Bar Exam Writing Tip

It's important to remember that even when given a client to represent, often at the end of an essay prompt, there's no clients paying you to represent them. Unfortunately, since that would be nice.

You don't have to get into advocate mode, or competitive mode, or whatever mode is necessary to help your client to win. In fact, giving you a client to represent is often a trap by the test writers to see if you'll neglect arguments that weaken your side simply because you'd like to convince the reader that your "client" should win. Try to avoid those tempting instincts. Regardless of the side they give you, wear both hats. If an argument helps your "client," great. You don't need be wishy washy with conclusions that are warranted by the facts. But very often, explaining the strong arguments that the other side will have, and the weaknesses of your own side, will earn you as many points as advocating for the side you've been given. The number of points lost on essays by trying to hide potential winning arguments by the opposing side simply because people think the task is to advocate as strongly as possible for the side they've been given leads to many people not scoring as high on essays as they are capable of scoring!