Bar Preparation

Each year Professor Nancy C. Kraybill holds bar orientation sessions with our third-year students where she provides an overview of the bar application process, bar character and fitness requirements and the components of the bar exam. She also offers a workshop on the MPRE.

Programs offered include:

• Writing Strategies for the Bar
• the Bar Exam Accelerated Training Program (B.E.A.T.)
• Bar exam workshops
• Events including Introduction to the Bar Exam at 1L orientation, bar review vendor fairs, speakers addressing the MPRE and more.

Professor Kraybill provides information on bar examination preparation to students through the Earle Mack School of Law Weekly Newsletter, website and regular "Bar News" e-mails; fields students’ bar-related inquiries and meets individually with students on issues related to the bar exam, including course selection, commercial bar review companies and bar preparation planning. She invites representatives from the Pennsylvania Bar Examiners to speak to upper-division students about the bar exam and the character and fitness certification process. She also sponsors MBE workshops presented by experienced bar tutors. Students can gain additional bar preparation skills in the for-credit, Writing Strategies for the Bar course, which focuses on the essay writing and performance test components found on nearly all state bar exams.

All third-year Earle Mack School of Law students are afforded the opportunity to participate in the Bar Exam Accelerated Training Program (B.E.A.T.) at no cost. The program, which is held over five consecutive Saturdays in the spring semester, offers instruction by BARBRI lecturers on the performance test, the multistate exam topics and essay writing for the bar. Students answer sample bar essay questions written under the same time constraints as the bar, and have those essay answers graded by an experienced BARBRI attorney grader.