What are bar exams in the US like?

[Tom_Tildrum]

There is a feature in the scheduling of many states that allows one to take two bar exams in one year. The MBE is given on the same day in all states, let’s say August 20. Some states will hold their essay day on August 19, and some on August 21. Someone who is quite driven can thus sit for two exams. Of course, this wouldn’t work for a state with a three-day exam.

Virginia has a few quirks. The August bar exam is only given in Roanoke, a smallish town a few hours’ drive into the mountains. One has to wear courtroom attire to the exam, except that because it is held in a basketball arena with a squeaky floor, tennis shoes are required.

The year I took it, they were experimenting with an optional third day, and all they would say was that if we took the third day and did well enough to some unspecified degree, we might get some unspecified amount of extra credit. I skipped it.

I found the exam exhausting. I was buying snacks in a 7-11 after the first day, and the clerk told me, “you look terrible.” The cheap Holiday Inn where I was staying had an adult channel on the TV that was showing “Bimbo Bowler Babes From Buffalo,” and I told myself that after the first day, I would reward myself by watching it. When the first day was over, though, I was so exhausted that when I got back to the room I just fell right to sleep. Ever since then I’ve been trying to find that movie, to no avail.

[Hello_Again]

@Cliffy

Pshaw!

You’re in your Bar review class 15-20 hours a week for about eight or nine weeks. IIRC they did say to spend an hour studying for every hour you spent in class, but I don’t know anybody who actually did that. Studying for the Bar is a monumental task, no doubt, but it’s hella easier than working.

–Clliffy

Don’t pshaw me. My bar review class ran 9-2 every day, with the first week being a 6 day week. After class everyone would retire to their library of choice to do practice questions and write flash cards or outlines or whathave you. I was “unusual” in that I would normally cut out at 6pm and not study on sunday. It started the day after graduation (which was 2 days after my last final), and ran 10 consecutive weeks.

Everyone I knew did that, and most did far more.

Working is much, much easier than studying for the Bar. And yes, I am working.

[Acsenray]

I agree with Cliffy. I did very little studying outside of attending bar review courses for 4-5 hours a day and doing a few practice multistate exams.

[Max_Torque]

@Drain_Bead

First day is state essays. You get a short fact pattern, and you have to decide what law to apply to it. You are not told which area of law it’s covering, you just have to figure it out based on what the facts are. Potential areas include Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Wills and Estates, Property, Civil Procedure, Corporations, Commercial Paper, Secured Transactions, Contracts, Torts, and Evidence. There’s probably something else I’m forgetting, but it’s been almost six years now. You get 30 minutes for each essay.

I know for certain that one of the areas in Texas is Guardianships, because my exam had a big honkin’ guardianship question that I had no idea how to answer (I’d skimmed the materials in favor of studying other major subjects, figuring, how likely would it be that guardianship would come up? Apparently pretty likely). Texas also can have questions on Oil & Gas, which most other states probably don’t have.