WARNING: This post may be long and boring to you, so you may not want to read it. It details my bar exam experience. I want to do it for myself to have a record, but thought you might be interested to know what a bar exam looks like.
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This will probably (read: praying to Jeebus that this will) be the last post on here. Of course come February we might be doing it all over, who knows.
The bar exam sucked. Big Time. It was by far, no exaggeration, the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It was a thousand times harder than any lawschool exam. In fact, it was like having 12 law school exams all at the same time.
I felt pretty confident going in because I had kept on the barbri study schedule for the most part and was doing ok. I was improving on multiple choice and I was spotting most of the issues when I was essay writing. I also thought I had a lot of the law memorized. Obviously I could have spent more time studying.
It probably didn't help that I started reading Harry Potter as soon as I got it. I didn't read it straight through, but I took a few hours each day to read. I couldn't help it. It was just adding to my anxiety and having read it actually made me feel more relaxed. So I'm not sorry that I did it.
The first day of the exam was 4 essays and the performance test. The essays were brutal. Right off the bat there was a race horse evidence question. Evidence was always one of the weaker subjects and one I was hoping wouldn't be a full blown question on the exam. But there it was. It sucked.
The next question was a torts question crossed over with conflict of laws. We were expecting torts, conflicts was a surprise. It sucked because I could only see one tort. Normally, torts is a race horse question. There are a ton of plaintiffs, a ton of defendants and a lot of torts. Here, there was one plaintiff, a few defendants and only 1 car accident. It's negligence. No other torts that I Could see. So I was freaking out because i couldn't spot anything else.
And then I totally knew the conflict of laws, but I didn't outline it all the way, so I forgot the last issue. Even though I totally knew it. So I was kicking myself a little for that.
Then there was a wacky contracts question crossed over with remedies. When I say "cross-over" I mean it can either be a full blown essay where only one topic is covered or it's one topic "cross-over" to another topic, so it can be 2 or more topics in one essay. This was a contracts crossed-over with remedies.
I didn't spend a lot of time on remedies because it's not a huge topic. But it sucked because it almost looked like a property question because it involved the sale of homes. And the sale of property can either be contracts or property. I only wrote about contracts because I honestly couldn't see the property issues.
Finally there was family law/community property cross-over. I wasn't worried about this because I had awesome professors for both family law and community property, so I felt it was my best subject going in. Unfortunately the essays were not on the regular topics.
In the Barbri essay book, we have sample answers from all the past essays. The examiners usually test on the same core group of subjects. Well this time it was all over the place. Very strange. But I felt it was ok.
At this point I knew it was going to suck. Three cross-overs in one day! Barbri had given us this little chart mapping out exactly when the topics have been tested. In the past 5 years, there is usually only one cross-over question. And it's usually family law with community property. Here, we had three cross-overs in one session.
I figured that with the brutal essays we had on Tuesday, Thursday had to be easier. After all, they always test on Professional Responsibility and Criminal Law, so I knew that those would be 2 of the 4 essays for the next session.
In the afternoon on Monday we had our performance test. In the performance test you get a packet of material. A case file with a memo from a senior attorney giving you an assignment, and then you get stuff that would be in a client file - an interview sheet from the client, a deposition, other records or letters. And then you get a 'library" which contains statutes and cases. Basically you read the "library" to figure out the law and then the client file and then draft a memo.
It's not that hard, but it's 90 minutes and it can be tough. We were totally expecting something persuasive because NV routinely tests that. Our memo was objective, meaning you look at all sides. I think I did ok. My tone may have been too persuasive though. END OF DAY ONE.
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Wednesday was the multiple choice. It consists of 2 - three hour sessions of 100 multiple choice questions. 200 questions total doesn't seem like a lot but some of the questions are half a page long. So it takes you several minutes just to read.
MC is always my worst subject because I usually narrow it down to 2 answers, one of which being the right one and then I agonize over which to choose.
It also sucked because it felt like some of the questions were from subjects not normally tested on the multiple choice. Like there was at least 2 questions that looked like Wills/Trusts. But wills is not an MBE subject. So it must have been "Property". Even though I dont' remember reading that particular subject in the property outline.
Needless to say it sucked. I forced myself to stop agonizing and just choose when I couldn't figure it out so I wouldn't run out of time.
Fortunately the multiple choice is only 1/3 of the exam grade. But it still sucks.
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Day 3
The last day was 4 hours of essays with no break. Just a straight shot to the finish line.
As I mentioned, we were expecting criminal law and professional responsibility. I was also expecting Constitutional Law, because it's tested 90% of the time.
Well, the bar examiners were not done fucking us over.
The first question was criminal law and I know crimes well enough, so it was ok. However the "criminal Procedure" part of the question was very bizarre. Normally it's about searches and seizures without a warrant or an interrogation without a Miranda warning. But these were more like professional responsibility topics.
The prosecutor failed to disclose evidence, the judge gave the wrong standard to the jury, etc. I knew the answers because it was obvious but I was surprised nonetheless.
Then there was a wills question. But again, it was fucking crazy because there were 2 wills involved and I couldn't tell if either of them were valid.
The first will was written after the guy had drunken some "punch" laced with LSD. SO he was hallucinating and seeing flying monsters when he stumbles into the attorney's office.
Then the 2nd will was written by the man, but it said it was "typed". In NV, a handwritten will is valid, but only if it's actually handwritten. The fact that it was typed threw me off, so I didn't know if it was valid or not. So I decided to analyze it as if the 2nd will was valid AND if it was invalid what would happen through intestacy (when you die without a will).
Then there was professional responsibility. Not much to say about it.
Finally, the bar examiners decided to finish us off and gave us another contracts question. Contracts is by far my worst subject. I hated the first question on Tuesday so I was not expecting to see it again. But lo and behold, there it was again. And it wasn't a straightforward question either. It was about the Uniform Commercial Code and the sale of goods (in this case it was mushrooms). And all the wacky rules that come with the UCC.
But that's not the best part - oh no. The best part is that it was ANOTHER FUCKING crossover question. I stared at it for at least 5 minutes trying to figure it out. There was a checkbook involved. Checks and promissory notes are called "commercial paper".
But it couldn't be commercial paper. After all, it has only been tested ONE TIME in the past 15 years. The last time being 1993. I had memorized the very basic generic rule of commercial paper. That's what the lecturer told us to do. I hadn't memorized all the details and defenses because what's the fucking chance that they're going to test it.
Finally I threw something down about commercial paper because I couldn't think of what else it could be. I got the basic rule down but I didn't know what happens after that.
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All in all, I'd say this was the hardest NV bar exam in the past 5 years. Judging from the essay questions we got from Barbri, definitely a lot harder.
Thank Jeebus for the curve. I bet the passage rate is going to be really low.
The only upshot is - the february exam is only offered in Las Vegas. So if I have to retake it, we can all roadtrip down there and have a party! Woo!
Ok, that's about it. TTFN.
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