Why Keeping Up with Kim Kardashian Can Help with Essay Writing
Have you been keeping up with “The Kardashians”?
"The Kardashians" is a reality TV show centered around Kim Kardashian and the rest of the Kardashian-Jenner family.
The moguls’ fifth season premiered on Hulu on Thursday, May 23, with new episodes dropping every Thursday through the July 25 finale. It’s like a perfectly timed guilty pleasure for those preparing for the bar exam!
“The Kardashians” is the successor to the family’s original series, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” which first debuted in 2007 on the E! network and ran for 20 seasons until the show moved to Hulu and changed its show’s title.
The two shows are relatively the same, although there are some differences in production style and, of course, the period of the family's lives that each show documents.
Okay, if you haven’t been keeping up with the Kardashians, or Kim Kardashian specifically, I certainly don’t blame you.
But did you know that Kim Kardashian has been preparing to take the California bar exam?
California, where Kim Kardashian resides, is one of a handful of states that allows individuals to sit for the bar exam by participating in an “apprenticeship” program in lieu of attending law school. Since 2019, Kim Kardashian has been preparing for the exam though California’s Law Office Study Program by working with CNN commentator Van Jones and others focusing on criminal justice reform.
She’s also preparing for the exam with the help of BARBRI and some of its professors and private tutors.
In California, students preparing to become a lawyer through the Law Office Study Program, like Kim Kardashian, or students attending state-unaccredited law schools must pass the “baby bar” (officially called the “First-Year Law Students’ Examination”) after completing their first year of law study before being able to continue their education and ultimately be eligible to sit for the California bar exam.
Kim Kardashian passed the “baby bar” in 2021 and had been preparing for the main California bar exam—although it’s unclear exactly when she’ll take it. She originally had her sight set for the February 2025 bar exam, but reportedly had recently indicated that her plans are “on pause” because of because of her commitments with SKIMS, her other business ventures, and her four children.
But let’s not forget about Kim Kardashian’s triumph on the baby bar. Although it took her four attempts to pass the “baby bar,” she passed an exam that typically less than 20 percent of the applicants pass. That’s quite the achievement.
In fact, one of Kim Kardashian’s essays from the “baby bar” received almost a perfect score and was selected by the California bar examiners as a representative good answer for future examinees to review.
I have included a copy of Kim Kardashian’s response that was selected as a representative good answer by the State Bar of California. It’s a very solidly written response in almost all respects, substantively, structurally, and organizationally.
I encourage you to review the question and Kim Kardashian’s response.
I won’t go too much into the substantive law of the Criminal Law question, but here are some reminders from Kim Kardashian's selected response to make your own responses a bit stronger.
Make your response as easy to read as possible. Use paragraphs and headings to separate the major issues, and use subheadings to separate the minor issues or discussion points.
Follow CIRAC or CRAC. Have a structured and methodical format for each section of your response.
🛻 Don’t rule dump irrelevant legal principles in your rules section.
🚫 Make sure your Rules section only contains blackletter law principles (i.e., don’t include specific facts within your rules section). There should be no facts from the test question in your Rules section.
🏁 Incorporate words like “here,” “under these facts,” and “in this case” to introduce the beginning of your Analysis section.
👀 Develop the Analysis section by incorporating specific facts from the test question. Notice how the selected response not only incorporates the facts but also explains the significance and importance of those facts. Notice, too, how much long the Analysis section is compared to the length of the corresponding Rules section. This should always be the case.
⚖️ Provide counterarguments and anticipate and address weaknesses in your discussions.
🩸Her discussion of common law murder, particularly her discussion of malice aforethought, is very solid and methodical.
Remember: One of the best ways to improve your own bar exam essay writing is to review and deconstruct released representative good answers.
Where else can you find solidly written student responses from actual applicants?
Here are some of my favorite sources:
Colorado (Uniform Bar Exam)
Minnesota (Uniform Bar Exam)
New York (Uniform Bar Exam)
Ohio (Uniform Bar Exam)
Texas (Uniform Bar Exam)
