers that accompany it at the Cal Bar’s Office of Admissions’ website, you are learning about how these test items are constructed, including:
- The relationship between the facts in the File and the legal authorities in the Library;
- How what would be a smooth chronological narrative in a magazine article about the dispute the PT involves is broken up and distributed through the File; And, how to reconstruct that narrative to suit your purposes.
- Exactly how Columbia’s legal community writes its settlement offers, persuasive memos, and even, on occasion, their discovery plans; Just as Marge’s sisters, Thelma and Patty, love MacGyver, so do Columbia’s senior lawyers love carefully crafted subject headings.
To put it simply, you are honing your clinical skills. And that’s what the performance test is intended to measure!
So, even if it feels counter-intuitive, stop outlining and writing, and just read a few of these test items. And, if you have any energy left after that, you may enjoy an episode of The Simpsons.
Copyright 2010 Adam Ferber and www.ferberbarreview.com. Reprinted by permission.
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