The Kansas Essay Exam
Tips &Techniques
Washburn Bar Services
The Essay
 Two 3-hour blocks
 16 questions total
 (8 in the morning & 8 in the evening)
 22.5 minutes for each question
 Each essay is worth the same amount
of points.
The 19 Subjects Tested:
Agency and Employment
Conflicts of Law
Constitutional Law
Contracts
Corporations
Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure
Evidence
Domestic Relations and
Family Law
 Federal Civil Procedure
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 Kansas Civil Procedure
 Legal Ethics
 Non-corporate Business
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Organizations
Personal Property
Real Property
Torts
Trusts and Administration
UCC and Commercial
Transactions
Wills
Tips for before writing the essay
 1. Your outlines and materials should be created with essay
analysis strategies in mind.
 2. Your rule statements should be good to go in your head
before the bar exam.
 3. When you flip to a fresh question, read the call(s) of the
question first before going into the fact pattern.
 4. You should spend some time planning/outlining your
response before writing.
 (A) Identify which issue you are discussing
 (B) List elements of the rule
 (C) Lay out the facts
An Exercise
Dan Driver and his girlfriend, Wanda Witness, were headed home
from a political fundraiser at the Rich Ranch late one summer evening
when Dan's car struck Penny Pedestrian on a dark county road. Though
seriously injured, Penny was still alert at the scene. Penny told the
Sheriff that she looked over her shoulder as the car approached and "felt
like the car swerved toward me as if the driver intended to hit me." The
Sheriff included it in his Accident Report. Penny lapsed into a coma and
remains hospitalized, unable to communicate.
You represent Penny's family, and your automobile liability action
is ready for trial.
Is there any hearsay? Please discuss.
Tips for writing the essay itself
 ULTIMATE GOAL: Sound like a lawyer—but a concise
one and one that cares about the grader.
 1. Follow directions in the call of the question and then
answer the question asked.
 2. Formatting: Everything you do format-wise is to aid the
grader’s job.
 A. Use headings and short sentences.
 B. Skip lines between paragraphs.
 C. Use and define legal terms.
 3. Use CRAC (but if you have to fudge, use either CRA or
RAC)
Let’s do this again…
Following Directions on the Bar
Dan Driver and his girlfriend, Wanda Witness, were headed home
from a political fundraiser at the Rich Ranch late one summer evening
when Dan’s car struck Penny Pedestrian on a dark county road. Though
seriously injured, Penny was still alert at the scene. Penny told the
Sheriff that she looked over her shoulder as the car approached and “felt
like the car swerved toward me as if the driver intended to hit me.” The
Sheriff included it in his Accident Report. Penny lapsed into a coma and
remains hospitalized, unable to communicate.
You represent Penny’s family, and your automobile liability action
is ready for trial.
Write a memo addressing to your senior partner
whether Penny’s statement is hearsay.
Oh, it’s you again...
Answering What the Bar wants
Dan Driver and his girlfriend, Wanda Witness, were headed home
from a political fundraiser at the Rich Ranch late one summer evening
when Dan’s car struck Penny Pedestrian on a dark county road. Though
seriously injured, Penny was still alert at the scene. Penny told the
Sheriff that she looked over her shoulder as the car approached and “felt
like the car swerved toward me as if the driver intended to hit me.” The
Sheriff included it in his Accident Report. Penny lapsed into a coma and
remains hospitalized, unable to communicate.
You represent Penny’s family, and your automobile liability action
is ready for trial.
Is this evidence admissible at trial? Why or why not?
More tips about writing: Let’s
talk CRAC.
 (1) Every essay answer must substantively:
 State the RULE of law
 APPLY the rule to the facts
 Reach a CONCLUSION
 (2) But every answer must be organized in a
CRAC form.
Begin with the CONCLUSION
 Instead of an issue statement, just start with the
conclusion.
 The conclusion should be a restatement of the question
with a clear answer. A short heading is fine.
 Do not hedge. Be definitive!
 But what if I don’t know what my conclusion will be
before I do my analysis?
Set out the RULE of Law
 Use Kansas law.
 Default to common-law rules if you don’t know what
Kansas would use.
 Set forth the rule that governs the issue from your ruledriven outline or template and only the rule.
 Again, define legal terms contained in the rule.
 If you don’t know a law, make it up and apply it to the
facts while sounding like a lawyer.
Set out the ANALYSIS.
Apply the law to legally significant facts.
 Always, begin your application sentence with “Here,…”
 Avoid conclusory analysis and avoid just reciting the facts. Use
the following syntax/formula for a balanced analysis:
“Here, [insert legal conclusion] because [insert legally
relevant fact].”
 Do not leave facts on the table. And don’t paraphrase them if
possible.
 Be aware of the different levels of depth in your analysis.
Different levels of analysis
 Complete CRAC analysis
 All issues and sub-issues are discussed with complete rule
statements and in separate CRACs.
 Semi-complete CRAC analysis
 Similar as above but sub-rules statements are left out
 Truncated CRAC analysis
 All issues and sub-issues are discussed within one CRAC.
 Melded CRAC analysis
 Same as the truncated analysis except rules and analysis are
more closely inter-mingled. Only do this is if you’re desperate
for time. This will get you the very least amount of points.