The CARMA Method

If you come from a country where the school system is based on closed-book exams with open-ended questions, covering numerous topics at once (as it was in Italy in my years), then, you are probably already familiar with this method, and preparing for the U.S. bar exam won’t be so different.

Conversely, if you come from a country that favors open-book exams and/or quizzes, reading assignments, and research papers, then, the bar exam may be more challenging, and the CARMA method can be beneficial.

I believe this method works because it leads to knowledge which is a fundamental stone of the road to success. The idea of knowing something commonly implies the ability to handle it without instructions or guidelines, no matter if that something is a concept, a rule, or an activity. If I say I know the Pythagorean theorem, it means I can state it and apply it without help. If the name of the theorem sounds familiar but I need to “google” it, then I don’t know it. If I read it and understand its application, but then I need to read it again to be able to use it when needed, I still don’t know it. This applies both to topics learned in school and to everyday actions. If I need to follow a recipe every time I want to prepare a specific dish, I cannot claim I know that recipe. If I need to follow a navigator device to reach a destination, I cannot claim I know the route, and so on and so forth. The examples could be endless. The bottom line is that to be able to manage something without external assistance one needs to have understood and memorized the basic aspects of that concept or activity. This is why memorization is an essential and inevitable step in the knowledge process. To be clear, memorization alone is useless without understanding. Only the combination of these two steps allows us to apply general concepts to concrete cases, directly or by analogy. That said, I’m aware that the legal profession, like many other professions, requires multiple skills, not just knowledge. The NextGen UBE bar exam will test lawyering skills that the current exam doesn’t, such as client counseling and advising. But it will still test a variety of legal concepts and principles through multiple-choice questions, which will make up 49% of the final score. Hence, if understanding and memorization seem to be pushed out the door, they both come straight back through the window. In the end, all skills are useful, but they should be in addition to, not a replacement for, knowledge, and, again, there is no knowledge without memorization.

Finally, although much more captivating, especially in a classroom environment,

the maieutic/brainstorming method is certainly more time-consuming than memorization

through repetition. For this reason, CARMA includes application as the final step, after

the understanding and memorization process, not at the beginning. I found that taking

MBE practice questions after having memorized principles and rules was much more

efficient than trying to infer principles and rules from questions. Also, this method allowed

me to gauge where I stood on the preparation process and reduce the margin of

unpleasant surprises.