Bar exam advice

I can't believe it has already been a year since I took the bar. Time sure flies when you have a baby...

Right now (this very minute), dozens of my law school friends are frantically squeezing in their last few days of bar prep. They are stress-eating and pounding caffeine, poring over outlines, reviewing essays and taking practice MBEs, hoping that they have "done enough." They are having test-anxiety nightmares, afraid that they will forget everything that they have learned in the past two months as soon as they sit down and open the first page of the exam. Like hundreds of other law students across the country, they are questioning their intelligence, their decision to attend law school, and their sanity.


For all of these students, I have this advice:*


-People will tell you to relax. This is impossible. If you try to relax, you will feel guilty that you aren't studying because you know that other people out there are studying. If you try to relax, you will start to make lists in your head of all the things you still don't know well enough to write an essay about. This will stress you out even more. Don't relax. 


-For each topic, make sure you have a sense of the big picture. There is no possible way for you to fit every rule, every element, every factor into your brain. If you work on the micro-details of one subject, your brain will jettison important information about other subjects to make room. What matters is the big picture. For each topic, make sure you know the broad strokes - things that will appear in an essay on that topic, no matter what the subject is (e.g. intent in a Criminal Law question or negligence in a Torts question). From there, you can add the rules and details, but the big stuff is the most important. 


-Remember, it is impossible to address every issue in an essay. The test is intentionally written so that you can't get "all" the points. One hour is way too short. It's more important for you to identify the big stuff and write about what you know. Don't worry about leaving things out, because you inevitably will. This is normal.


-Remember that you can bomb one section and still pass the test. First off, when people say they "bombed" part of the test, generally speaking they just wish there were things they had done better. Even if your mind goes blank, you can still piece together some intelligible drivel about some aspect of the question that remotely deals with the area of law that you think is being tested. It's what you have practiced doing for the past three years. Regardless, remember that the test is cumulative. If you don't do as well on one section, but do well on another, you won't necessarily fail. What matters is not letting a sub-par performance in one section bring you down mentally or emotionally on the next. If you don't do as well on one part, pour your energy into the next part to make up for it.


-Finally, leave it on the field. People always used to say this when I played high school sports, and I have found it to be helpful advice regarding the bar exam as well. Put everything you have into the test, but when it's over, let it be over. As soon as you leave the exam, you will think of an issue on an essay that you missed. You will finally remember that random rule for that MBE question. You will realize that you left off a heading in your performance test, or that you forgot to run spell check on your last essay. No one comes out of the exam thinking that they aced it. The worst thing you can do to yourself is spend the four months after the exam beating yourself up over things you cannot change. If possible, you must immediately forget everything on the test, and everything that you wrote. Trust me, it's better that way.


In these last few days, there is nothing that anyone can say or do that will make you feel like you are fully prepared. Just remember that in a few days it will all be over, and you can return to real life again - you can get back on Facebook, watch television, spend time with friends, go out for drinks... and not feel guilty that you aren't studying. Hopefully that, if nothing else, will get you through the next few days. No matter what, GOOD LUCK!

*Disclaimer (of course there is a disclaimer): This advice is based purely on my own experience and in no way constitutes a promise that following this advice will ensure that you pass the bar, or even that you will feel better about taking it. Mostly this is just for peace of mind.