The Law Library has many excellent resources for students to supplement their bar prep courses. The PDF below describes some popular titles currently available through the Aspen Learning Library and West Academic platforms: Online Materials for Bar Study. Additional resources from each platform, as well as print resources available for check out in the Law Library, are highlighted in the subsequent boxes on this page.
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law students can set up an Aspen Learning Library account. Use this link to create an account:
https://aspenlearninglibrary-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/bookshelf. Click register to create an account. Once you create an account, your login will ensure off-campus access to the study aids. You will also be able to print, download, highlight, and take notes.
Below is a list of select resources on the Aspen Learning Library platform that are specific to bar exam preparation.
Clearing the Last Hurdle (Wanda M. Temm, 2017)
This resource includes tips on building general skills for the exam and advice for planning your test prep, as well as subject-specific lessons to help you understand the black-letter law. Bar exam multiple-choice questions (with explanations of right and wrong answers) and essay practice questions with help you evaluate your progress.
Strategies & Tactics for the MBE (Steven L. Emanuel, 2023)
This study aid provides over 465 questions to help you prepare for the Multistate Bar Exam, including detailed explanations of the answers provided.
Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law students also have access to online study aids, treatises, and audio lectures through West Academic Study Aids. You must use your ASU email address to create an account. West Academic will recognize you as a member of the ASU community and allow you to create an account when you use your email address as your username. Once you create an account, your West Academic login will ensure off-campus access to the study aids and will also enable you to print, download, highlight, and take notes. You can access content offline by downloading these West Academic Apps.
Below is a list of select resources on the West Academic Study Aids platform that are specific to bar exam preparation.
West Academic provides a Bar Exam Success section compiling resources, including instructional aids and practice questions. Additionally, the West Academic Assessment Platform (please follow the directions on this Google Doc to gain access) is a new, premium study-aid for students that covers all 1L subjects (and many 2/3L subjects). This free program gives you access to digital MBE practice questions and practice essays. It's a useful tool to practice testing.
Acing the Bar Exam (Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, 2016)
Although you can test your knowledge on some multiple choice questions scattered within the text, this book emphasizes the process of preparing for the bar exam, such as planning your study schedule, checking your answers on practice exams, and taking the exam itself. It also includes advice and encouragement for re-takers.
The Bar Exam in a Nutshell (Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus, 2016)
Deconstructs the components of the bar exam itself, with tips on how to answer multiple choice, essay, and memorandum questions. Providing guidance on study schedules and preparing test takers to troubleshoot when things go wrong, such as failing to spot issues or forgetting rule statements. Also includes advice on preparing to retake the bar exam.
Bar Exam Success: A Comprehensive Guide (Sara J. Berman, 2023)
This resource includes an audiobook format and divides its tips into sections for first-time takers and repeat takers. It emphasizes the process of bar prep, including tips on how to handle multiple choice, essays, and closed-universe legal documents. It also notes the importance of keeping a positive attitude and supportive friends.
The Essential Rules for Bar Exam Success (Steve I. Friedland & Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, 2008)
This book presents a method for teaching students to pass the bar that is easy to learn and implement. Topics covered include learning to study actively rather than passively; choosing study partners who will help, not hinder, your studying; learning to think, read, and write critically; dissecting multistate exam questions; coping with pressure; making the most of the weeks before the bar exam; and preparing for the day of the exam.
Exam Pro Bar Prep Workbook Revised (Steve I. Friedland, 2010)
Although this resource lacks standard multiple choice and essay practice questions, it provides tips on how to approach questions in each of the areas of law included in the multiple-choice portion of the bar exam. You can test your knowledge with its open-ended short-answer mixed questions.
A Short & Happy Guide to the Bar Exam's Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) (Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus & Irene McDermott Crisci, 2019)
The strategies for preparing for the essay exam, not to mention the subject matter, is very different from the multiple choice exam, or the MBE. This slim volume helps you structure your essays to maximize your score and includes several practice essays.
A Short & Happy Guide to Conquering the MBE (Don L. Doernberg & Cynthia A. Pope, 2021)
The Multistate Bar Exam is intimidating because it covers a wide array of subjects and because it is all multiple-choice questions. This slim volume will show you how to use practice multiple-choice questions to your greatest advantage.
A Short & Happy Guide to the MPT (Katherine Silver Kelly, 2023)
The Multistate Performance Test is a standardized test which means it is created and graded based on formulas and patterns. This slim volume teaches you how to take advantage of this by identifying the basic underlying formulas on which every MPT is constructed and the standard performance expectations.
The Study Skills print collection includes the following series with separate volumes available in bar exam subject areas:
Please use the ASU Library Catalog to search for specific bar exam materials. Or, you can Ask a Law Librarian if you need assistance finding materials.
Below is a list of select resources that can be found in our Study Skills print collection, across from the circulation desk on the third floor.
The Complete Bar Writer (Alexa Z. Chew & Katie Rose Guest Pryal, 2020)
This book teaches readers how to prepare for the Multistate Performance Test and the Multistate Essay exam (and similar bar performance tests and essay exams). Readers learn how to transfer the legal writing knowledge that they learned in law school to the bar exam, and how to build upon that foundation with skills specific to bar exam success.
Don't Stress the Bar Exam: 40 Tips to Balance the Experience (Michael J. Moiso, 2001)
A brief, effective guide for structuring your life around the ultimate law school final exam: the bar. While aspiring lawyers need to respect the exam, maintaining normalcy with loved ones and keeping up with your physical health is an important part of success.
Pass the Bar! (Denise Riebe & Michael Hunter Schwartz, 2006)
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the pre-bar review, bar review, and bar exam process.
The Ultimate Guide to the Uniform Bar Exam (Melissa Hale et al., 2021)
Whether you are in a new UBE jurisdiction, or one of the original UBE jurisdictions, this guide provides you with a detailed approach to the UBE, combining the authors' expertise in bar exam preparation with access to actual bar exam answers from real bar examinees that were written during past bar exams and graded by actual bar exam graders.
The Zen of Passing the Bar Exam (Chad Noreuil, 2011)
ASU Law's Chad Noreuil incorporates mindfulness, meditation, and neuroscience into a user-friendly, slim book of bar passage advice. Professor Noreuil provides tips on the exam itself, such as writing essays to maximize points.