Oh yes, make sure you have high-speed access beforehand! The CA Bar results page locks up solid about 90 seconds after they post results- only those first in see them! 
Dial-up is not your friend, unless you want to wait an extra day to see if you passed.
I didn’t drive myself crazy going online like all my classmates did, to check the results the moment they were posted. I waited a few more days for the letter with the full scores to arrive in the mail. Everyone was stunned I could hold out so long, but by that time, I was completely numb, and just didn’t care whether I passed or not.
Law school is pretty general – you can specialize in you latter two years, but you don’t get out of there without taking Criminal Law, Property, Torts, Contracts, Civ Pro., ConLaw, probably Crim Pro., and almost always Evidence. The goal of law school, IME, is to teach you to understand the way the law functions and the broad concepts you need to understand in terms of where they apply and how to evaluate them in any particular case.
Plus, unless you’re overflowing with machismo like Gadarene, you take a bar review class for three weeks or so after you graduate to teach you particular points of law you’ll need for the Bar. And then, at least in the essay sections, you’re often going to be able to pass even if you get the wrong answer simply by showing you understand what concepts and facts are important to the analysis of the particular problem put in front of you. Finally, the Bar is a test of minimal competence – all you need is a C-.
–Cliffy
One thing that shocked me about law school is how our grades are determined; I’ve never heard of anything like this. I believe, but am not sure, that all law schools do it this way:
At the end of the semester, you take an exam for each course. Your grade on the exam is your grade for the course. Period. No intermediate tests, no homework, no quizzes, no extra credit, no participation grade; you take your exam at the end, and that one exam determines your grade for the semester.
Clearly, exams are approximately as stressful as a visit from Torquemada.
In my school most teachers would reward class participation.
I loved the way grades were determined in law school. None of that dicking around with problem sets, prelims and mid-term essay. You either knew your shit or you didn’t; either way you didn’t have to spend every waking moment drilling.
–Cliffy
Fuck law school. Worst thing I ever did.
YMMV, of course, but I had a great time at law school. so much so I went to repeat it at a couple more law schools.
Was it the law school experience, Big Bad Voodoo Lou, or the law generally? are you in practice, or doing something else now?
I walked away from it all, and I’m reinventing my career and my life now. Still have the law school loans to pay off, though.
So you have to wait four months to find out if you passed the bar before you can practice law?
What’s the hold up? Is the wait that long in every state?
What percentage of people taking the bar pass it the first time?
I ask because my step-daughter is taking the bar sometime this summer. Whenever everything is legal, she will be processing her own adoption papers and I will become a mother!
I’m sixty-two and this is my first baby. I’ve been expecting since Thanksgiving of 2004.
Congratulations, Gadarene! I would buy you a beer and sooth your fevered brow if I could.