As usual, Energy Spatula perfectly captures exactly how I’m feeling about the bar exam:

The thing I hate about the bar is that just when I start to think I can remember CrimPro, or CivPro, or Property, I remember that there are 18 other subjects that I need to remember simultaneously. And then I cry.

Yes! And in the comments, Frolics and Detours adds this:

I feel the same way about the essay subjects. Yesterday morning I memorized what I need to know about federal jurisdiction and then studied a bunch of other subjects. Now I don’t think I can tell you anything about federal jurisdiction, let alone any of the other subjects I studied.

Exactly exactly exactly! It seems I have a space in my mind for this stuff and one subject fills it up. I study a subject; I’ve got it.¹ I study another subject; the first one disappears.

At this point I’m having some luck thinking of the six subjects on the MBE as one subject so I can hold them all in there at the same time. I think I’ll be ok for that on Wednesday. But tomorrow for the Montana essays, I’m expected to have 18 subjects crammed into my head and ready for quick and detailed recall and regurgitation. Eighteen freaking subjects! As if. Tuesday is betterââ�¬â��only 10 possible subjects to keep in mind, and that’s basically just a subset of what I’m supposed to know tomorrow.

I couldn’t sleep last night b/c the whole thing makes me so angry. What, exactly, is the point of all this? Who has ever practiced law like this? Case law and statutes are written down for a reasonââ�¬â��so that lawyers can refer to them every single ding-dong day! But on the bar exam? No books, no notes, just pull it out of your… whatever you can, really. It’s so ridiculous I want to scream!

Oh, and one more thing that E. Spat perfectly captured: It’s way. too. hot.² It was over 100 degrees here yesterday and the high today is supposed to be 99. And air conditioning? Nope, none here, either.

I’m fighting the law hard but I’m really hoping it’s not going to win b/c this rock breaking thing (aka: studying for and taking the bar exam)? It’s a kind of punishment I never want to have to suffer again. [tags]freaking out[/tags]

1. In fact, six semesters of law school finals has made this rather easy. That’s all law school finals wereââ�¬â��cram an outline into your head in the 1-3 days before the exam, dump it out on the exam, and move on. What, exactly, did that prepare me to do in life? Certainly not pass the bar…↩
2. She put it much more colorfully than that, but my mom reads this, ok? Hi mom!↩

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 23rd, 2006 at 11:17 am and is filed under Bar exam. It has had 595 views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response here, send a trackback from your own site, or rate this post right here:

 Loading ...