I can see how that would be difficult if you HAD had three years of law school in a jurisdiction that doesn’t really focus on the law/equity distinction any more. I mean, there are separate courts of equity in Virginia, Delaware… anywhere else? o.O
Administrative branch courts are generally constrained to remain within a statutory scheme, rather than on equitable principles. Don’t know if you’d count that since there are no corresponding equity courts.
Actually they combined the law and equity court in Virginia. When you ask? The year AFTER I took the VA Bar exam. Bastards!
I took the KY Bar two years later, and studied by spending an hour flipping thru the KY book for any weird state related stuff. Mostly equine law and oil rights crap. Oh, and I listened to the civil procedure CD on the drive from VA.
Glad you are done, jtgain! I wish you the best of luck.
Okay, I think I’ve fully recovered from the experience, so here are more details:
I grew up in WV, but moved to FL in 2005. I completed my undergrad in 2010 and had a hard decision between Miami Law and West Virginia University Law. For family and other reasons I moved back to WV and went to school here.
Anyhoo, bar exam eve. I drive to Charleston and stay in the Mariott. I have a good dinner and then become terrified, not of the exam, but about what happens if I sleep through the alarm and don’t make it in time. I’m not usually the nervous type, but I was terrified at the idea that I might not be on time.
I got the aforementioned double scotch from the bar, took it to my room, and set my cell phone alarm, hotel alarm clock, and got a wake up call. I posted here, finished my drink and drifted off to sleep at about 12:30. I woke up at 2:10am and never went back to sleep. 
Day 1
I’ve gotten into and out of prisons easier than the Bar exam. Cell phones checked at the door. Nothing allowed in your pockets except for your ID which is then placed on the corner of your table so the examiners can compare at any time. It takes forever to start and we wait about an hour in our seats. No water, coffee, etc. allowed. We are allowed to leave to use the restroom only if we sign out and are accompanied to the restroom with a proctor. No talking to anyone allowed outside the testing area. (I never left to use the restroom, so I didn’t ask if the proctor would shake it for me. ) No leaving for any reason with less than 15 minutes left on that portion and no leaving until all materials were collected.
So, exam #1, the MPT. Many older attorneys have not heard of this. You receive a packet which contains information about a fictional case located in the fictional state of Franklin. It starts with a memo from your “supervising attorney” who asks you to prepare a brief, a memo, a contract, etc. related to the issue at hand. The packet contains other fake materials like depositions, case law, etc. that are used to formulate your answers.
You have 2 of these to do in 3 hours. The first was drafting a motion for summary judgment in a nearly impossible case. I’m convinced that the test was to see how to draft what was in real life a losing argument. The second was rewriting a contract.
Lunch. After waiting 25 minutes to collect the papers. I was confident, I felt that I answered the questions solidly. The “what did you get for #11” guy came around and I screwed with him by telling him that everything he said was wrong. The law school provided a box lunch with the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. I forgot to ask where they got them.
Afternoon session, the MEE. Six essays in 3 hours related to different areas of the law. Apply the majority rule, but also analyze under WV law (the only time that WV specific law is tested). The first 3 were cake, but I struggled with the last 3 on commercial paper and a complicated UCC fact pattern. Only one time (that I saw) did WV law come into play on all of the essays (negligence of a 6 year old: majority holds her to a reasonably prudent 6 year old standard, WV says that she is conclusively incapable of negligence).
After day one, I felt confident. I didn’t blast it out of the park, but I felt that I did enough for a strong passing score. We all went to Chili’s for dinner and I ordered another double scotch. I then became terrified that I would sleep through the alarm the next day. Cell phone, alarm clock, hotel wake up call. I slept from 8pm to 1am and never went back to sleep.
Gotta run for now, I will post about day 2 in a little while.
I just felt a bit nauseous reading your post. So fucking glad I am done with that shit. Never again, I tell ya! NEVER!
LOL. That cracked me up. But wow, things have really changed. I left multiple times to go out for a smoke and maybe I’m misremembering but there were other people in the lobby I could have spoken to had I been so inclined. Next they’ll probably have individual cage crates for the examinees.
Just wait until you pass and you have to be fingerprinted. They treat us like criminals you know. Oh the indignity. :eek: 
Day 2
After lying in bed and watching Bear Grylls eat a yak’s eyeball, I knew that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I packed up my stuff and put it in the truck. I went to breakfast downstairs at 6:30. There were already 5 of my fellow applicants there.
One guy was almost crying. On the aforementioned summary judgment MPT, he had misread the question and had argued for the wrong side. He was convinced he would fail the whole bar exam. I told him that wouldn’t happen just for one silly mistake (although I wasn’t sure).
Day 2 is the MBE! 200 multiple choice questions related to majority law (100 in the morning, the next slab of shit in the afternoon). The first 100 questions beat my ass. There were more than I was comfortable with that I didn’t know the answer. I struggled and strained and the lack of sleep was catching up with me.
We went to a Mexican place for lunch and I got one taco and a giant cup of coffee. I was considering reserving a room at the Mariott in February to retake the Bar. I was sad and disjointed from my performance on the first 100 questions.
After the coffee kicked in, I felt better, but only slightly. I would have done a line of cocaine had it been presented to me. I looked in the mirror and not only were my eyes blackened, but I had “raccoon eyes” that were dark all around. One more giant cup of coffee.
I killed the second one hundred question. Absolutely killed them; answered them with ease. At a reception at the Mariott after the exam, a lot of people were talking about how the FIRST 100 questions were easier. I told them they were all fucking crazy.
I drove home and slept from 7pm until 7am. Rest. Blissful rest.
so? it’s been a month - any news yet, jtgain?
I dont know about WVa, but I’m not aware of any jurisdiction that releases results in less than a couple months.
NY releases results in November.
Two months in Florida. July’s results will be announced on September 24. WV doesn’t publish release date information.
This is reprehensible.
The proper response to that guy is to politely tell him that you don’t wish to discuss the exam, not to actively work to derail his confidence for the remainder of the exam.
You know that they mix up the order of the questions, right? Someone else’s “first 100” may not have been yours.
While I appreciate that emotions are running high during the exam, and that one does what one must to keep it together in order to succeed on one’s own paper, taking this attitude with others is poor, poor form.
… are you serious?
Is there anything that makes you think I wouldn’t be?
Your long and distinguished history of frivolity aside, no.
Excellent point, actually.
But I am perfectly serious. The exam, as you will soon find out, is an insane crucible of emotions, strange circumstances, and sheer lunacy.
People are walking around on a knife’s edge, and everyone is doing what they have to do in order to remain contained. Sometimes that manifests itself in wandering around looking for validation and inadvertently becoming #11 guy.
If you’re going to waste ten words on #11 guy, they should be to preserve your own containment, not to destroy his confidence, which can certainly negatively affect his performance on subsequent days. Everything is magnified in that exam room, and no one should go out of their way to have a negative effect on another examinee.
Is it alright to vomit on other examinees? I plan to do so solely to preserve my own containment, not to affect their confidence.
Results in: PASS! Thanks again, guys.
Congrats! Well-done!
Way to go, jtgain!
Congratulations!