AIBE 2018 demands your immediate attention. With just one month left for the exam, it is time to devise a preparation plan that helps you achieve that ultimate accreditation to practice in the Indian courtrooms.
Bar exams are the final real test after grueling years in law school. What’s worse? They can be extremely hard to crack. With bar exams like the New York Bar, California Bar being one of the toughest to pass around the world, with only 35% passing rate, in India we have our very own All India Bar Exam (AIBE) aimed at filtering the lawyers worthy of gaining the Certificate of Practice to appear before the courts.
In India as well, to officially practice law and become a licensed legal practitioner, you need to clear the bar exam before you can actually walk in those corridors wearing the coveted black gown. As opposed to contrary belief, the AIBE can be a tricky paper to attempt, and the passing rate is only close to 70%. I remember being highly stressed before writing AIBE as this was one single paper that all my five years of law school education depended on.
What good is a law degree if you cannot get a certificate to practice?
As AIBE for 2018 is soon approaching, I am sure there is equal amount of stress and curiosity among young graduates to ace this one final exam before officially becoming lawyers. Let us look at some of the basics of AIBE and then discuss the preparation strategies that can help you ace the dreaded exam easily.
Eligibility:
To take the bar exams this summer you have to fulfill dual criteria.
Firstly, all the candidates must have successfully completed their Three-Year LLB or Five-Year (Integrated) LLB programs from a Bar Council Recognized Institution only.
Secondly, eligible candidates need to enroll at their respective state bar associations and obtain a provisional certificate of enrollment by paying the requisite fees. The process takes approximately 30 days to 90 days (depending on which state bar association you want to enrol with), so if you have not yet enrolled then you should probably consider taking the exam next year.
Registration:
The registration for AIBE XII now closes on 15th May, 2018, 5:00 PM, after a recent extension. If you haven’t registered yet then you can visit this link and register immediately. Below is a list of documents required for registration:
- Self Attested Copy of a valid Address Proof
- Self Attested Copy of Passport Size Photograph
- Self Attested Copy of the Provisional Enrollment Certificate
All the documents need to scanned and uploaded on the website along with a bank payment receipt (SBI only) of INR 3650/- only.
Syllabus and Minimum Passing Score:
The syllabus includes all the BCI mandated courses and there is specific weightage assigned to each subject. The minimum score required to pass the Bar Exam is 40 and there is no ranking provided on the basis of merit. This means all students scoring 40+ will clear the bar exam and stand on the same pedestal. There will be no discrimination between a student scoring 41 and one scoring 99. You can check the syllabus and weightage here and you can also take a look at the preliminary preparatory materials provided by the bar council here and here. However, be well aware that the preparatory material was uploaded by the Bar Council in 2010 when the first AIBE was held and has not been updated to accommodate the subsequent pattern change of the question paper. Needless to mention that it’s an open book examination.
Preparation Tips and Strategies:
Since there is no merit based ranking and there is a specific weightage assigned for each topic, the bar exam becomes an exam for smart work and not hard work.
You can easily choose to leave out a few topics, focus on the main topics and just be updated about the topics with reasonably medium-high weightage.
What you will need to focus on is the fact that it is a three and a half hour exam and you have to answer at least 70-80 questions out of hundred with good accuracy to be safe. Let us see what all material can come handy to efficiently prepare for the exam.
Bare Acts – With around 20 bare acts, commentaries and a plethora of books and notes, it becomes a really tough call to decide what to take inside the hall to derive maximum benefit. Shuffling through a number of books, and looking up answers to each question in the bare acts can be extremely time consuming, and candidates must be on their toes (and fingers) throughout the entire duration.
Mocks and Past Year Question Papers – Another good strategy is to attempt a couple of mocks before the exam to get the look and feel of the exam. It is a Paper-Pencil objective type test where you need to put in your answers on an OMR sheet (just like CLAT). It is advisable to attempt a few mocks and time yourself beforehand to get the look and feel of the exam so that you don’t have to stress about any new thing on the D-Day.
If you’re interested in taking mock tests, here is a mock test series that not only has the past year question papers but also a number of mock tests that you can attempt from your phone!
MCQ Books – There is a bunch of material and books available offline which cater to the AIBE questions. I remember aspirants using heavy 1000 pages books for preparing for the exam, and solved hundreds of MCQs every day for each subject. However, I would not recommend being burdened by such extensive material, and to rely on simpler and more concise ones. One example of a good MCQ book is the one officially made available by the BCI. This black, almost 80 page book can be bought from the office of your State Bar Council, and should suffice as far as MCQ practice is concerned.
BarHacker – BarHacker is the go to option for all students who have chosen smart work over hard work, for AIBE. The only one week long course guarantees a 100% success rate, and even cashback for aspirants to do not manage to pass after using the course. With its uniquely designed concise list of materials, mock exams and previous years’ papers, and effective index to locate answers with ease, it is almost a cakewalk to pass AIBE after putting in just 20 hours with BarHacker.
HackSheets – No, it’s not what you think. AIBE is an open book exam and you are allowed to take any printed/handwritten material with you in the hall. What if instead of a suitcase full of books, you had few smartly designed and reliable sheets of paper that would help you locate the answers within seconds? The BarHacker course has these specific HackSheets, that help you achieve exactly that. With these hacksheets the job becomes so easy and quick!
Last but not the least, the Bar Council allows you to take a second and even third attempt of the test, so it’s better to not stress yourself. It’s just an exam after all. Talk to your seniors and get to know what helped them prepare for the exam. A recent aspirant has also written a review of the exam on her Facebook profile with some special mentions to the BarHacker so you can feel free to take a look at the review here.
The bar exam is a very comprehensive exam so all you need to do is be crystal clear with your concepts and enter the hall with a calm head and you will surely ace the test.
All the very best! See you in the courts!
