1. ocus on the call of the question.

Many bar exam essay fact patterns, including

multistate essay exam fact patterns will have a specific call of the question. ...
2. Look at the arguments the parties are making. ...
3. Go back to the facts! ...
4. Be aware of the highly tested areas of law. ...
5. Practi
6. henever the subject of answering legal essays arises, the IRAC technique
inevitably rears its ugly head. Why ugly? Because the IRAC method, in its most
basic form, is not the optimal way to answer law exam questions. The IRAC
method tends toward students devising simplistic and formulaic answers.
7. Nonetheless, for any law student who does not outline his or her answers, IRAC
is a good starting point for learning the tools to answer law school exam
questions. In fact, practicing and developing it can help students improve their
treatment of the analysis section resulting in more sophisticated exam answers.
8. The IRAC method may be used by simply filling in the blanks of the following
formula for each issue in an exam question: “The issue is ___________. The rule
is ___________. A court would analyze it as follows: [law applied to the facts]. In
conclusion, ___________ will likely prevail.”
1. Essential to answering any law exam question is identifying the relevant,
salient issues presented by the question. Some law students based on
their undergraduate background may have no or minimal legal issue-
spotting skills. 1`sdThus, it is imperative that law students develop and
sharpen their issue-spotting skills from day one of law school.
9. Law exam questions are not always clear as to the issues addressed. On one
hand, the issues may be obvious and require resolving only those issues that the
question itself has emphasized. On the other hand, the question may not
specifically address an issue but just direct the examinee to “discuss the issues.”