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Alison Monahan

About Alison Monahan

Alison Monahan is the founder of The Girl's Guide to Law School and the co-founder of the Law School Toolbox. Alison is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a member of the Columbia Law Review and served as a Civ Pro teaching assistant. You can find her on Twitter at @GirlsGuideToLS or @LawSchoolTools.

How to Interpret Your Bar Exam Score Report

November 28, 2018 By Alison Monahan Leave a Comment

Looking at your bar exam score reportIf you got bad news on the bar exam, it’s tempting to put your head in the sand and try to move on as quickly as possible. While the impulse is understandable, it’s important to take a step back and try to figure out why you failed this test if you want to pass next time. One of the best ways to do this is to look carefully at your bar exam score report.

Depending on the state (I’m looking at you, New Jersey!), you may have next to nothing to work with. But many states provide a detailed breakdown of your scores on each essay and performance test, and of your performance on each topic area on the MBE. Unfortunately, some of this information can be confusing if this is the first time you’re seeing it. Luckily, we look at tons of score reports, so let’s break it down. [Read more…] about How to Interpret Your Bar Exam Score Report

Stop Worrying About Passing the Bar Exam in 10 Days and Get to Work

July 13, 2016 By Alison Monahan 1 Comment

pass the bar exam

Recently, we published what may have been a very ill-conceived post telling the story of one of our bar students who studied ten days and passed the California bar exam. True story. Why ill-conceived? Because now we’re getting emails from every panicked procrastinator out there, asking for our help in getting them to the point of passing in ten days! Sorry, folks. Time for some tough love: [Read more…] about Stop Worrying About Passing the Bar Exam in 10 Days and Get to Work

Common Bar Essay Problems and How to Avoid Them

June 2, 2015 By Alison Monahan 2 Comments

Bar Essay Problems

When you review a lot of bar essays, you begin to see what sets the good ones apart. The answers that score the highest have some telltale traits that really start standing out the more of them you read. We here at the Bar Exam Toolbox have seen a lot of bar essays: top scores, failing scores, and everything in between. We’ve also come up with some common pitfalls that tend to make an essay score lower. What makes a bar essay bad, though? Or, more importantly, what can you do to make yours good? Here are some of the most common problem areas we see year to year, and how you can improve them. [Read more…] about Common Bar Essay Problems and How to Avoid Them

A Slightly Counterintuitive Way to Study for the MBE

February 7, 2014 By Alison Monahan 1 Comment

study-1212730-mAs we get closer to the February bar exam, studying efficiently becomes ever more important.

Here’s a tip for improving your MBE scores — force yourself to focus primarily on the material you don’t know. [Read more…] about A Slightly Counterintuitive Way to Study for the MBE

The Five Things I Hated Most About Studying For the Bar Exam

July 15, 2013 By Alison Monahan 1 Comment

As another crop of law students ruin another beautiful summer studying for the bar exam, I thought I’d take a moment to pause to reflect upon the things I hated most about studying for the bar. I could go on for days, but for the sake of brevity I’ve narrowed it down to my top five. Feel free to leave your own. Misery loves company!

studying

[Read more…] about The Five Things I Hated Most About Studying For the Bar Exam

My Best Bar Exam Tip: Just Decide You’ll Pass

June 21, 2013 By Alison Monahan Leave a Comment

Pass the bar!I leave most of the bar exam advice to Lee, since she’s the resident expert, but I wanted to drop by to share my best bar exam tip:

Just decide you’re going to pass.

On first glance, this might seem naive or silly, but it’s actually quite powerful. Let me share a story…

[Read more…] about My Best Bar Exam Tip: Just Decide You’ll Pass

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About Us

Want to pass the bar exam? Of course you do! We’re here to help. You’ll find lots of helpful free content at Bar Exam 101, in the Bar Exam Resource Hub, and on the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast. For more hands-on help, take a look at our courses and workshops and bar exam tutoring options. Please get in touch with any questions!

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