YUK!! I do not know anybody that really liked the bar exam. But, many of those of us who are a little better established now forget that we are in the middle of bar exam season. (Or, maybe we just do not want to remember -- post traumatic stress and all of that).
In Texas the bar exam is three days long. In some states it is shorter. This does not include the so-called "ethics exam" in which the right answer to every question is give the money back and resign from the case. In most states you either start with or you end with the dreaded multistate exam. That
test was administered nationwide on Tuesday of this week. In Texas, test takers are just completing their second day of the exam -- the much better, "I can bluff my way through" essay portion of the exam. Tomorrow comes procedure and evidence.
To me, the procedure and evidence portions were the hardest. First, it is rouge memorization. Thee is no bluffing and close does not count. That is not good thing to come up on the third day of what is already an exhausting and mind bending trip. Second, it is hard to deal with memorized facts when you do not even understand how or why they are really applied in real life. For me math was the same way. In school I had so much trouble with geometry and algebra because nobody in school really shows you, and you have no basis to know, how you really apply these it in life. If you understood the building trade, for example, you would appreciate geometry and physics a little better, understand their importance, and I think memorization would be more beneficial. Procedure and evidence are pretty much the same. You can talk about an answer is due in Texas on the Monday following the expiration of 20 days, not counting the day it was served, provided that date does not fall on a recognized holiday in Texas, like the opening of deer hunting season. (Well, deer hunting season is not technically a recognized holiday, but for all intents and purposes it ought to be because you try finding a lawyer in his or her office in East Texas at that time, much less get something answered). However, until the rule affects what you do, and you have a chance to apply it, it is not easy to retain it or apply it in a testing environment.
As for the essay portion in Texas, I took the test too long ago to remember much. I remember being stunned, however, by a question on the second day as to where and how you perfect a security interest in bull sperm in Texas so as to protect one's interest as against other later obtained loans. All I can really tell you as to the essay portion of the Texas Bar Exam, I wrote a lot of new law that day.
The Houston Chronicle reported on the ongoing Texas Bar Exam. 3,000 people at six sites across Texas are taking the exam this week. "If you don't pass it, you can't be a lawyer,'' said Leslie Schweinle, a 27-year-old South Texas College of Law graduate who is taking the test this week. "You can't practice, so your law degree is basically useless.'' Very well put, I would say, and this illustrates why we who have passed the exam equally frown on the whole event.
Those getting ready for the bar exam basically go into lock down mode. You had might as well be in prison. No calls. No emails. No friends. No me time. Regulated as to when you get up and go to bed. No fun really because even if you do try to relax for a while you fret you are blowing your future.
The people leaving the multistate portion also complained about writer's cramp. I remember as well my right hand thumb and first finger being so sore the night after the exam.
Most of the test takers will kick back after the exam ends Thursday. But, in Texas at least, the stress just builds for months waiting on results.
Nope, I do not envy these kids. I do not envy them at all.
"All I can really tell you as to the essay portion of the Texas Bar Exam, I wrote a lot of new law that day."
Now I'm feeling much better about the essays I wrote....in Secured Transactions, I spent at least two paragraphs analyzing the security interest in the wrong stuff. Oops.
Posted by: Bev | August 01, 2008 at 11:46 AM