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1. Posted by Mike - 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 18 hours, 22 minutes ago

   After one day on the NY bar exam, one day of multiple guess and one day of NJ I was beat (I never understood how someone could pass NY but fail NJ until then - sheer exhaustion). I left the bar exam and headed to a real bar where my wife, who had taken and passed the bars the previous year, was waiting with shots for me and some friends. As we lived in the city, and didn’t have a car, we planned to take the bus to Port Authority and subway back to Brooklyn. No, no, said one of my friends - I have my car and there’s plenty of room. Cool. Until the other guys got in. All the way back to NY all they did was talk about the bar exam. And that nervous feeling in my stomach was getting worse. At one point, while we were on the Lincoln Tunnel viaduct, I contemplated jumping out of the car and seeing if one of the city bound buses would pick me up. As soon as we got into the city, I told my friend my wife and I decided to get dinner in Manhattan. I couldn’t get away fast enough. I passed NY & NJ as did my friend. No clue about our fellow carpoolers. The exam left me scarred for life - to this day, over a decade later, I still hate going to the Javits Center.

2. Posted by QJC - 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 15 hours, 32 minutes ago

   The California bar exam is known to be a toughie.  Personally, I don’t think it was that hard.  I didn’t have any trouble at all passing it on my second try.  (Pause for laughter . . .)

   Being one of many that took two bites at the apple to pass the CA bar, I can say that I have pretty sour memories of pretty much everything associated with it (study places, the hotel I stayed at, the test center).  On the flip side, I will always be partial to those places that served me well on my second try. 

   It may not be rational, but I always curse a little under my breath when I pass that spaceship-looking St. Mary’s church in San Francisco.  She will always be my bane, and the impersonal Sacramento Expo Center will always be my ally.

3. Posted by MD - 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

   23 years ago, after an LLM in NY and three weeks of BARBRI courses, I had to go home abroad for the funeral of my previous girlfriend who had tragically died.  When I returned, I was in no mood to study and missed most of the remaining classes.  Of course, I failed the exam and I steeled myself to take the January exam.  My firm (where I still work) did not hold it against me even though I had not really told anyone the reason.  But imagine my surprise when a few weeks later I saw my name in a (very) short additional “pass” list in the NYSBA Journal:  some unknown soul had complained about the grading of one answer, and had prevailed.  That was enough to change the outcome for me:  I had passed after all.  Who-ever it was:  Thank you!  Most of my clients don’t know how little I know… ;-)

4. Posted by Jaded - 5 months, 1 week, 1 day, 2 minutes ago

   I liked the bar exam so much I took it twice.  The first experience was bad enough.  I shared a table with another test taker who was on his 3rd attempt.  He was a constant leg shaker and bathroom break taker.  The table constantly moved for two days.  Every 15 minutes, this gentlemen got up to take a break.  The first day of the exam - held in a conventional hall - the lights were dim and someone realized by the second day that there was an extra set of lights that could be turned on.  During the 2nd day testing, the local fire fighting squad began training in the adjacet parking garage and used our convention hall as a through way, while their walkie-talkies squelched endlessly.

   I passed on the 2nd go around with nothing remarkable about the testing - except on the way home I flipped my truck and nearly wrecked the lives of my wife and me.  My Firm rejected my effort to expense the truck.

5. Posted by Patent Lawyer - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 55 minutes ago

   I was at the top of my class in law school, won many book awards, etc. Therefore, I wasn’t worried about the bar exam when I took it.

   I was so un-worried about it that I decided getting drunk after the first day would be a good idea. I woke up at 6:00am the second day with quite possibly the worst hangover of all time.

   I walked into the test room looking like a bag of male genitalia. Various friends saw me, laughed at me, and informed me that I would fail.

   When I started the exam, the words began to swim. I couldn’t follow the fact patterns. I had to take notes next to fact patterns to even follow them. On top of that, I had to get up to puke in the bathroom several times.

   I ate a little at lunch. It didn’t really help how I felt. I finished the test and decided not to worry about anything—when I discussed questions with smart friends, it seemed like I had all the same answers that they did.

   I passed. I actually got a 165 on the multi-state (the day I took hungover). So the moral of the story is, perhaps, drinking isn’t so bad?

6. Posted by Lawyer - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 48 minutes ago

   For some reason, this site keeps thinking my story is spam.

   The short short version: I drank heavily after the first night, took the second day with a large hangover, and still got a 165 on the multi-state (the day I took with a hangover). I passed the bar exam by over 30 points. So, have a beer, guys. It won’t hurt you.

7. Posted by BCL - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 41 minutes ago

   On my way to the second day of the NY exam at the Javits Center, I was pick pocketed.  Bar Exam seat ticket - gone, ID - gone.  I’d lived in NYC for four years, and of course that day had to be the day I was pick pocketed.  I’m half surprised I didn’t die of a heart attack on the spot when I reached for my wallet and there was nothing.  I was able to cry my way through the Javits Center security, but the fear that they may not let me sit was enough to rattle me for the morning.

8. Posted by BC - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 38 minutes ago

   I passed the bar on the first try.  The first day we had a performance exam and a number of essays.  I figured based on my performance exam that had that been my client, he would have ended up in jail.  Then I looked at the essays, made up some law, and reflected at the end of the day with the ol…well I’ll be back in February.  Then during the multistate on day two, I went through the entire exam pretty much guessing on every question.  I remember thinking, “Dear Lord, this looks nothing like the Bar/Bri or PMBR questions.”  Needless to say I was stressed for 3 months until the results came out.  But then they did, I passed by over 40 points.

   Some people say that once you take the bar and pass, you will realize that it wasn’t that hard.  To them I say…you are NUTS!  I never want to do that again…EVER.  Thank God for reciprocity.

9. Posted by Richard J. Brickwedde - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 31 minutes ago

   My bar review course was just off NY’s Times Square.  Unfortunately, a month or so before the bar, I had walked through a poison ivy patch in my bare feet.  Not knowing why my feet and shins were itchy, I proceeded to rub it in.  I was living on west 66th street and exhausted all supplies of zinc oxide in drug stores between 72nd st and 34th st. in Manhattan.  I would spend my days with my feet elevated on the air conditioner and venture forth to the bar review course in shorts with my feet and shins gooked up wearing sandals whose straps were bound with gauze to keep from breaking the skin which was like wet tissue paper.  I knew what a freak feels like in NYC.  People just stared.

   Then we landed a man on the moon the Sunday night before the monday start of the bar exam.  We had to stay up until they actually exited the lunar lander and took one giant step for mankind.  Unfortunately, the rumors that the bar exam would be delayed because of the lunar landing were not true, but I passed anyway.

10. Posted by Burghlaw - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 29 minutes ago

    I took that California Bar Exam at the LAX Hyatt in February 1990.  On the second day, during the afternoon session of the multistate bar exam, there was an earthquake magnitude 5.3 (if I remember) that hit Pomona some 30 miles east.  The room was so quiet you could not mistake the movement and the shaking of the ballroom chandaliers for the earthquake. 

    The monitors told us to keep working, which I did.  Many others jumped under their tables.  I recall one test taker in front of me jumping under the table.  I then watched as her hand came out searching for her test papers, finding them, and then grabbing them to take under the table with her where she continued working. 

    California ended up not counting the afternoon session toward the bar exam score because other test centers had to evacuate. 

    One of my favorite war stories.

11. Posted by RAU - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 26 minutes ago

    During the evening of the first day of the Ohio bar exam last year I was in my hotel room trying to concentrate (studying for the next day’s MBE portion) and already having a hard time doing so because of a live band playing outside the hotel.  Soon it became even harder to concentrate when - in between songs - I heard some funny noises coming from somewhere around me.  When I started paying attention to the source of the “funny noises” I realized they were coming through a door connecting my room to an adjacent room.  Upon further investigation I truly ascertained what was going on next door.  Two ladies (not sure whether or not they were bar exam takers) were - let’s just say - having too much fun (please read between the lines).  The “fun” stopped about 10 minutes later and restarted about 45 minutes later.  Needless to say, I could not study for the rest of the evening but I managed to do very well in the MBE portion of the exam (the next day) and pass.

12. Posted by upstateny - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 16 minutes ago

    I spent the summer studying for the bar in an apartment I shared with my then-boyfriend.  We had always had problems with the people below us blasting their stereo.  But for some reason, this summer was different.  Most days went by very quietly without the sound of their thumping stereo.  Too busy studying (and stressing!), I never noticed.  It wasn’t until months after I took the bar did my boyfriend tell me that every time he heard the stereo turn on while I was studying, he would go to the basement of our building, flip the switch to the circuit breaker, and give the neighbors a “black out” for a few hours so I could study in peace.  I had no idea and apparently, neither did our clueless neighbors who just assumed the building kept losing power all summer!

13. Posted by Andy the Lawyer - 5 months, 1 week, 23 hours, 2 minutes ago

    Taking the bar exam was easy.  The hard part was enduring the endless moment between opening the letter from the State Bar four months later, and reading it to learn I had passed.

14. Posted by Georgia - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 52 minutes ago

    During the 2003 Georgia bar, the fire alarm in the exam room went off.  I think it lasted 45 seconds or so.  Not one of the hundreds of test-takers (including me) left their seats.  Most that I could see kept writing.

15. Posted by Ed - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 38 minutes ago

    Many years ago I was taking the Bar exam in DC because NY was not part of the multi-state at that time (I said it was many years ago).  During the last session of a very long day about 400 of us were in on of Georgetown Law’s largest lecture halls.  As it got closer to the end throughout the hall came highly audible grunts,  groans and comments such as “you have to be “s…ing” me”.  I found out why when I reached the next to last question.  It had to do with the “Rule in Shelly’s Case” and no-one could believe that the examiners would pull that one on us.

16. Posted by MEM - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 37 minutes ago

    As if sitting for the bar exam wasn’t stressful enough, the Friday before the exam, my wife and I found out she was pregnant with our second child—the .001% chance that Ortho-TriCylene would be ineffective.  I had a clerking job lined up with a well-known firm, set to begin the week after the exam. But, there were no guarantees that I would be hired on as an attorney at that point in time, and since I was considered a contract employee, there were no benefits.  The only health insurance we had was major medical and it specifically excluded pregnancy care.

    Everything turned out fine in the long run.  The firm kept me on and promoted me.  The firm’s insurance picked up the tab and we only had to pay a little more to have a private room at the hospital.  Best of all, I now have two little girls waiting at the door every night when I get home to give me the biggest hugs they can.

17. Posted by Lynn - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 30 minutes ago

    Multiple “disasters”, natural and man-made, occurred when I took the second day of the NJ bar exam in July 1984 at Rider College, near Trenton.  When they went to start the afternoon session, they discovered that they had the wrong test booklets, so we had to wait for an hour or so for the correct booklets to arrive.  But that wasn’t all.  The power went out during that session.  Fortunately, the room we were in had plenty of natural light (I think it was a cafeteria), and this was before the days of laptops, so everyone just kept writing.  But we were in the midst of a heat wave (with high humidity), and, even with the windows open, the room quickly became a steam bath.  My brain was already fried from 2 days of the PA exam, and I thought I was going to pass out by the end of the session, but somehow I passed.

18. Posted by MommyEsq - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 21 minutes ago

    I discovered I was pregnant (quite by surprise) on the second morning of the bar exam.  At first I thought I was late due to the stress, but a test that morning confirmed it.  Apparently in my studying zeal I neglected to pay enough attention to my birth control.  I was definitely distracted while taking the MBE that day!  Thankfully the essay portion, which I had completed the previous day, was the tougher part for me - I passed the exam.

19. Posted by Jade - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 21 minutes ago

    Mine is not exciting or anything, but I simply could not sleep the night before the bar exam. I was determined to be asleep by 10, but I had so much anxiety that I couldn’t. I had gotten a massage AND drank a glass of red wine… didn’t want to take any sleeping pills or I might oversleep. I spent the night tossing and turning and watching the clock until about 4:30 am when I finally drifted off. Fortunately my mind was so wired that I didn’t doze off during the test, but I was paranoid and stressed that’s for sure. As someone else said, I NEVER want to do that again!

20. Posted by J - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 17 minutes ago

    To the pregnancy people - if I were your wife I would not tell you until AFTER the exam - Who needs the added stress???

    And there’s no way I would take a pregnancy test the morning of the exam either. Too much to stress about sheesh!

    No offense though. Congrats! :-)

21. Posted by Michael White - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 7 minutes ago

    My experience was not hilarious or disastrous.  More like pathetic.  I took the California bar in 1996.  On day 2 (multi-state), I foolishly thought that using my lunch break time to get in a little studying was a good idea.  So I went out to the parking lot and sat in my car quizzing myself on whatever I was panicked about at the time.  But my biggest mistake was not studying in vain.  Rather, it was turning on the car radio while studying. 

    This might not be funny or even interesting unless you know the song I’m talking about, but as I sat in my car, the song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega came on the radio.  If you don’t know the song, it can only be described as that 90’s pop song where a female sings in a near monotone voice, and the chorus is made up entirely of “doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo….” etc.  If you do know the song, you’ll know that it’s one of the world’s toughest songs to get out of your head.

    So, for the next two hours I was tortured with that stupid “doo doo doo…” running around and around my head while I answered multiple choice questions (no doubt due in large part to my chronic ADD). 

    Anyway, it was literally driving me crazy, but there was nothing I could do about it.  So I did the only thing that a shrewd future lawyer could do to try to minimize the impact of the distraction on my chances of passing the bar.  At the next short break, I turned to the woman next to me and said “Hey, do you know that song ‘Tom’s Diner’ by Suzanne Vega?”

22. Posted by Ron - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 5 minutes ago

    When I took the train to get to the hotel for the bar exam, my ticket expired and I had to walk another ten minutes to get a new one, and at this point, I felt something ominous. When I finally made it to the site, the clerk looked at my ID and said that there was a problem with it (in Ilinois, after your driver’s license expires, the state sends you a sticker for the back with the new term) and this confirmed that the stars were not aligned in my favor.  After much discussion, I was allowed to sit for the exam.  And that’s when the street repair crew got its jackhammer started.  Of course, I had to take the test again.
    However, the weirdest thing that happened was when I took the patent bar exam and it was held in a government building on a hot day.  The air conditioning did not work and the clerks would not open any windows.  Sweating, I opened a few buttons on my shirt and then ended up taking off my shirt.  After the test was over, I started to put on my clothes and for the first time noticed that everyone, men and women alike, were doing the same thing.  Most people were sitting in their underwear and no one noticed until the test was over!  Talk about concentration!

23. Posted by I'm not really here - 5 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 5 minutes ago

    My story really has to do with the aftermath of the exam.  Taking the exam was hellish enough, since, although I had applied to the First Department (NY lawyers know what I mean), I had to take the exam at Brooklyn Law (there wasn’t enough room in Manhattan in those pre-Javits Center days), and I lived in Jersey.
    So after suffering through 2 days of a killer commute (car, train, PATH, subway) I wait for the results.  One fine autumn morning, on my way to the train station, I pick up the NY Times and see the THE LIST.  I go to the First Department column…and my name isn’t there.  I figure, maybe I’m on the Second Department list, since I took the test in Brooklyn.  No dice.  My train comes and goes.  I’m contemplating throwing myself under the next train, when I notice there’s another list. Those were the people who had passed, but hadn’t completed the residency requirement, and I’m on it.  HALLELUJAH!!!

24. Posted by Pomona CA Earthquake Survivor - 5 months, 1 week, 21 hours, 53 minutes ago

    To No. 9:  I also took the Cal. bar at the Pomona Fairgrounds, the epicenter of the earthquake.  When the quake began, the lights flickered then went out, several people screamed, and the proctor told all of us to leave the building immediately (there were several hundred people taking the test).  I wanted to stay, however, because I was almost done, even though there was over an hour left (I’m pretty quick).  Anyway, they threw out the second half of the multi-state and only 49 percent passed the bar for that sitting—I was one of the few who did, so the quake was my “lucky day.”  That evening aftershocks continued and several people in my hotel ran from their rooms outside.  The bar continued for the third and final day, however, and all was good in the world….

25. Posted by Erin - 5 months, 1 week, 21 hours, 38 minutes ago

    New York, July 2003.  My roommate, not a bar taker, went on an extended vacation for nearly all of July, leaving me to study for the bar exam at home in peace.  I bought an air conditioner and created an incredibly warm, inviting space in my bedroom to study. 

    All was going quite well until about 5 days before the bar exam, when most of Queens (where I live) and some other areas of the city, lost all power.  No lights, no refrigeration, no air conditioning, no warm water/shower.

    Studying by candlelight was not the worst thing in the world.  No air conditioning, and not even a fan to move the hot air, thick with moisture, around in my apartment, was not fun.  But then it was the night before the bar exam, and still no power.  That meant, no warm shower and no alarm to ensure I woke up in time to get to the bar exam at the Javitz Center.  I arranged for 4 people to call me on my cellphone (which I had been taking a friend’s apartment in Manhattan to charge every other day) the morning of the bar exam, and set the alarm on my phone for early that morning.  I made it to day one fine, and got ready for day two.

    At about 8:00 p.m. after the first day of the exam, I heard loud drilling and other machinery just under my window.  When I looked out, I saw it was a ConEd truck.  They were working on the power!  I was so excited - until I realized that they weren’t going to stop working.  I had earplugs in and an eye pillow over my eyes, but at 4:00 a.m. they were still working and I was still wide awake. 

    Suddenly, at about 4:15 a.m., every electronically powered appliance and light in my apartment went on.  I walked through every room in the apartment, turning lights and tvs and radios off, and then settled in for less than 2 hours’ sleep before day two of the bar exam.

    Four months later I got the news that I passed.  I was a little bummed, as I had spent so much time crafting - in my mind only - my lawsuit against ConEd for negligent infliction of emotional distress! (For those of you with the urge to write and correct me, I am well aware that my suit would not have succeeded! But a girl can dream, right?).

26. Posted by Tom - 5 months, 1 week, 21 hours, 37 minutes ago

    Way back when I took the SC Bar in 1992, I had spent the month or so prior to it studying in a review course by day and with my friend Kevin afterwards. The SC Bar had 3 portions - the MBE the firsrt day and then 3 substantive essays on SC law the next two days.  After 5 of the SC exam questions and just one remaining question affter 3 LONG days, Kevin and I were going to lunch and started arguing about a case in the advance sheets - we grabbed lunch, pulled the case and discovered one of us was arguing the appellate decision and the other the Supreme Court decision. The Gods were smiling on us. The final question of the bar exam was based on the exact same case.  Needless to say, we both finished early, in style and were in the parking lot feeling pretty good abourselves and drinking beer a good 30 minutes before the next person came out.

27. Posted by Mom of two - 5 months, 1 week, 21 hours, 21 minutes ago

    Finding out I was pregnant the last day of BarBri was a surprise. Throwing up nonstop over the last two weeks of cramming was counter-productive. Running to the bathroom to throw up AT the bar exam was scary, as I thought I would get kicked out for cheating. Getting a passing score was priceless.

28. Posted by Multi-Bar Member - 5 months, 1 week, 21 hours, 16 minutes ago

    After taking and passing the CA and PA bar exams successively, I sat for the NJ bar exam as required by my Philadelphia firm.  During the final MBE portion, and having recently taken the two other bar exams, I recognized virtually all of the fact patterns of the MBE, so I knew I would not need to review my answers.  I was the first to finish the test with about two hours left.  When I went to the exit door, the monitor told me I could not return if I left.  I told him I was done with the test and was leaving; he again said you cannot return if you leave and I told him again I was done.  He looked at me a little surprised, finally got it, and I left.  I’m sure other people thought I was a genius for leaving so soon, and I could tell the guys next to me looked nervous when I confidently gathered my belongings as I was about to leave.  Little did they know… I passed of course and could now teach a bar review course.

29. Posted by Albany deep freeze - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 46 minutes ago

    A Southerner in Albany in the dead of February, early 1990s. I took 2 days off from my judicial clerkship in the South to go sit for the New York bar before going to work for a Wall Street after the clerkship.
    Albany is a cold place to be in February.
    I had borrowed a set of the Bar-BRI books from a friend to study but otherwise knew diddly about New York’s many legal peculiarities.
    The exam was on Tuesday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Thursday, I don’t recall which. (The Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, theoretically a day of fasting for many, which struck me as peculiar since this was just about the time that New York controversially rescheduled the summer bar exam because it coincided with an Hasidic holiday involving fasting that could put a handful of bar candidates at a blood-sugar deficit. The rescheduling meant that numerous candidates that summer were prevented from taking the dual admission option (like Mike in this post) in which everyone took the multistate on a Wednesday, and on the Tuesday and Thursday they could take both the New York portion and either Connecticut or New Jersey ... but I digress.)
    The night before the first part of the exam, I fiddled around with the unfamiliar heating controls in my hotel room to warm the place up. Instead, I woke in the middle of the night with my teeth chattering. The room was freezing – as I figured out later, I had inadvertantly turned off the heat. Too befuddled to do anything about it I just shivered on until the pale dawn.
    Word was that the pass rate for the February exam in New York was about 50% – the better students had already passed in July (as had I in a different state). We would be seated at tables for two, so the joke was that tablemates should get a good look at each other because one of you would fail. My tablemate introduced himself with the spooky question, “So, which time is this for you?” I honestly replied that it was my first. He said, “It’s my fourth time.” I couldn’t resist whispering just a teensy little “YES!!!” to myself.
    Indeed, as luck would have it, I was the one who passed. Haven’t been back to Albany since.

30. Posted by PK - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 30 minutes ago

    I took the NY Bar Exam in the Javits Center
    Here’s what I can’t remember:
    (1) My mode of transportation to the test center
    (2) At the 2-person table, the sex of my tablemate and whether he/she sat to my right or left
    (3) What I ate for lunch on either day
    (4) If I spoke to anyone on either day
    IT WAS A BLUR.  But, here’s what I remember:
    (1) During the lunch break on the NY Day, hearing people talk about the “issues” they spotted.  I walked away.
    (2) Not planning my way home after the 1st day.  I took any bus that was headed to my borough.  Got off in an unfamiliar area.  Walked to a train station.  Hopped on a train and subsequently missed my stop because I thought I could get some study time in.  Had to hop off and go to the other side of the tracks and catch another train.  Got home at 8:30pm.
    (3) People doing the “100 yard dash” from the front of the cavernous test “room” to go to the restroom.  And doing the same thing to return to their seats.
    (4) Spotting a dozen or so empty seats whose occupants did not show up for Day 2’s afternoon session.  It affected me for a few seconds but I kept my focus. 
    (5) Hearing somebody cry and watching her leave.  I felt for her. 
    (6) On the phone with my wife while simultaneously on the internet to look up the results….I passed!  She was so happy for me that she cried.  I’ll never forget that.

31. Posted by John E. Gotherman - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 24 minutes ago

    I passed the bar in Ohio in 1991.  I was a commisioned officer in the U S Air Force on active duty for two years between my 1st and second and third year in law school.  First year at Ohio State and second and third year at a law school which eventually became Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio.  Needless to say the I was worried about the long break in my law school education.  Since I worked directly across from the Ohio Supreme Court Walked across the street on the first day the results were available.  I gave the court employee my name and several minutes latter they said my results were not in the pile of exams on their table.  I assured them that I had taken the exam and a second search also failed to produce an exam for me.  Then the Clerk of the Supreme Court, siting a the rear of the room asked my name.  I told him and he said “I have your examination, you finished second and we are calling the news wires with the top two finishers. Here look at it”  All this took fifteen minutes or more.  All I can say is that I was happy to have passed.  I finished second to a Harvard Law School Grad who scored one half point ahead of me, as I remember it.  I blew a trust question. It was the only course I did not spend much time reviewing since I had just finished the Course with a good grade.  Forty seven years latter I still regret not spending more time to review trusts.

32. Posted by Rebecca - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 10 minutes ago

    Upon leaving the MA Bar exam, my hand still shaking from 6 hours of writing, I was pulled over by a state trooper.  Apparently I had merged into the left turn lane in a way the trooper thought inconsiderate.  I pulled over and the trooper and began yelling at me for being so inconsiderate.  I apologized, saying I simply didn’t know my way around downtown.  The officer replied, “That’s not all you don’t know!  You are Ignorant!!! IGNORANT OF THE LAW!”  I replied, “Gosh, I hope you’re wrong because I just came from taking the Bar exam!”  The officer paused then shouted at me, “Well, I hope you passed the bar!”  And with that, he stormed off….

33. Posted by d - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 7 minutes ago

    I was excited to have Prof. Chemerinski review Con Law for us during the BarBri course.  Who better to learn from?  We did a comprehensive review with the exception of the constitutionality of state taxation which he assured us would not be tested on the exam.  I memorized all of the case names and all of the myriad tests.  Comes the bar exam, what is the question?  Of course, the constitutionality of state taxation.  Thankfully just about everyone else also failed that question.  :)

34. Posted by Rachel - 5 months, 1 week, 20 hours, 1 minute ago

    I took the California bar this past February.  In California, the proctors announce when there is 1 hour, 5 minutes and 30 seconds remaining.  On the third day of the exam, during the morning essay section, the proctor announcing the time accidentally announced that 5 minutes were remaining at the one hour mark.  Although I realize that this doesn’t compare to the gravity of a natural disaster disruption, the several seconds of sheer panic that surged through the crowd of exam takers until they realized the mistake lasted about as long as Tuesdays quake.

35. Posted by Vickie - 5 months, 1 week, 19 hours, 50 minutes ago

    I took the Washington bar exam in the summer of 1990.  It was usually given in the Seattle area, where the bulk of the aspiring Washington lawyers live or work, but that year, it was being administered only in Spokane, a 5-hour drive across the state, because the Goodwill Games were taking place in Seattle, and there was no space to have the bar. In addition to hoards of very stressed-out people descending on the overtaxed and unprepared restaurants in Spokane simultaneously for lunch, thus making us unable to get anything to eat, there was a thunderstorm during the exam that took out the power for about 45 minutes just as an essay question was being distributed.  As we sat there in the dark, some exam-takers complained that other exam-takers had an opportunity to use the extra time to “think about the question,” because they had received it before the lights went out on the rest of us.  The proctors instructed us not to think about the question until the lights went back on.  Needless to say, this was an experience I didn’t want to repeat, and luckily, I didn’t have to.

36. Posted by Henry W - 5 months, 1 week, 19 hours, 38 minutes ago

    When I took the Arkansas bar exam in 1981 I also signed up for a bar review course. The teacher who covered constitutional law had an unusual approach:  in his opinion, every con law question could be reduced to either a “right to travel” or “cruel and unusual punishment” issue. As he demonstrated with an example:  “Say they’re going to put a tax on you.  You might not be able to travel. That might be cruel.  And it might even be unusual.”

    I passed the exam.  I didn’t invoke either the “right to travel” or the prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” But some day I might.

37. Posted by Sara - 5 months, 1 week, 19 hours, 38 minutes ago

    The bar exam has been cursed for me.  On my first try in California I passed out during the MBEs and ended up in the hospital with a pituitary tumor.  I had thought I felt so awful from all the stress of studying.  Nope I really was very sick.

    Second time I tried the bar was in Arizona.  My husband died 6 weeks before.  I decided to go ahead and take it anyway and on the first day I got in a car accident over the lunch break.  Luckily it was minor and I just swapped info and rushed back.  Amazingly I passed, but I swear I will never take anohter bar exam again.

38. Posted by down south lawyer-type - 5 months, 1 week, 19 hours, 21 minutes ago

    I took the Louisiana bar, notoriously difficult not only because it is the only civil law bar exam but also because it is entirely essay, none of this mulitple choice nonsense.  It is spaced out over a week, with all day testing occurring every other day.  The testing center was located in a livestock festival complex outside of Baton Rouge.  Everything smelled faintly of cow manure, and although it was the dead of summer, it was 50 degrees inside.  With the 100 degree plus temperatures outside, no one (but some women, of course, who bring a jacket with them anywhere!) brought warm clothing the first day.  Additionally, the state police or some agency was conducting driving training in the lot next to the building, tires squealing all day long with the occassional siren wailing.  On top of all this, my girlfriend of 2 years broke up with me after the second day of testing!  Needless to say, I perservered through the last day of testing and quickly found a real bar to drown all my sorrows in.  In the end I would like to think I came out on top.  My ex lost an attorney (who passed the bar his first time) and I met a woman 10 times better.  Peace in the middle east.

39. Posted by jackcatscal - 5 months, 1 week, 19 hours, 20 minutes ago

    I took the NY bar a lot of years ago.  I remember on the second day seeing a few empty seats.  Word had it that at least one student had been caught by the proctors looking up answers in the law library one floor below. (I suppose that would make going through the NY bar character committee interview kinda difficult.)
    The bar results would be later published in the New York Times.  (This was pre-internet.)  We knew when the results would come out, and there was a huge mob (word chosen carefully) at the NY Times building the night before waiting for the early edition.  I remember one over-anxious test-taker rushing up to a production worker and just grabbing the paper from under his arm.  I thought, and this will be a member of a respected profession?
    Anyhow, I passed.
    Flash forward 16 years.  I’ve just moved to California to take a new job, and I have to take the CA bar.
    California has a policy that, if you’re a member in good standing of another state bar, and you’ve been practicing for at least five years, you can take the “attorney’s exam,” which simply means that they waive the middle day of the three.  Of course, that’s the multi-state day.  I think the theory is that you’ve taken and passed the multi-state before, so there’s no need to take it again.  Well, I passed the CA bar exam.  And, guess what, I took the NY bar before they adopted multi-state.  So, I’m admitted in three jurisdictions (includes DC) without ever having taken the multi-state exam.  Makes me feel good that I may have beaten the system.
    One last thought—the California lawyers will have you think the CA bar is the most difficult bar of all.  Not so, IMHO.  I really thought NY was more difficult.  Of course if NY passes 70%, and CA only passes 60%, that may be a little academic.

40. Posted by Atty - 5 months, 1 week, 18 hours, 54 minutes ago

    To # 38, California usually passes closer to around 40%.  I passed the Feb 08 bar and the pass rate for that bar was 39.6%.  The congrats package from the state bar said “you have passed the most difficult bar in the nation”... it is not that the subjects are more challenging, but the way it is graded that makes it so difficult to pass.

41. Posted by QJC - 5 months, 1 week, 18 hours, 43 minutes ago

    As an aside, it may be that NY or other states have “harder” bar exams than CA, which is to say that their questions might be trickier.  Of course, to say that one question is tougher than another is very subjective.  What isn’t subjective are the pass rates.  Even if CA offers “easy” essay questions, the fact is that a higher percentage of takers fail that exam than any other.  Why?  Because, even if the questions are easy, the minimum pass rate is set so damn high that you have to give a pretty kickass answer to get by. 

    So, if the NY exam is genuinely harder than CA’s, then one of two things is happening given that NYhas a higher pass rate: either the pool of NY takers is smarter on the whole than the pool of CA takers, or the threshold to pass the NY bar is set much lower than that for the CA bar.

    Just my two cents.

42. Posted by jackcatscal - 5 months, 1 week, 18 hours, 23 minutes ago

    To # 29:  the 40% average pass rate you cite isn’t accurate.  For first-time bar takers, the average is around 60%  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Bar_of_California.
    Another issue is the odd mix of people who take the CA bar.  CA has people from ABA-accredited law schools, from schools accredited by the state but not by the ABA, from unaccredited schools, and even people from correspondance law schools.  The non-ABA-accredited takers pull the overall statistics down badly.  For example, in February 2007, the unaccredited graduates scored 13% and 8% for first-timers and repeaters, respectively.
    And, then, there’s the local politician in LA who took the CA bar 48 times before finally passing it.  See http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/08/12/money/b2b/doc465ef0b3c0b78998537021.txt. And we wonder why CA has the lowest passing rate in the nation?

43. Posted by jerry abbott - 5 months, 1 week, 17 hours, 41 minutes ago

    My first bar exam was California 1965.  My hadwriting was (and is) similar to that of a 5 year old.  So I took my portable Smith Corona to the exam room which was set aside for “typists.”  The room was filled wilth approximately 50 such typists most of whom had the new fangled electric tykpewriters.  In 1965 the California Bar exam was three rather tough days of essay questions - no Multi State multiple guess.  In the morning of the third day a power outage occurred resulting in panick among the “electric typists”  Many had no pen, pencil or nor “Blue Book” required of non typist test takers.  two exam monitors were in the room nd between them and others taking the exam on four pens or pencils were found.  The power outage lasted a full 30 minutes during which confusion was the primary theme.  The afternoon session in the “typist” room had only those 5 people with the old manual typewriters.  I never found out what happened to the rest.

    In 1975 I took the Hawaii Bar Exam.  Again 3 days but now with the Multi State multiple guess session.  After having practiced in California for the ten previous years I decided to not take time off ofr a Hawaii bar review course.  The muliple guess session came as a complete surprise to me.  How can it be that all of lthe mulitple choice answers were correct?

    Luckily I passed both.  My third bar exam took place on Saipan (Trust Territory of the Pacific at that time).  The exam amounted to an introduction to the chief justice at a local watering hole.  I passed again.

44. Posted by Brad - 5 months, 1 week, 17 hours, 27 minutes ago

    The bar exam was the easiest exam I ever took.  After the first day, I went to the Hooter’s by my hotel, got liquored up, took a waitress home and rocked the essays the next day.

45. Posted by LC - 5 months, 1 week, 17 hours, 8 minutes ago

    I took the July Washington bar exam a number of years ago at the Maidenbauer Center.  At the beginning of the first afternoon set of questions we were interrupted by the very large Seattle earthquake (I think it was 7.1), that shook the entire building and moved furniture while the ceiling and lights swayed and rattled.  The sound was terrifying.  It was amazing to watch 300+ bar takers rush to the exits, several knocking over my friend Jack’s wheelchair (he was ok) in their haste, and many continued to write despite the proctors admonishing us to stop writing.  Many were reluctant to return fearing after-shocks.  Needless to say, I was shaking like a leaf when we began again.  The bar believed it was being considerate by adjusting everyone’s scores.  Unfortunately, I missed by 2 points and had to sit for it again.  Somehow it just didn’t seem right.

46. Posted by MEJ - 5 months, 1 week, 11 hours, 24 minutes ago

    I wasn’t sure which was going to happen first - whether my wife would give birth before my first day of the MPT & essays in Indianapolis. Thankfully, she waited until the bar was over. My favorite part of that exam was getting splinters on the crappy catering tables where they sat us down in 50 degree temperatures. I suppose it’s all part of the hazing process, but I had better pass!

47. Posted by DPG - 5 months, 1 week, 7 hours, 1 minute ago

    In 2001 I sat for the WA State Bar, after having failing it the previous sitting by one point.  I was living in Colorado at the time and so studied via a correspondence course.  On the last day of the exam, about half way through a slow, deep rumbling moved through the building.  Everything started to shake, and as the shaking grew worse someone screamed “it’s an earthquake, everyone get out of the building”

    Obviously that was someone from Oklahoma who had never been through an earthquake, though a surprising number of people panicked and ran out of the building gibbering like idiots.  I would loke to say I was cool, calm and collected and went under the table like the folks in SoCal in the blurb above, but alas I was one of the panicked and fled the building.

    Alarms were going off everywhere and we werte amazed by what had happened.  Everntually the shaking stopped and one of the proctors to the exam came out and told us to come back inside the building.  They started the exam again in the minutes, instructing us to put all our materials under our chairs and take some time to settle down.  We then took the rest of the exam with no aftershocks, though we were told that, if it happened again, do not leave teh building, go under the table, as probably the most unsafe thing to do was leave the building (apparently the windows can shatter and that would be unpleasant if you are near one.)

    I will never forget the shaking and way the building was moving just as I was making a particulalry erudite point about adverse possession (I have since forgotten what that even is….) 

    We were told at the end of the exam by the invigilator that the markers would all be made aware of what had happened and that consideraration would be given to the fact that we just sat through a 5.9 quake during the exam - nice of them I thought.

    I received my results in due course and lo and behold, passed.  Of course I credit the quake for my result, as I am sure the markers gave me some leeway, but anyway, something to remember, and of course, a story to tell.

48. Posted by DPG - 5 months, 1 week, 6 hours, 51 minutes ago

    I just read one of my colleagues stories about the quake at the time and looked it up.  It was one of the largest quakes in WA State history and is now known colloquially as “The Rattle” or officially as the Nisqually Quake.  It measured a whopping 6.8 and occurred at 10:54 AM.  Good fun.

49. Posted by TP - 5 months, 1 week, 6 hours, 27 minutes ago

    I just finished taking the bar for the first time in CA. The girl who shared my table turned out to be a compulsive hair puller. The entire three days, she ran both hands over a particular lock nervously, shaking the hair from her fingers onto the floor every so often. Any butterflies I felt about the bar were nothing compared to that.

50. Posted by Barrister K - 5 months, 1 week, 5 hours, 8 minutes ago

    Perseverance!  Starting in 2006, I took and failed the Patent Bar Exam and MPRE once each.  After realizing that in order to succeed you must do enough timed practice, I passed both the Patent Bar and MPRE on my second tries.  With these embarrassing episodes, I motivated myself by reciting Barbri’s motto “Do it Once.  Do it Right.  And Never Do it Again.”  So studied smart using mainly Barbri’s Essay book and PMBR’s red MBE book, and I passed the California Bar Exam on my 1st try that July.  And now happily ever-after, I get SPAM’ed non-stop from being listed on the CalBar and USPTO membership directories.

51. Posted by Erin - 5 months, 1 week, 4 hours, 56 minutes ago

    I just finished taking the TX bar exam.  I had a bit of an exciting first day ... though I had been over my checklist several dozen times I some how managed to leave my laptop in the lobby of the hotel.  I realized this when we got to the testing site ... I tried to rush back and get it but I could not find my way back in my current mental state so I decided to give up and just hand write the exam.  But when I called the hotel just to ask them to watch it until I could get back after the exam, my soon to be hero answered the phone and when I jokingly suggested he bring me the computer he agreed and meet me on the street corner 5 minutes before I was supposed to be in my seat.  Lifesaver.  Luckily there was plenty of time before actual start time for me to get myself together ... I guess we’ll see how it really went in a couple of months.

52. Posted by KC - 5 months, 6 days, 20 hours, 55 minutes ago

    I took the February 2008 Michigan exam.  I live in Ohio, and I worked full time while studying.  Unfortunately, I was involved in a labor negotiation for a company in West Virginia, so I was commuting back and forth from West Virginia to Cleveland at the start and end of the preceding 4 weeks.  Then, 2 days before the bar, I went out with my friends to blow off some steam before the big days.  We had a great time, and, long story short, we ended up having breakfast. 

    After breakfast, just as I’m about to get into my car, I cough (I was getting over the flu) and I heard a pop, and it felt like I was shot.  I couldn’t breathe, and I was in excruciating pain.  I later went to the ER, and it turns out I HAVE A BROKEN RIB!  2 days before the bar!  Then, to add insult to injury, the night between the essays and MBE, I was walking back to my hotel from a nearby restaurant, and I slip on some ice and land right on the rib I just broke!  But, I was able to pull it together: I was sworn in this past May.

53. Posted by Jennifer Waters - 5 months, 6 days, 20 hours, 48 minutes ago

    At the beginning of the bar exam the proctors stated roughly 35 times that we should turn in any and all cell phones or other such devices.  Failure to do so would result in our ouster from the exam room for the rest of the day.  They took every phone and blackberry and put them into envelopes that we would claim at the end of the exam.  We lined our bags and backpacks along the side of the wall so we could not consult anything inside them during the exam.  A couple of hours into the exam someone’s phone started ringing from inside a backpack and whoever was trying to call just kept trying.  The proctors paced up and down the line of backpacks and finally pinpointed the offender.  They took it away and in the break asked the test-takers to claim the bag.  Whoever owned it decided that finishing the exam was more important than whatever was in the backpack.  Despite being asked to claim the backpack during every successive break, no one ever did.  The owner sure made a good call not leaving any ID in the bag that morning.  I’m sure that he or she read the riot act to whoever was trying so desperately to call!

54. Posted by Louis Leichter - 5 months, 6 days, 17 hours, 9 minutes ago

    In 1959 when I was in Junior High School 232 in Brooklyn, the girl who sat next to me in several classes was Elizabeth M.  We went to different high schools and I assumed I’d never see her again. In 1966, about 7 1/2 years later, at Brooklyn College I was taking the GRE and she was sitting in front of me. She did not go to Brooklyn College but decided to take the GRE in Brooklyn and visit her parents. I drove her home and wished her well.  I have not seen her since.

    However in 2004, about 40 years later, the week before I took the Minnesota Bar I dreamed that as was taking the Bar Exam in St. Paul, I looked up and she was again sitting in front of me.  I actually had to look in my Jr High Year Book to see what she looked like.

    This proved to me that studying for the Bar Exam fries enough synapses to conjure up all kinds of memories. Since I did well on my GRE, I decided that the dream was a premonition that I’d pass the Bar. I did.  Thank you Elizabeth M.
    Lou Leichter, St. Paul, MN

55. Posted by Richard Wadsworth - 5 months, 6 days, 12 hours, 54 minutes ago

    When I took the bar exam, I sat next to a woman who was so nervous that she called the proctor over at least 3 times to complain that I was pressing too hard with my pencil as I wrote the essays.  I do not press hard when I write.  The second day we returned for the multi-state, and I told her that all I would be doing that day was coloring in the dots since it was multiple choice.  Wouldn’t you know it that she called over the procter again!  I was dumbfounded that she was so obsessed!  Needless to say, when the bar results were announced (aphabetically), no female name came either before or after me.  Hence, she would not join the bar that sitting.  I wonder if she ever passed the bar exam, or whether she conintued to torment whatever poor sap sat next to her.  I have no idea.

56. Posted by Jon - 5 months, 6 days, 11 hours, 35 minutes ago

    I took time off from work to study for the bar.  I would do practice tests, swim laps, do practice tests and so forth all day.  I read the prep guides, and took classes, and stopped studying before the bar.  Got a massage the day before and evening during the bar. This went better than the MBE where although I did well, I got thouroughly lost for an hour or two trying to drive home.  I forgot about the bar for the requisite time.  One night I was taking my young son to dinner in the mountains, and after dinner I could not find my car. Eventually I realized it had been towed!  After paying for taxi and fine, I got it back.  Speaking to my mother, she said, that is a sign of good luck to come.  She was correct.  The next day my wife read to me my bar exam results - I had passed each section high enough so that the other would not have needed to be graded. The patent bar was another story.

57. Posted by DaveT - 5 months, 4 days, 18 hours, 56 minutes ago

    I took New Jersey’s bar after taking Pa’s.  New Jersey decided to have the bar in Atlantic City this year.  When I called the number given to me as a suggestion by the NJ bar examiners the closest place to stay was in Bally’s Casino.  A lot of bar takers ended up staying there for the exam.  Not exactly the best atmosphere with all the drunks and gamblers, but it wasn’t terrible. 

    Then I get to the test site where I’m one of the lucky 500 who gets to type the NJ bar exam.  I boot up my laptop, start the exam program and type in my applicant ID.  Then a box pops up and says that my ID is not within the accepted range of IDs for the exam.  It’s too low.  Half a dozen other people around me have this same problem.  The computer program people royally screwed up. 

    In New Jersey exam, if you have a tech problem you must raise your hand with a closed fist.  So then about four of us raise our fists in a panic.  The tech guy came over and did a double take, and then ran away. 

    They eventually gave us made up numbers that fit within the range, but I hope my exam doesn’t get lost bc my applicant ID’s not on it!

58. Posted by RichC - 5 months, 4 days, 18 hours, 1 minute ago

    This post is about seeking advice more than anything else.  I took NJ this past week…Walked out of the MBE figuring I knew 60 questions, I didn’t know 60 questions and i probably had a 50/50 shot on the remaining 80.  Then came the essays…1st two I wrote without much of a problem…but then the third essay which was disguised as one subject ended up being something else entirely.  By the time I realized my monumental mistake I was able to write only 1/2 a paragraph on the subject the question called for.  Is it possible to pass the exam after completely throwing away one of the essays?  Has anyone been through a similar problem and passed?

59. Posted by Minnesota Bar Taker - 5 months, 4 days, 7 hours, 41 minutes ago

    I KNOW I got 10 questions correct on this past July MBE.  The other 190 questions I have no clue.  During the MBE I felt at anytime I could have just closed my eyes and started randomly guessing and would have scored just as well - if not better.  Essays, of course, are a different story - at least w/ those you know somewhat how you stand.  People say that most feel as if they may have failed the bar following the after-effect of the MBEs, but they always pass.  Well, how does one feel after the MBEs when one fails?

60. Posted by Corrine - 5 months, 4 days, 7 hours, 31 minutes ago

    While studying for the Bar exam, my entire class got a letter from the California Bar saying that we hadn’t yet met the requirements for taking the exam.  Our law school registrar informed us that all was well, we’d all be able to take it, and not to worry.  A couple of weeks before the exam, I still didn’t have my admission ticket.  However, my classmates had.  Then came the letter.  I had not qualified to take the bar exam, because they hadn’t received my eligibility information.  Needless to say I freaked out.  I called the State Bar, and they said there was nothing they could do.  Then, I called my school registrar’s office.  It took them a week, but I received word from both the Bar and the school that I would be allowed to take it.  I don’t think anyone was as excited to sit for that exam as I was.  Even though I hadn’t been able to concentrate for a week while waiting to see if I could take the exam, I still passed on the first try!

61. Posted by J.D. - 5 months, 3 days, 20 hours, 48 minutes ago

    After spending 3 months holed up in my apartment and listening to the BarBri lectures on Ipod, I went from being around NO ONE to sitting in a room of 600 people.

    I came to one quick conclusion: people smell.

62. Posted by It came to pass - 5 months, 2 days, 18 hours, 45 minutes ago

    Hmmm…my bar exam war stories…  Well, the battle began in 2004 when I was accepted at what I affectionately refer to as a third world law school, and dragged on for 3 years—one semester seeing me run away to another, better law school as a visiting student, only to be sent back to complete my sentence.  I also sought refuge in cross-registration, which provided minimal relief, but some familiarity and a change of scenery enough to make things marginally more bearable.

    After a graduation to which I invited people as a formality—I took little pride in surviving the experience, and thought little of the degree and the school from where it was obtained—I took the MD bar, which cost several hundred dollars that I could have put to better future use.  Rather than looking like I just rolled out of bed, I dressed decently and comfortably, and took the exam in a ballroom in which some people had attended prom.

    I later expended more money and endured public transportation for my requisite in-person interview before learning I did not pass.  Rather than buying my way into the profession (via paying again to sit for this ridiculous test), I smartly proceeded on with something called life.

63. Posted by Lawyer Mom - 5 months, 2 days, 17 hours, 54 minutes ago

    I failed on my first try. 
    If anyone is interested in my excuse—anyone who has ever failed a bar exam will have come up with a reason or two, why they didn’t pass on their first try—I was a little too busy and preoccupied, trying to fit too many things in between law school graduation and the bar exam.  While doing BarBri, I moved 3000 miles and prepared for my wedding, which was to take place three weeks after the bar exam.  Lesson learned from that:  don’t try to do too much all at once.
    So, after my first attempt at the dreaded California bar, I, in this order: got married, got pregnant, learned I’d failed the bar, and did MicroMash home study program.  (MicroMash has a money-back guarantee, if you complete the program and still don’t pass, you get your money back.)  I didn’t know whether I’d pass or not, but I knew I was damned-well going to qualify for the guarantee.  I did complete the MicroMash program (mostly while laying on my side on the couch, hoping to feel the baby kick, reading the most difficult sections aloud to her.)  I took the test in my maternity sweats, and I did it, I slew the dreaded beast!  Got sworn in as a lawyer shortly before I became a Mom. 
    And the best part is that I have a great story to tell my daughter, she helped me pass the bar.  I don’t think it could have done it without her!  Seriously, though, the subjects that I was not interested in, like Civil Procedure, and Wills/Trusts/Estates, those sections were like torture to me.  I wasn’t interested, swore I’d never practice in those areas, and had a heck of a time even making myself look at them.  But having someone (okay, a developing fetus) to read them to helped.  And I wasn’t doing it just for me, I was doing it for her, too.
    She’s a great little helper!

64. Posted by Lawyer Mom - 5 months, 2 days, 17 hours, 48 minutes ago

    To QLC, in comment 2, I couldn’t agree more.  It really struck a chord when I read what you wrote: “Being one of many that took two bites at the apple to pass the CA bar, I can say that I have pretty sour memories of pretty much everything associated with it (study places, the hotel I stayed at, the test center).  On the flip side, I will always be partial to those places that served me well on my second try.”
    I have an almost irrational hatred of Ontario CA.  PASSadena, on the other hand….

65. Posted by RichC - 5 months, 2 days, 16 hours, 26 minutes ago

    Lawyer Mom - thank you for your posts.  It’s been 6 days since (i’m 99% sure) I failed the bar.  The thought of the embarrassment that follows and the idea of having to study while working has been almost too much to handle…i’ve been able to handle it with a lot of alcohol…but your story has made me think that it is possible to take the test again and pass it, so thank you

66. Posted by Norman H. Green - 5 months, 2 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes ago

    UCLA Professor Asimow advised us NOT to talk about questions we had just answered; it could only depress us.  Therefore, some friends and I determined that at lunch on the first day of the exam, we would discuss a particular question from one of our first-year exams.
    Eating in a coffee-shop full of law students mid-exam, we enjoyed our discussion.  After a while, we noticed that test-takers at other tables in the restaurant were concerned because they had not noticed some of the issues that we were discussing.  Some of them seemed quite worried.
    We all enjoyed the exam and, I believe, all passed the California Bar on that first try.

67. Posted by anonymous - 5 months, 1 day, 8 hours, 20 minutes ago

    To Rich—who wanted advice.  I can’t say from my own experience—as I still havn’t passed, but I know people who have blown an essay and still passed.  One person stated the Holder in Due Course Rule then stated: “sorry” and moved on. she passed. 
    As for my own experience, I blew 3 essays and the MPT, and though I failed, my grade was within the mandatory regrade score (meaning it was very close—and its not as if the MBE brought me up, because I failed that by 2 points as well).  And when I blow an essay, I mean 3 incomprehensible sentences—not a whole paragraph on the issue.  So, yea, you can tank an essay still pass easily.

68. Posted by jackcatscal - 5 months, 20 hours, 14 minutes ago

    To No. 64 re talking about questions after the bar exam.  That got so annoying in law school that a group of us developed a technique for dealing with it.  No matter what the subject, we would leave the exam saying loudly, “Did you catch the wrongful death issue?”  It was worth it just to see the panicked looks on people’s faces.

69. Posted by Paul - 4 months, 4 weeks, 6 hours, 25 minutes ago

    I reassure law students with this:  When I took the SC Bar (three days long, one day of MBE and two days of essays) I was sick for the week.  No vomiting, but headaches and stomach aches.  I studied every night—not to learn so much as to be doing something, anything, to pass.  I never missed a Bar Review class or the free extra sessions.  During the exam I saw fellow students drinking every night and acting cool.  One of these did not pass—but I did.  I tell folks, “I’d rather be sick for a week and pass than cool as a cucumber and fail.”  My regret was that my Mom and Dad were not alive to be happy for me.

70. Posted by DAVID W. DODSON - 4 months, 4 weeks, 3 hours, 7 minutes ago

    The night before the first day of the CA bar exam in Long Beach in 1978, I stayed in a less than exclusive motel where, for a wake up call, the receptionist handed me a “Big Ben” alarm clock.  That night I heard what sounded like gunshots in the parking lot, looked out the window to see several people below and hardly slept thereafter for fear they had seen me looking out.  The alarm clock worked, the next two nights were eventless, I made it through all three days and passed.  I knew I never wanted to return to that motel!