The Writing Edge | Why PT's are simple

	Why PT's are really simple
Performance Tests are not unknowns	Most Bar applicants think Performance Tests are the great unknown and that they are impossible to prepare for. Naturally, if you go into the exam believing that, you'll be surprised, anxious and caught off guard. But the truth is, performance tests have a lot of similarities, and if you learn to recognize and even look for the similarities, you reduce the unknown--and your anxiety.
You don't look everywhere for the lost car keys -- you organize the possibilities	Have you ever lost your car keys? What's the first thing you do? You think, where did I see them last? when did I drive the car last? what jacket was I wearing? In other words, you don't go randomly through the house, looking everywhere, the likely places and the unlikely places. No, you begin organizing the possibilities.
Most people spend too long reading	To do well on the performance test, you do the same thing. Organizing the law together with the facts is the process that gets you great scores on the Performance Test. You get three hours to complete the PT exam, and there are three steps: reading, organizing, and writing. Most people spend too long reading, too long writing, and too little time organizing.
Writing takes longer when you don't know what to say	I teach you how to assess what you are looking for so you can read more quickly. This isn't a reading trick or speed reading. It's an attitude toward the material that with practice and with the experience of seeing that it works, you can master. And you see the value in mastering it! Less time reading means more time to organize. And organizing the law with the facts is the way to get high scores.
The key is organizing rules to facts	The other place people spend too long is in writing their answers. They take a long time to write their answers because--they aren't organized! They are still thinking through what they want to say and organizing as they write. Such an answer will not be cogent and tightly reasoned. The solution again is to organize longer.
You can't figure out the approach from model answers	Performance Tests are even harder for a student to practice on his own than essays. It is difficult for even the experienced eye to determine what made the answers the Bar publishes outstanding. They are inconsistent in quality and have different strengths. Some are well reasoned, others are well organized; some gather a lot of facts; some are exceptionally strong in one task and weak in the other. It is impossible to reverse-engineer by looking at the Bar's published answers to determine what standards the Bar grades PT's on.
I've taken and graded PT's	I've taken Performance Tests for the Committee of Bar Examiners when the exam was under development and I've graded them. I know how they are evaluated. I also know that PT's are the easiest place for you to improve your score 20-30 points.
I have an approach that works on every PT	I have an approach for how you use the three hours of the exam, how to read the file, how to read the cases and find the one rule in each, where to find the issues, how many issues there are in each PT. And I lend you my confidence that this method works on every PT. In my class, you see for yourself that it works on 22 PT's. And I give you a PT exam every week for two months under exam conditions so you can practice and perfect my method.
	©1997 Vivian Dempsey. The Writing Edge™ All rights reserved.