Should I take the Maryland Bar Exam?

For those who may practice in Maryland, it is without question that you should take the Maryland Bar Exam, because admission to the Maryland Bar requires that you pass the Exam. The Maryland Bar Exam is also an excellent choice if you will be practicing law at a law firm, public or private agency or corporation in Washington D.C., because passing the Maryland Bar allows you to waive into the D.C. Bar and practice in both jurisdictions if you achieve the requisite MBE score. The Maryland Bar does not allow you to practice in Maryland without taking the Maryland Bar Exam. To practice in courts in Maryland you must pass the Maryland Bar Exam.

What is the Difference Between Law School Essay Exams and the Maryland Essay Exam?

The Maryland Essay Exam (MEE) is written and graded by Maryland practitioners, not law professors. During law school, the focus is on teaching you the evolutionary development of legal doctrines, and your law school exams test your ability to engage in legal discourse with an emphasis on the subtle distinctions and nuances of the law. The MEE, however, is used to test the quality and reasonableness of your judgment in identifying issues, analyzing key facts and applying the relevant legal standards to those facts. While a law-laden answer may earn you big points on a law school exam, on the MEE big points are allocated for issue-identification and factual analysis.

In Maryland, the MEE is the Bar Exam. Though the MEE comprises two-thirds of your total bar score, it is often neglected in examinees' preparation. One of the reasons for this is that examinees fail to appreciate how the MEE differs from law school exams and do not prepare accordingly. Some believe that because they graduated in the top of their class, worked on the Law Review, and aced their law school exams they will breeze through the MEE with minimum preparation. This simply is not true, as the steady decline in the number of examinees who pass the Maryland Bar reflects.

How will I benefit from PTEX course offering if I'm already enrolled in a "general review" course?

No other review course knows the MEE like PTEX. The MEE is our business! While most general review courses may prepare you for the MBE and provided you with encyclopedic outlines, they give short shrift to issue identification and factual analysis, which are the skills you need to write passing answers on the MEE. PTEX courses both provide you with the rule of law and show you how to use it on the MEE to write reasoned responses within the very limited time allotment.

PTEX has adopted a focused approach to preparing its enrollees for the Maryland Essay Exam instead of the "jack-of-all-trades" approach adopted by general review courses. The PTEX preparation approach is informed by the knowledge that all bar essay examinations are not the same. By focusing exclusively on the Maryland Essay Exam, PTEX is able to provide you with the most comprehensive and accurate information about the exam, the nature of the questions that comprise it, how to write point-earning essay answers and how the exam in graded.

PTEX' application based format allows you to spend your in-class preparation time doing what you will do on the day of the exam: writing responsive, reasoned answers in each of the testable subjects, not listening to lectures and reading encyclopedic outlines.

General review courses use the lecture format that most law school professors use. This format it is not effective for the MEE, which tests your ability to identify issues, engage in reasoned factual analysis and apply the law to the facts. Moreover, general review courses often utilize instructors that are not specialists in Maryland law, have never practiced in Maryland, and have never taken the Maryland Bar.

How Frequently are Maryland Subjects Tested on the Maryland Essay Exam?

On average 60-65 percent of the subjects tested on the MEE are the Maryland Subjects (Agency, Bank Deposits and Collections, Corporations, Family Law, Leases, Maryland Civil Procedure, Negotiable Instruments, Partnerships, Professional Responsibility, Sales and Secured Transactions). This is what makes the MEE one of the most challenging state bar exams.

Reading encyclopedic outlines and listening to lectures do not provide examinees, who may not have studied all of the Maryland specific subjects in law school, with a conceptual understanding of the law sufficient to identify issues and analyze the facts within the context of the applicable law. PTEX courses provide enrollees with a practical and conceptual understanding of the most challenging subjects and succeed in teaching even those enrollees unfamiliar with the Maryland subjects to write passing answers to the most difficult essay questions.

What will I be doing in class everyday as a PTEX 7-Week Workshop enrollee?

The PTEX 7-Week Workshop is a 14-session practicum in bar essay writing. Each class session is devoted to a different testable subject. As a PTEX 7-Week enrollee you will learn the PTEX Technique® and apply and refine your use of the Technique by taking 5-6 practice questions in each testable subject, under simulated exam conditions. All of the questions administered in class are taken from previous Maryland Essay Exams. The administration of each question is followed by a thorough review of the answer by a PTEX Instructor who will present the PTEX 100+ model answer using Microsoft PowerPoint; provide you with the applicable substantive law (emphasizing Maryland distinctions), and teach you the most effective and time efficient way to approach, organize and write reasoned, responsive answers.

As a PTEX 7-Week enrollee you will also take 3 (three) full Maryland Essay Exams, the first of which will be reviewed in class by PTEX Instructors. The second exam will be hand-graded by PTEX Graders, and you will be provided with the Board Analysis and Student Representative Answers for the third exam to grade on your own.

PTEX Graders will review your submitted PTEX Diagnostic Exam (12 questions) and provide extensive written feedback on the accuracy of your issue spotting, the quality of your factual analysis and the correctness of your application of the relevant law. You will also receive a numerical score (1-6) for each answer. The score is based on an assessment of the overall quality of your answer and is given in accordance with the criteria used by the actual Maryland Board of Law Examiners.

As a PTEX 7-Week enrollee you will also have a face-to-face consultation with a PTEX Instructor to discuss your performance on the PTEX Diagnostic Exam and to map out a study strategy specific to your strengths and weaknesses.

What will I be doing in class everyday as a PTEX Maryland Subjects Workshop enrollee?

The PTEX Maryland Subjects Workshop is an intensive 3-day bar preparation boot camp focusing on the mastery of the PTEX Technique® for writing well-reasoned, well organized, comprehensive responses to essay exam questions in the Maryland specific subjects. A highlight of the Course is the UCC Workshop, which takes place on the 3rd day of the Workshop and covers all of the Uniform Commercial Code subjects (UCC 2, 2A, 3, 4 & 9).

You will apply and refine your use of the PTEX Technique® during the course by taking one full MEE and 7- 9 practice questions under simulated exam conditions. All of the questions administered in class are taken from previous Maryland Essay Exams. The administration of each question is followed by a thorough review of the answer by a PTEX Instructor who will present the PTEX 100+ model answer using Microsoft Powerpoint; provide you with the applicable substantive law (including Maryland distinctions); and teach you the most effective and time efficient ways to approach, organize and write reasoned, responsive answers.

What course materials will I receive?

The PTEX Course materials provide you with everything you need to prepare for the Maryland Essay Exam. You will receive a three-volume set of bar preparation materials. Volumes I & II contain more than 150 single essay exam questions organized by subject, complete with Board Analysis and Student Representative Answers for each question.

Volume III contains PTEX Attack Strategy Outlines® for each of the testable subjects. These outlines are formatted specifically for essay questions and facilitate your conceptual understanding of each subject and how to approach an essay testing that subject. These outlines contain the black letter law as well as the buzzwords, (legal terminology and standards) that the Board will be looking for in passing answers. Volume III also contains the most commonly tested statutory provisions in those subjects for which you are likely to receive a statutory extract.

You will also receive 2 PTEX Diagnostic Examinations. Each diagnostic exam is comprised of actual past Maryland Essay Examination questions compiled to reflect what is likely to be tested on the upcoming Bar. It is a 12 question exam (25 minutes per question) that is substantially more challenging than the actual MEE exam and as such is a critical learning tool. The diagnostic exams afford examinees the much needed opportunity to take an entire exam that is formatted like the actual Maryland Essay Exam, under timed conditions, while simultaneously exposing them to the substantive issues and subjects that are predicted to be tested on the upcoming Maryland Bar. One of the administered PTEX Diagnostic Examinations will be hand graded by PTEX Graders. PTEX Graders provide enrollees with a numerical assessment that corresponds to the 1 - 6 scale utilized by the Maryland Board of Law Examiners, as well as narrative comments on the quality of the 12 essay answers submitted for grading.

Finally you will receive a PTEX Schedule for Success®. This day-by-day calendar helps examinees to organize their time and take a measured approach to preparing for the Maryland Bar Exam. It directs examinees to the specific essay questions that they should take every day and provides specific time allocations for both Maryland Essay Exam and Multistate Examination preparation exercises. It eliminates the guess work that many examinees encounter as a challenge to adequate preparation, and allows examinees to track their performance over an eight week period for each testable subject.

Should I take the 7-Week Workshop or the 3-Day Maryland Subjects Workshop?

Both PTEX courses dispel the mystery surrounding the MEE by revealing what the exam is designed to test, explaining how the exam is graded, teaching enrollees how to write thorough, well-reasoned, responsive essay exam answers, and educating enrollees about how to achieve maximum results from their study effort. The 7-Week Workshop allows for more in-class practice with the PTEX Technique® and Instructor review of more MEE questions. The PTEX Maryland Subjects Workshop is well suited for enrollees who wish to focus on the Maryland subjects, which may correspond to courses that they did not take or master in law school.

Both PTEX Courses are limited to 100 students, which allow PTEX to provide each enrollee with individualized attention and to address individual questions and concerns. Additionally, the 7-Week Exclusive Workshop provides students with one-on-one, face-to-face review sessions with a PTEX Instructor to discuss performance on the graded PTEX Diagnostic.

Will PTEX Courses benefit me if I'm sitting for the Bar in another jurisdiction?

The essay-taking and essay-writing skills that you learn as a PTEX enrollee are transferable and can be used for writing responsive, well-organized, essay answers in any jurisdiction. Twenty-five percent of PTEX enrollees are sitting for the Bar Exam in jurisdictions other than Maryland. The PTEX Technique® has been used successfully by numerous examinees sitting for the CA, CT, DC, DE, NJ, NY and VA Bar Exams.

What is the PTEX Technique® and Why is it so successful?

The PTEX Technique® is a step-by-step method for writing well-reasoned, well-organized, grader-friendly, responsive answers to essay exam questions under timed conditions. It is a proven formula that allows you to maximize your time on the essay exam. The Technique gives 1st time takers a sure-fire strategy for passing the essay portion of the Bar Exam the first time and provides repeat takers with a fresh and effective approach to the essay exam, which enables them to re-take the exam with confidence!

PTEX has been recommended by members of the Maryland Board of Law Examiners for years because they are familiar with the nature of the preparation that PTEX courses offerings provide. That is why over the past seven years it has earned the reputation as the "must take" course for the Maryland Bar Exam.