I survived

The bar exam is over, the celebration ended, and I'm back in D.C. I don't feel wonderful about the experience, but I feel like I at least have a shot at passing, so I'm just going to hold onto that hope and wait for the results in November.

So, my predictions were pretty spot on. The Constitutional law question was First Amendment, contracts was tested in two questions, and there was an entire criminal law question, but it wasn't tested quite to the extent that I thought it would be. I was very surprised that there was no Civil Procedure question, which was kind of disappointing since I usually do really well on those essays. The lack of civ. pro. was made even more disappointing by the appearance of a U.C.C. 9 question, although it wasn't as miserable as it could have been.

The part of the exam that worried me the most was that the guy sharing my table didn't wear a watch. There were also no clocks in the convention center, so I have no idea how he managed his time, and could figure out when to move on to the next question.

Thanks for all of the wishes of good luck and support throughout the summer, let's hope I don't have to do this again!

It's time

Today I'm heading to Baltimore to check into my hotel and get settled, and then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'll be taking the bar exam. Send positive thoughts my way on Tuesday, the essay day, I'll need them!

I'm finally nervous, and wish I could take the bar right now to just get it over with. I made myself a list the other day of a few specific points of law that I feel like I need to take another look at before the exam, so that's all I'm going to look at today. My predictions for the exam, based on reviewing past exams, are that if Constitutional Law is tested, the question will be about the First Amendment, and that criminal law and contracts (possibly combined with business associations) will be tested heavily. I'm hoping that the bar examiners continue the recent trend of not testing U.C.C. 3, 4 and 9 on the exam, although if they test any of them, I really hope it's 3 and 4 (negotiable instruments and bank/customer relations).

Now that I look at my predictions, I think I based them on the assumption that the bar examiners will test me on what I'm least comfortable with.

I'm not at all worried about the multiple choice, because in my mind, how I feel after tomorrow will be the real indicator of how the exam went. I hope I at least feel like I spotted all the issues, used all the facts, and came to a reasonable conclusion.

Wish me luck (although I'm not going to be on the internet until Thursday)!

Normal life resumes in 10 days

That sounds a little scary when I realize how little time I have left.  I'm looking forward to this being over though, and moving on to the next thing, which is New York! I just found out that I got all of my first choice classes for the fall semester, so I'm pretty happy. Hopefully I'll be as lucky with my spring classes.

Back to studying!

Last day of bar prep

Aside from one more full day essay practice test, my bar prep class is finished. I have 11 full days until the bar exam, and two weeks from today, I expect to be lying on my couch slightly hungover. I doubt that I'll really post a lot between now and the exam, because I have always been a procrastinator and a crammer, and over the next 11 days, I'll be doing essay questions until my brain explodes. While I'm cramming in the last tidbits of law, one of my good friends is about to begin an epic journey of his own, which is much more interesting and entertaining than mine. Scott is participating in the Mongol Rally, where a bunch of people purchase cheap cars with ridiculously small engines and drive them from London to Mongolia for charity. You can read about his adventures here. 

After almost two months of bar prep, here are some of my final thoughts:

1. Several people told me that the bar exam is like a marathon, not a sprint. This comparison didn't work well for me, because I finished a marathon and trained very inadequately (to the point where my boyfriend only came because I called him around mile 21 and told him to meet me at the finish line with Advil). Apparently I am capable of doing impressive things without appropriate training, so let's hope the bar exam is one of them! Also, I've "trained" waaaaay more for the bar than I did the marathon. 

2. First cousins can marry in Maryland. Ewwwwwwww.

3. Going to Puerto Rico in the middle of my studying was a good thing. I'm happy with my decision to take a bar prep class that encourages taking frequent breaks from studying. 

4. Even live lectures didn't make UCC Title 9 any more bearable.

5. It's past my bedtime.

17 days, and I'm a little stressed out now

I knew I'd start stressing out about the bar at some point, and I'd actually be a little worried if I didn't start to feel the pressure.  I had another full length practice multiple choice test today, and I got six more questions right this time than I did last time, and the score was high enough again to waive into D.C.  I think with a little more practice (because I'll be honest and admit that I've only done about 15 practice multiple choice questions since doing well on the last practice test, and am quite surprised my score still improved this time around), I should be able to do at least as well on the real exam.  I felt like I'd done poorly again today, so on July 30, when I'm convinced I've failed the bar and maybe only gotten five questions right out of 200, you can remind me that how I feel isn't necessarily a good indication of my performance.  And then you can not mention the bar again until I tell you the results sometime in November.

Another thing I've learned over the course of my bar studies is that it's actually very important to take breaks.  Even though I'm an excellent procrastinator, and I can always find something I'd rather do than study, by taking frequent breaks, studying doesn't get quite as old, and I feel pretty refreshed.  One of my good law school friends, who is not taking the bar until February, had a birthday this week, so yesterday, several of us went wine-tasting in Virginia.  I was a little skeptical about switching my off-study days (according to my study schedule, I get Sundays off, so now I had Friday off, and will be studying on Sunday), since I'm starting to feel stressed.  As soon as we got to the beautiful scenery though, I completely forgot about the bar.  Well, the bar exam.  I actually walked right up to the bars at the wineries, and tried probably 30 plus wines.  Don't worry Mom and Dad, over the course of the day, that was the equivalent of maybe 2-3 glasses of wine.

Even though we only went to four different wineries, I would highly recommend Virginia wine-tasting.  I went to Napa when I was in California, and although that was also a great experience, and very beautiful, it was at least two to three times the price of tasting in Virginia, much more touristy and busy, and just larger operations.  In Virginia, the most we paid for a wine tasting was $5 to try 12 different wines, and we also got to meet and talk with the owners of two of the operations.  I think if this whole lawyer thing doesn't pan out, my dream would be to acquire some ocean-front property where it is also possible to grow grapes, and then I will make wine and have a bed and breakfast.  Of course, I'll be starting that operation under a different name so the student loan people can't find me.

4th of July freak-out

Apparently, it's around this time that bar exam freak-outs are pretty common.  I'll admit, I'm starting to feel a little more stressed out about the amount that I feel like I need to do to pass the bar, and how I only have a little over three weeks left to get it all done.  I'm still not completely freaked out though, because I know that no matter how much I study, I'm never going to feel "ready" for the bar.  There will always be more that I can learn before the bar, and there are most certainly going to be questions on the bar to which I don't know the answers.  This doesn't concern me that much, because in three years of law school, I have honed a skill that I developed long before I even wanted to go to law school:  the art of B.S. (which I inherited directly from my father).  If I don't know what the law is, I'm supposed to just make something up.  Surprisingly, a lot of the time, the made up law is quite similar to the real law.

Another reason that I may be less concerned about the bar is that my plans for next year are not contingent on passing the bar.  This is a good and bad thing, because I don't have to stress out about the thought of having to tell an employer that I failed the bar, but at the same time, I'm not as motivated in my studying as I would be otherwise.  I just have to keep reminding myself of the pain of filling out the huge bar application though, and the thought of having to fill it out again if I fail is enough to keep me going for a little while longer.