In Nebraska they had a mix up grading the bar exam. Three people who had thought they passed were told, the day before swearing in, that they had in fact failed. Three who had thought they had failed got a call telling them they passed.
Naturally, it made me think of my bar experience. Most people, take a prep course before the bar exam. I was no different. Even though you take 3 years of coursework to obtain your Juris Doctorate (and incidentally there are some extremely insecure people who insist that they should be called "Dr." after obtaining this degree), the bar exam is still quite the beast. The first day typically tests state specific law and is a series of essays. The second day is 200 multiple choice questions that all applicants, regardless of state, take.
I took the exam in the summer of 2011, and it was an extremely stressful summer. We were expecting our second child. I was still working full time, and there was this fear that you could never prepare enough or know enough for the bar exam. And that it is true. There may be people that get every question on the exam right, I don't think there are many. The goal is simply to pass. There will be questions that you have no idea how to answer, but you hope there are enough that you get the minimum score. The fear is that you will not though. From May to July I studied. Some of the material I was familiar with, but some was very new to me. For instance, I had not enrolled in any classes related to Family Law, but that is something they test pretty frequently. So I had to get a crash course in custody issues, annulments v. divorces, taxation of alimony but no taxation of child support (and how they try to prevent people from cheating on this) etc.
In the beginning you focus on learning or refreshing your memory on certain issues. Most of the tested areas are taught during the first year of law school, so it is no longer fresh in your mind. Almost no law school teaches State specific law, so that is all new. Fortunately, it is little nuances that are not overly difficult, but it still stressful. So you prep and you prep. The prep is not the tough part, it is the mental battle. It is the feeling that you will never master enough to pass the damn thing. The fear of failure is two-fold. First, no-one likes to fail at anything. It would be a huge blow to the ego. But second, you cannot actually be an attorney unless you pass the bar. If you do fail, you need to wait 6 months before you can take it again. 6 months. It is not cheap to register either.
I was fortunate enough to take the exam in a very nice facility run by the University of Chicago. It was easy to get to, it was run very well, there were no glitches. It was still nerve wracking though. They sit you alphabetically by last name, and then call you one by one. Given my very common last name, there were probably a dozen or so of us. The nice thing now is that you can take the exam by computer. You have to download software that essentially locks you out of your computer so that you cannot access any external resources, but you do get the advantage of a word processor. This is great because my handwriting is pretty crappy and you have the ability to edit your work. Of course, you do get the added fear that your laptop will choose to crash on that particular day. This always happens to at least one person who then has to hand write the exam. Fortunately, it did not happen to me.
The morning session was 6 essays, 30 minutes a piece. 4 of them, I was very comfortable with. 1, was outside my comfort zone, but I still felt like I could give a good answer. I had no idea on the last one, I cannot even remember what it was about. I doubt I scored too many points on that. However, once they called time, I realized that for better or worse, I had put a part of the bar exam behind me. Another great part of the test location was that it was very close to an establishment called the "Billy Goat". The Billy Goat is one of my favorite places in Chicago. It is a famous dive bar located on lower Michigan Drive. Upper Michigan Drive is very posh with lots of fancy store fronts and beautiful parks. Lower Michigan Drive is subterranian, it is dark, it is mostly used by service vehicles to pick up garbage, make deliveries, etc. It is the perfect home for the Goat. Even though it is in the heart of the city, you can get a draft beer for $2.50. The real treat is the burgers though. The burgers are amazing. They use incredibly thin patties, probably about 16 to a pound! So, naturally, you order a double cheese. It is cooked just right, the bun is toasted and the toppings bar is very well maintained. The tomatoes are fresh, the lettuce crisp etc.
I couldn't pass up the Goat, it was so close. Probably out of habit, but also out of nerve, I ordered a double cheese and a Lager. This was the place to forget about the bar exam for a bit. I don't know what time the Goat opens in the morning, but even if it were 4 am, you would likely see a crowd downing a couple cold ones. As far as I could tell, I was the only person that had taken the bar that was frequenting this establishment for lunch. It was a mixture of tourists and salty older dudes that had found themselves in the fortunate, or unfortunate, position of passing a weekday at a bar! Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and it was time to head back for the second half. Apparently one person had judged that they had done so poorly on the morning session that they had chosen to call it quits!
The afternoon session is interesting. You don't need to know any law. You are given this package of statutes and case law and a hypothetical fact pattern. You then simply apply the law to the facts. It is a nice way to finish the first day. Day 2 is more stressful, in my opinion. 100 questions in 3 hours isn't too bad, almost everyone has time at the end to review their answers. Some questions I was almost positive on the correct answer, but there are so many where you feel that two answers could be correct. Most people recommend not changing your answers, but it is hard not to. Second, this part of the test is old school and you use a scantron. The fear is that even if you have changed the answer correctly, you may not have erased hard enough and you get marked wrong anyway! You really have to commit to erasing, but not go so far as to rip the old scantron. After the first 100 questions, it was back to the trusty Goat, and then the homestretch. The afternoon session is nice, because if you finish early you can just turn in your test and leave.
It was almost a let down when it was all said and done. It had gone so quickly. I took a riverboat to the train station because it was such a nice day. The sun was just over the skyline and it felt warm on my face. The boat was mostly empty and it was just a very calm moment. I didn't know if I would be back here, in the depths of winter, taking it all over again. I would have to wait. And wait. Even though the second day is graded by machine, and they have an army of graders, you have to wait 2.5 months to get your results.
Typically, results are released on 1 October. That year, 1 October was a Saturday, so I thought I would have to wait until Monday. When I woke up on 1 October, I had an e-mail. The e-mail told me that I had new information posted to my IL Bar account. I was still in bed and my wife was still sleeping. It was a one page PDF informing me that I had passed the bar. That was it. IL does not release your score, unless you fail, so I don't know whether I barely scraped by or not. It didn't matter though. I had passed. 2 days later, Erin was born. It was a very good start to the month.
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