BarWrite®: Coaching and Classes for Effective Bar Exam Prep

Website: BarWrite®

Facebook: BarWrite®

Twitter: @Barwrite

Books: Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test (MPT) and Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays

What is BarWrite®? 

BarWrite® teaches Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher’s unique systems, which have helped hundreds of attorneys pass the bar exam. Her systems focus on mastery of basic rules, legal analysis, and timing. Over more than 20 years, BarWrite has earned a reputation for teaching foreign-educated lawyers how to succeed on tests the American way. Dr. Gallagher does one-on-one coaching worldwide, by telephone or Skype. BarWrite’s group courses are offered live in New York City and at law schools. They include:

• 10-Day Coaching Group
• 1-Day Performance Test Boot Camp
• 3-Day New York Essays Boot Camp (Together, the 4-Day Combo)

The courses are:

• Short and supplemental,
• For the MBE, the New York essays, or the Performance Test.
• Based on planning for efficient study schedules, and include
• How to write quickly and efficiently, and
• How to master the most-tested rules in the most-frequently tested subjects, while
• Using basic factual analysis both for the essays and for the MBE.

What students are the “best fit” for BarWrite®’s programs?

Bar candidates come to our classes because:

• They want structure in their bar-preparation,
• They want to know what they really must do in order to pass, and
• They would like help mastering the basic law and
• Managing their study time and
• Managing their test-taking time.

Bar candidates include:

• LLMs who realize they can’t possibly master everything that their bar-prep courses tell them to learn, so they want to know what the basics are and how to handle a multiple-choice test, or
• JDs from the U.S. who have received low grades on their law school essays or low scores on practice tests, and they don’t know what to change,
• Retakers who had not mastered the law or who could not manage the time on the bar exam.

What students are not a “good fit” for BarWrite®’s programs?

We work with students on the MBE and performance test parts of bar exams all over the country, and on the essays for 49 states. But while gurus of the California bar exam have endorsed our essay and performance test methods, and Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher herself has passed the California bar exam, BarWrite® leaves coaching on the California essays to the people who keep up with California.

What is BarWrite®’s bar exam preparation philosophy?

First, BarWrite® believes the purpose of the bar exam is to determine whether bar candidates have the basic legal knowledge and basic analytic competence of a first-year associate.

Second, unlike some bar-exam trainers, BarWrite® believes the MBE is full of straightforward questions, and that anyone can succeed. BarWrite® does not believe that the MBE is full of traps and tricks.

Always, the key is the basics, not “coverage.” Candidates can be so concerned about “covering” everything that they master nothing: they waste time on difficult areas of law that are only lightly tested.

Since the bar exam tests knowledge of basic law and skill in basic legal analysis, one main cause of failing the bar exam is not knowing enough black letter law and another is lack of competence in basic factual analysis. BarWrite®’s courses include our famous World Cup Rules^TM. These are rules for students to memorize so that the most basic rules of law are top-of-mind during the exam, and they don’t have to try to translate into and out of their native language while they’re taking the MBE.

The key skill for success on both the essays and the MBE, is basic law and basic factual analysis, plus time management. Memorization is helpful, but memorization alone is not enough.

What are the logistics of BarWrite®’s programs?

BarWrite offers two programs in New York City:

• In the 4-Day Boot Camp Combo, which is offered twice before each bar exam, students master the MPT (1-Day) and basic law and systems for the New York essays (3-Days). Candidates for a bar exam outside New York can take the 1-Day MPT Boot Camp by itself.
• In BarWrite®’s 10-Day Coaching Group, which meets on week-ends, students get individual support for mastering the most-frequently tested rules in the most-frequently tested areas of law on the New York bar exam. Students study for the MBE, the MPT, and the New York essays. They do essay and memorization exercises every day. They have two days of simulated written bar exam testing and two days of simulated MBE testing.

BarWrite® also offers one-on-one coaching. Students can do it in person in New York City, or by telephone or Skype. BarWrite® has coached many students around the world, and as far away as Kazakhstan.

Course Materials. BarWrite® provides the following materials to all students in the Four-Day Boot Camps and the 10-Day Coaching Group:

• Binder of more than 100 past New York bar exam questions in the 10 most-frequently tested areas of law, with sample answers in the BarWrite® format taught in Dr. Gallagher’s book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays. The St. John’s Law School Forum called Scoring High possibly “the best money you can spend on bar exam preparation.”
• Easy-to-use law formulas for memorization in the 10 most-frequently tested areas of law, the “World Cup Rules^TM.
• Book Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test (MPT): Train to Finish the MPT in 90 Minutes “Like a Sport^TM.” The former president of the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners, Prince Chambliss, Jr., says of these materials, “Mary Campbell Gallagher has set a new standard in bar exam preparation.”
• Discount for on-line MBE training program Adaptibar.

In addition, students in the 10-Day Coaching Group, which meets on week-ends, also receive abundant MBE practice materials and instruction in the BarWrite® Multistate Study System^TM.

People preparing for bar exams other than New York that require a performance test will often fly in to New York to take just the 1-day MPT All-States Boot Camp. We will be happy to send out a list of accommodations to those coming from out-of-town.

BarWrite® also offers free teleseminars on study systems and basic law topics. If students sign up for the free newsletter they will keep up with BarWrite’s free offerings and also receive news about major court cases and other matters of professional interest.

Does BarWrite® offer a complete bar review solution, or are the courses designed to be taken in conjunction with other prep options? 

BarWrite®’s courses are supplemental, not a full bar review solution. Every student must take a full bar review course at least once.

Student Testimonials

“I want to thank you so much for helping me prepare for the New York bar exam and achieving my recent success on passing the bar.  By studying for the bar again and taking your BarWrite course, it has made me a more competent New York attorney. Of course, students study to pass the bar exam, but once you pass, you must apply what you have learned to real life cases.”

 – Christine Champey, member, New York bar

“With BarWrite®, I learned how to memorize information fast, how to think fast, and how to save my precious time on the bar exam. Dr. Gallagher provided us with law formulas, which I could easily understand and memorize, without wasting my time translating them into my native language, which is very important for foreign-trained attorneys. BarWrite taught me how to resolve the bar exam questions under time pressure. I highly recommend it.” 

 – Julia Greenberg, Belarusian-trained attorney, member, New York bar

Take a look at BarWrite’s page on Facebook for more testimonials.

BarWrite’s Guest Posts on Bar Exam Toolbox

• Has Using the Computer Made it More Difficult to Write Concisely? — Advice from Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher
• How NOT to be an MBE Victim – Advice from Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher
• When Should Law Students Get Interested in the Bar Exam – Advice from Dr. Mary Campbell Gallagher

Want to learn more? Contact BarWrite today to discuss their services.