HOW TO PASS LAW ENTRANCE EXAMS!

ABOUT US
 THE LL.B PROJECT AND GHANA LAW TIMES

The LL.B Project comprises a community of seventeen (17) African lawyers who are passionate
about expanding access to legal education, enriching classroom curricular with law firm
mentorship programs and increasing access to justice through pro bono. The LL.B Project has
written to the Chief Justice and the Attorney General to make infrastructure improvement for law
schools a key priority. Every year the Project team offers public seminars on effective preparation
for law entrance exams and interviews; the objective is to demystify and promote the study of law.
Ghana Law Times (Voice of the Legal Profession) is the legal publication which analyzes legal
issues in Ghana and the Commonwealth.

Contact: 0263 940 165 / 0260 912 876 or on Facebook.

ETHICS

We are committed to observing high ethical standards in our annual law seminars and
tutorials. We can neither condone nor assist with any exam malpractice. Rather we shall
expose unethical acts and help public authorities to improve access as well as standards over
time.

CONSULTANTS

O.B. DICKSON, ESQ.

Dickson is a legal practitioner & consultant. He loves volunteerism, writing and debating. He
was educated at the University of Ghana, Ghana School of Law and Harvard University.

Law entrance exams held in Africa are one of his pet subjects. He has researched the subject
ardently, and is a leading expert and regional tutor to candidates since 2007. His assistance to
the LL.B Project extends to other West African law projects especially in Ghana and Liberia.

Dickson may be contacted on 0241 022 964, or by email at obdickson@gmail.com

THOMAS OFORI-AMANFO, ESQ.

Ofori-Amanfo is one of Ghana’s leading human resource consultants. He currently heads the
Human Resource Department of the Central University College. He has extensive experience
consulting for local firms and multinationals. He has since 2009 consulted for the Ghana law
Times and the LL.B Project Dickson may be contacted on 0244 628 716.
 ORIENTATION
The Law Entrance Exam consists of a 90-minute writing assessment. Each
candidate must produce two compelling essays, which will be assessed for
“proper use of language”, “clarity of thought” and “organization of material”.
Over the years the entrance exam has become one of the nation’s most
competitive exams. Passing it is probably the most crucial victory in the whole
admission process; put up a mediocre performance, and you’ll be ‘evicted’ for at
least a year— this makes passing the exam a truly exciting phenomenon.

We on the LL.B Project seldom congregate our students around past questions.
For one thing, these questions aren’t repeated. For another, the Faculty
customarily picks up issues occurring tu le monde — which we, as much as they,
have access to. Having applied ourselves in exam study groups over the exams,
we are of the opinion that, efficient preparation culminates in superior
performance and success. We started the annual tutorial many years ago on that
solid philosophy and our success proved us right.

The current format of the exams was created in the year 2000. To our knowledge
the exam has not received independent review despite its numerous flaws. The
LL.B Project and the Ghana Law Times (GLT) have followed the exams over the
years and attempted such a review.

ASSESSMENT OF THE LAW ENTRANCE

EXAMS
THE LL.B PROJECT has identified significant flaws with the Post First Degree
Law Entrance Exams (FLEE). For present purposes, we will touch on flaws that
go to form and not the substance of the exams.

Take a very critical look at the instructions issued to candidates who sat for FLEE
paper 2000 (the very first FLEE paper). The instructions to the candidates read,
(see bullet point 1) “Write essays on ANY TWO (2) of the questions below”.
There were actually only two (2) questions on the exam sheet for the entire
duration of the exam! What is the point? Did this flaw in the instruction,
negatively affect candidates, and the outcome of the exam? Yes, it did. Our
research revealed that some candidates were misled. Some actually thought more
questions were going to be provided later, only to discover much, much later to
their chagrin that, that was not the case. The problem lied in poor proofreading of
the instruction written by the Faculty itself. The correct instruction should actually
have been: “Write essays on the two (2) questions below” not “ANY TWO (2)”.

Now proceed to paragraph two (bullet point 2) of that same paper! The instruction
reads: “Answer the two questions on separate books” This instruction obviously
should have read, “Answer the two questions in separate booklets” (emphasis
ours). Admittedly, some grammatical blunders are fiendishly inevitable, however,
when the Faculty is emphatic that “proper use of language” is a basis of assessing
student essays, (and we support it) then basic grammatical slips on the part of the
Faculty itself, is unfortunately a disquieting flaw.

Again, take a critical look at the FLEE 2003 paper. Notice the misspelling of the
word “First” as “Firs”. Clearly, proof-reading was again a problem.

Sometimes the answer booklets are actually been described as ‘books’ (see 2000-
2003,) and then as ‘booklets’ (see 2004 and later 2005-8). This routine
inconsistency can be alleviated by the adoption of one or the other. Actually,
“booklets” is most appropriate. The 2010 uses “booklets”. Respectfully, we think
having elected to use “booklets” consistency should follow. We however noticed
that “in separate books” is at times underlined and at other times not. Obviously,
the impression any serious outsider will form will not be a flattering one.
Looking at the FLEEs of 2004 and 2010, we observed the following expression:
“INSTRUCTION TO CANDIDATES” and observed, however, the use of the
expression, “INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES” for the FLEEs of 2000,
2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. Obviously, the use of
“INSTRUCTION TO CANDIDATES” was incorrect; as more than one
instruction was expressed on the FLEE papers.

The use of inelegant and arbitrary fonts and font sizes is another seminal issue;
either the chosen fonts have tended to be too small (see 2000 and 2001) or simply
too large (see 2003, 2005). Again, the evidence points to lack of consistency and
inattention to detail.

There are other problems to do with erratic exam instructions issued to FLEE
candidates. For instance, in 2006, FLEE candidates were instructed not to write
their names or personal details anywhere in their answer booklets. The point of
significance is that, such a vital instruction was absent in 2000, 2001, 2002 2003,
2004, 2005 and particularly in 2008. Does it mean that in those years it was ok to
 scribble names and index numbers? Whatever the reason, we do not think erratic
instructions serve any great purpose.

These observations in no way whittle away our confidence in the Faculty. Future
FLE exams and the admission interviews will in our opinion get much better;
partly on account of independent reviews by the LL.B Project and partly because
we believe that the Law Faculty will take appreciable steps to ensure a less flawed
exam.

 YOU CAN LIFT THE EXAMS BAR HIGHER!

If you think it is difficult to impress those jaded examiners who will be assigned
the special task of reading and marking your essays, you are wrong. In fact it
turns out that there are some very specific ways to impress them with your
superior writing skills.
Again, based on confidential information elicited from past examiners of the
exam and from open sources, the highest scoring FLEE essays typically had seven
(7) things in common: good organization; proper diction; noteworthy ideas; good
vocabulary; sentence variety; length and a good number of paragraphs

 O.B. DICKSON’S NOW FAMOUS “50”

TECHNIQUES
‘Your Techniques Work’! That Is What past Candidates
Have Said.

Dickson’s 50 techniques are based on his ten (10) sub-techniques outlined below;
each of which he subsequently discusses in five components. They are based on
his annual successful and extensive tutoring experience with candidates! The
philosophy behind them has been proven time and again, and vindicated by the
successes of our candidates. To get their full benefit, you have to use them in the
manner he suggests and you will exceed your expectation. Now, lets’s roll…..

• THE TEMPLATING TECHNIQUE

 (How to successfully use templates)

• THE LAWYERING TECHNIQUE

(How to think like a lawyer; for 90mins)

• THE AUDIENCE APPRAISAL TECHNIQUE

(What you should about your audience)

• LEARNING FROM THE LAST WAR

TECHNIQUE (2000-2010)
(Reviewing the Good, the Bad & the Ugly Of
FLEE Pasco)

• THE PREEMPTIVE TECHNIQUE

(How to Use Templates to Solve
Mystery Questions)

• THE LOGICAL REASONING TECHNIQUE

(How to argue this or That Way, and
always be Right)

• THE TIME MANGEMENT TECHNIQUE

(How to Exploit the 90 Minutes and
Not Ask For Injury Time)

• THE BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE

 (Be Knowledgeable About Not Just
Current Issues but Any Issue)

• THE SUCCEESFUL CANDIDATE’S

TECHNIQUE
(Exploit the Examiner’s Weaknesses )

• THE 3 WISEMEN’S TECHNIQUE

(Taking time to consider Frankincense
,Gold and Myrrh)

“I like to think that the annual FLEE tutorials are really more
fun-filled and info-loaded than our handouts; probably one
reason why you need to attend my speaking engagements”.

- O. B. DICKSON

SUPPLEMENTARY ADVICE
• Always proofread your work

• Carry correction fluid

• Carry also a ruler

• Carry 2 Extra Pens and make sure they write

• Prayer Works, so pray for good composure

• Carry a time piece

• Let those of us on the LL.B Project know how it went

 THE AIMS OF ESSAY WRITING

What are the reasons for essay writing? Well, besides writing because we have to,
there are at least these four fundamental aims for writing: to inform, to persuade,
to express ourselves and to be creative. However on the Law entrance exams you
aim not just to do this, but to pass. Nonetheless, let’s explain the 4 aims briefly.

To inform: When I elected to write on law entrance exams, it was to inform

you. You’re being informed, aren’t you? Of course you are. Writers aim to give
facts and information or to explain something.

To Persuade: Writers may want to convince others about something; to agree

with them, or to take action. For instance if I was writing FLEE 2005, I certainly
will disagree with the proposition that “Ghana does not need any more lawyers”. I
will seek to persuade the essay reader that superficially, the proposition appears to
be the case; and then rely on statistical and non-statistical arguments to show that
on the contrary the country has a deficit. If on the contrary I’m inclined to support
the proposition, I’ll rely on an inductive and/or deductive reasoning approach to
prosecute my case.

To Express Ourselves: All essays are a major test of vocabulary or diction.

The view that essays are also art forms is linked to the fourth aim - Creativity.
Since 2000, the entrance examiners have asked candidates “Do you agree?”
Deliberately or by default they have appeared interested in the independent
opinion. It will be fatal to be ambiguous. “I agree with the…..,” “I concur with the
view that…..,” “I do not agree with the monolithic view that... In my opinion, a
plurality of factors underline the preponderance of conflict in Africa” “The
proposition is entirely correct. …” “I do not agree with the proposition that…..It
is not to say that…but…”. Express your view, explicitly.

To Be Creative: Use precision and concision to paint a compelling picture.

Use a combination of short and long sentences to create or convey a clear
message in your entrance essays