If you find this wait frustrating, just think how bad it will be next time around! 
Another fossil from the days of snail mail - ISTR my wife meeting me at the train station w/ a bottle of champagne.
Did they grill y’all on that confusing new Marbury decision? 
Another old geezer story. In the good old days, 40 years ago this year, there was essentially no wait in my state. We wrote for two and a half days, the bar examiners were at a local motel and a half day behind us. At seven o’clock on the evening of the third day the results were posted. By exam number. That was it. The next morning the state supreme court appeared like the God of the Machine, we had breakfast and were sworn in. “Do you swear of affirm…ten dollars, please.” All of this changed when the multiple guess, interstate exam became so popular.
Because Iowa’s exam was so fast all sorts of law graduates from all over the country with tentative federal jobs that required a state law license appeared for the Iowa exam and then disappeared just as quickly as they came.
lezlers, good luck. It’s a fine and noble profession if you want it to be.
One of the reasons why the CA exam has such a low passage rate is that CA has a number of unacredited schools and the CA bar allows students of unacredited schools to take the exam. Couple this with the desirablity of the sunny climes of California - long story short, you have a lot of people concentrated in a single state who probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to attend law school or take the exam anywhere else.
If the OP has the work ethic to be valedictorian, I can’t imagine that keeping up with bar review was a problem. I’m thinking good thoughts for you. I have to go through this process myself in a couple years and I’m not looking forward to it. Have an adult beverage in hand when you find out so you can celebrate or drown your sorrows; hopefully the former.
OK, so it is Friday. Any news?
It’s not yet Friday in California.
And results don’t come out till 6:00 p.m. PST.
Sadistic Bastards.
lezlers, I feel for you. I took the Tennessee exam on July 25-26, and I was 100% certain that I’d failed. I sincerely considered not even going back for the second day of the exam, because I was that sure that I’d completely fucked myself on the multistate portion.
Results came out October 19. By October 17, I was having minor panic attacks, including hyperventilation, heart palpitations, etc., about once every half-hour. Sure, people kept saying, “I’m sure you passed; I’m not worried a bit!” But I noticed that the people who said that stuff were always people who hadn’t actually taken the bar exam. This was not comforting.
October 19 dawned. Results were supposed to be released around noon. By 10 a.m. I was at the computer, looking at the TN Bar’s page, clicking “refresh” every twenty seconds or so.
Then my phone rang. It was my sister. “Congratulations!” she shouted.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I screamed.
“You passed!”
It turned out I’d been looking at the bar association’s page, which isn’t updated until a couple hours after the actual Board of Law Examiners page. (I’m the eighth name in the “R” section there. I still check it every few days.)
Anyway, I passed. And all my friends passed, so there are no awkward conversations. We were all sworn into the Bar by the Tennessee Supreme Court this past Tuesday. I have pictures.
Finally, here’s a story that will curl your hair: One of my classmates showed up on the second day of the exam, thinking it was the first day.
Yeah. He somehow got the date wrong, and just missed the whole first day. I can’t imagine how he fucked up like this; I was counting the hours from about two weeks out. But he did, and I guess he’ll be taking it in February.
Please do let us know what the results are. I’m pulling for you.
It’s about a 50% pass rate overall, but that number is deceptive. For a first time taker who graduated from a school accredited by the American Bar Association, the pass rate is between two-thirds and three quarters. That number is dragged down by repeat test takers (about a 15-20% pass rate) and by those who graduated from one of California’s many unaccredited schools (about a 10% pass rate).
So for someone like me, who graduated from an ABA accredited school, my pass rate was about 3/4; but my school’s pass rate for the California bar was about 90%. In other words, I had a pretty good chance of passing. Of course, that didn’t stop me from worrying.
I don’t know where lezlers went to school, but I’m willing to guess that her chances of passing are pretty good. Hang in there.
I went to a California accredited school. 
And here I’ve always heard that the problem with lawyer jokes is, lawyers don’t think they’re funny, and no one else thinks they’re jokes.
Thanks, Campion, that makes more sense to me now. We don’t have unaccredited law schools up here.
I recommend heavy drinking during the day.
No, not ; use 
Your odds are much much better being from an accredited school. Depending on your particular school’s passage rate, you could almost be a shoo-in.
Hang in there today. I’ve got my fingers crossed for you (and the dozen newly graduated lawyers I work with).
As one who is still in law school (I’m 3L), I’ll send good thoughts your way, lezlers. Heck, I’ll be in a similar position in a year and a half or so.
Muffin, do you need an articling student?
Well, it’s California accredited, not ABA accredited. On the upside, the school is ridiculously easy to get into but near impossible to graduate from. Our class started at 90 students 4 years ago. 30 graduated. The vast majority of the rest flunked out.
6 PM Pacific is crazy man, I want the result stat!
Sorry, I don’t --besides, I’m a sole practioner who keeps pretty much to only a couple of practice areas. As an articling student you would be far better off with a firm that could offer a broader experience. Send me an email culpeperlaw@tbaytel.net setting out what sort of law you hope to get into, and I’ll send you the names of the folks in Thunder Bay whom you should approach for an articling experience that gets your feet wet in some broad areas of law as well as having more in-depth work with your mentor in your particular area of choice.
The problem with the gales of November is that occasionally a zone of temporal distortion oozes out over the left coast, and the clocks slowly tick to a stop.
Actually, I was kind of being tongue-in-cheek, and apologies if that didn’t come through. I’d prefer to stay in Calgary (I’m a mature student and my wife and own a house in Calgary, so I’m not quite as mobile as my classmates who have neither house nor spouse). But it has crossed my mind to look for an article elsewhere, especially since Calgary seems to be a popular articling destination right now, and the competition is intense.
I do appreciate your offer of help though (many thanks!), and if it looks like somewhere else may be a possibility (or heaven forbid, a necessity), then you may yet hear from me. Having lived in Toronto and southern Ontario for many years before moving West, I really should get better acquainted with other parts of Ontario. And I do kind of miss the place.
Thanks again!