Essay Test Preparation

Shemer's Essay Techniques is a course designed to improve your essay writing skills to meet the unusual "time pressure" demands of the Maryland essay test. We do this with a combination of interactive lectures, supervised writing practice in small groups, feedback about your answers and one-to-one meetings.

You spend 20 hours in class, meeting for five (5), four (4) hour sessions over a six or seven week period, ending approximately 10 days before the bar exam.

The first class will meet, en banc, meaning all sections will meet together for the Introductory How-To Class. After the Introductory How To Class, the remaining classes devote time to each of the subjects tested on the essay test. For each subject tested, there will be a short lecture to discuss recurring question styles, fact patterns and topics, useful mnemonic devices, organizational outlines and how to write essay answers for that specific subject. Identifying recurring fact patterns and topics will help you write and organize your answers, before knowing the specifics of any given question.
The remaining class time for that subject — and by far the bulk of class time — is spent writing answers to bar exam questions under tougher than exam conditions and getting feedback about your answers. After writing an answer under our supervision, you read your answer aloud and get feedback about what you wrote by our experienced faculty.

We tell you what you did well and why. We tell you what you could do better and why. Most important, we tell you how to do it better. Then, you'll practice the suggestions by writing another question and get more feedback. This is the real key to your improvement. Then we move on the next subject and repeat the process.

<<Back | Next>>