I have a clerk and he recently asked me if there is anyway to predict what topics are going to be covered during the essay portion of the bar exam, say for example, he wants to pull the last five years worth of tests. Would that be an predictor of what topics will be covered on the essay portion of the exam? He is trying to find a way to focus his studies, and I told him I would look into it. Any thoughts?

Unfortunatley for you clerk the answer in my experience is, no. While there are certaiin topics that are generally considered rarely asked on the bar exam, for example, secured transactions, there is no real why to predict what topics the essays are going to cover. You can count on a couple of things, there will generally be a question on torts, more likely than not a contracts question of some sort, some type of property question, but, for the most part the goal of the bar examiners is to make sure you can't focus you studies and you have to spend time with all the subjects. Like I said, if he was going to take a chance and not fully prepare a topic, maybe, and I stress maybe, you could skip something like secured transactions. But, again, that is not to say that it will not be on there, its simply one of those topics that rarely appears, not never. So, whatever "focusing" your guy does, it is a gamble. And, as you know, that test is hard enough to prepare for once, much less twice. Do the work the first time around and be done with it, that's what I say.

My sister took the bar exam and she said that while the essay questions were always different from year to year, the practicing and studying the most recent 5 years worth of essays questions helped her prepare for the bar.

I'm not saying to limit your studies to the prior exam questions, but I think its important to review the types of essay questions and their structure.

From what I understand, the prior essay questions from the bar exam can only be ordered if you fail the bar exam. Do you know how to get more prior bar exam questions?