Daniel's California Bar Exam Tutoring

Bar Exam Tutor, Jan. 2005 - Present

In January 2005, I started my own private tutoring business.  I have built a reputation as a well-rounded tutor with an ability to pay attention to detail while working toward an ultimate, bigger goal.  I help students improve their legal analysis and legal writing skills by teaching them how to expertly craft a well-balanced legal argument based on the applicable rules and relevant facts.  Students frequently comment on my ability to explain potentially confusing ideas in a straightforward manner.  I also help with all aspects of Bar preparation, including time management, for both short-term and long-term planning, information management, and stress management.  All the work done for students is performed by me; I never hand off essays for someone else to read.

Consultant for the Hastings Academic Support Program, Oct. 2004 - Nov. 2005

I worked on two main projects at UC Hastings College of the Law: "Orientation to the Bar" and a series of instructional workshops for First Year law students.

UC Hastings has a program, "Orientation to the Bar", designed to introduce a targeted population of Third Year students to the various aspects of the California Bar Exam.  I was hired by the Academic Support Program (ASP) to review their materials and advise ways to make their instructional activities more useful for interactive learning activities.  This required me to read and analyze 25 years' worth of California Bar essays and their accompanying model answers.  I was able to identify patterns in the way issues were tested, as well as the qualities of a model answer.  Based on these trends and patterns, I made recommendations for how to implement changes to their instructional materials to make their "Orientation to the Bar" more hands-on.

After concluding work on the Bar project, I was hired by the ASP to design and teach a series of instructional workshops for First Year law students.  The purpose of these workshops was to introduce them to the fundamentals of legal analysis and writing.  I achieved this by teaching them such skills as briefing cases, outlining for final exams, issue-spotting on exams, and IRAC writing for exams.  Teaching these workshops required me to break down the often confusing task of writing a solid exam answer into a series of easily understood, discrete tasks.

Discussion Group Leader for the ASP, Sept. 2002 - December 2002

As a Discussion Group Leader, I designed and led a semester-long weekly class designed to help First Year law students develop the analytic skills necessary to excel in law school.  I used Tort law as a way to give context and meaning to learning exercises that taught skills for all law school classes.  In addition, I worked one-on-one with students during my Office Hours, allowing me to give personal attention to individual students' skill development.

The Bottom Line 

Students' scores on the Bar improve when they follow my advice, and the vast majority of them pass after working with me just one time.