250+ Best Bar Exam Mnemonics?
Enter Crushendo

By Adam Balinski
Updated: October 6, 2021

Over the years, Crushendo Bar Review Prep has crafted hundreds of creative and memorable mnemonics. They blow other mnemonics you may find online out of the water. Our memory hooks are more effective and come with engaging illustrations. We’ll highlight five favorites here.

Mnemonic #1 – Dude Breaks Acting
Professor’s DeLorean

This first bar exam mnemonic lays out the elements of negligence, a highly tested rule on the bar exam.

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Negligence is how Dude Breaks Acting Professor’s DeLorean.

• Dude – Duty.
• Breaks – Breach.
• Acting – Actual cause.
• Professor’s – Proximate cause. And,
• DeLorean – Damages.

*You must prove each of these five elements by a preponderance of evidence—that they’re more likely than not.

Mnemonic #2 – RAP

This next bar exam mnemonic will help you know when some hearsay is admissible due to declarant unavailability, another highly tested rule on the bar exam.

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These exceptions never apply if the party offering the hearsay wrongfully caused the unavailability.

What do we mean by unavailability?

Absence or tight lips. FRE 804(a).

• Absence. Obviously, you’re unavailable if dead or too sick to come. But you’re also unavailable if the party offering the hearsay made reasonable efforts to get you to court without success.
• Tight lips. There are three types of tight lips: RAP.

• • Refusal in the face of court order. “Fine me, lock me up, but I ain’t gonna leak.”
  • Amnesia – “Your honor, I cannot recall. My memory’s weak.” Or,
  • Privilege – “Sorry, the judge says that’s protected. I’m privileged not to speak.”

Mnemonic #3 – Monkeys Steal Fancy Rings

Remember: Monkeys Steal Fancy Rings, which reminds you what sequence or order to read the materials in each Multistate Performance Test (MPT) to maximize efficiency on that part of the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE).

• Monkeys – Memo.
• Steal – Statutes.
• Fancy – Facts.
• Rings – Rest of library.

You can watch the Tips & Tricks video that introduces the mnemonic here.

Mnemonic #4 – CRAAZE

This bar exam mnemonic helps you understand a key rule in real property law.

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At closing, unless contracts say otherwise, or the buyer otherwise waives the right, sellers must provide marketable title. Reasonable doubt about title legitimacy destroys marketable title.

Examples. Reasonable doubt often exists when the seller is totes CRAAZE!

• CR – Contingent remainders – When the property is subject to a contingent remainder.
• Adverse possessors – When even part of the property is adversely possessed.
• Access issues – When the property is not reasonably accessible.
• Zoning violations – When the property has zoning violations. Or,
• Encumbrances – When the property is encumbered by a lien, restrictive covenant, easement, or other encumbrance.

Mnemonic #5 – Privacy Rights Memory Palace

Crushendo uses memory palaces in addition to phrase-based and acronym-based mnemonics. Memory palaces trigger your powerful spatial memory by having you visualize places and things which symbolize and cement key concepts. What follows is a memory palace mnemonic that highlights the key strict scrutiny-protected privacy rights tested on the bar exam.

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Overcome by curiosity, you break open the closet door to find out what privacy rights protect. Turns out, it’s not a closet at all, but a reception hall. You see a happy bride showing off an ultrasound, a family posing for a photo, and a dad scolding some cake-covered kids. Embarrassed for barging in, you drop your head and turn to leave. On the way out, you notice a bottle of meds and a racy magazine in a trash can.

• The bride? The right to marry is protected by strict scrutiny.
• The ultrasound? The right to procreate, buy and use birth control, and have sexual relationships (both in and out of marriage, whether heterosexual or homosexual in nature) is protected by strict scrutiny.
• The posing family? The right to keep family together is protected by strict scrutiny.
  • Family includes anyone you’re legally related to, including extended family.
• The cake-covered kids? The right to control how you raise your kids is protected by strict scrutiny.
  • Parental control includes the right to keep kids out of public school and keep grandparents away.
• The bottle of meds? The right of competent adults to refuse medical care is protected by strict scrutiny.
  • Refuse medical care does not mean you have a right to doctor-assisted suicide. You have no constitutional right to any form of suicide.
  • States can require clear and convincing evidence of intent to refuse treatment before ending it. States may also keep family members from terminating each other’s treatment.
  • In contrast to the right to refuse medical care, the right to medical care is not a fundamental right protected by strict scrutiny.
• The racy magazine? The right to have and use obscene material—as opposed to distributing or selling it—is protected by strict scrutiny.
  • Laws against child porn normally satisfy strict scrutiny though.

The Take Home

As you can see, Crushendo’s bar exam mnemonics are more creative and effective than the other mnemonics you may have come across during law school, or through other bar prep programs or random student-made lists online. Not only does Crushendo offer the best bar exam mnemonics but makes each mnemonic into visual, online flashcards, like the following:

Crushendo also delivers each of its 250+ bar exam mnemonics in audio form through our innovative audio outlines and audio flashcards.

Take a listen to a short sample or two, or check out some of our reviews.

How to Access All 250+ Bar Exam Mnemonics

Crushendo’s Bar Review Prep course is not just more creative and effective, it comes with a more affordable price tag than our more conventional competitors. Visit our shop page to see for yourself!

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