My Obsolete Law Library

I was able to sell off a few of my old textbooks before the fall semester started, but I still have a shelf load. Two or three of these are still current and might be in demand come January; it looks like at least eight are in my permanent collection whether I like it or not. Maybe I'll make some really posh book safes.

One week to bar results.

Suitable for Framing

Diplomas finally arrived at the registrar's office this week. You would think that picking up my diploma would be a morale boost, but not so. The career services office has decided that the most efficient way to garner responses to its employment surveys is to distribute them with the diplomas. Thus, every diploma comes with a tacit request to put a dollar value on it. So far, mine is worth zero.

Two weeks to bar results.

Job Hunting

My lack of a law license puts a crimp in my job search, but I can't just sit here and wait. So far I've sent applications to five judges, three law firms, and four government agencies, all in central Arkansas. My applications have resulted in four interviews, but no job offers.

I've also applied for a dozen or so jobs outside the legal field, but no one has so much as acknowledged those applications. I suspect that my law degree actually hurts my chances with a lot of employers; they may see me as overqualified.

Three weeks to bar results.

Bar Exam Postmortem

I don't think I exaggerate when I say the first day of the bar exam was one of the ten worst days of my life. If I fail, I might upgrade it to one of the five worst. I broke the seal on my essay test booklet and felt a little sicker every time I turned a page. The questions seemed calculated to expose my blind spots, and I certainly deserve to fail that part of the test. I might have failed it by a substantial margin.

Fortunately, a strong multiple choice score can whitewash a bad essay score. I wrote in an earlier post that the essays account for just 25% of one's score, but that wasn't quite accurate. The essay and performance tests combine to make up 50%, but I don't know how they are weighted against each other. In any case, multiple choice counts for the other 50%.

So my future in the legal profession boils down to whether I aced the multiple choice test. That means anything could happen. I answered perhaps a quarter of the questions with confidence. The rest were more or less educated guesses between two or three plausible responses. This is consistent with the way my practice tests went. If my hit-to-miss ratio on the real thing was at least as good as my ratio on the practice tests, I have a fighting chance at getting that law license.

Results are made public in five weeks.

I Took the Arkansas Bar Exam

I'll write something about the bar exam experience after my blood cools. For now, there is only this: I feel like I should demand my money back because, in two hundred questions, I was never asked about the rule against perpetuities.

Bar Prep Summary

I had eight weeks to prepare for the bar exam. I did not take a commercial prep course. This is what I did instead:

• Reviewed 570 pages of commercial outlines (about 70% BarBri and 30% Emanuel, just because that was what I could get free or cheap; I preferred BarBri's outlines)
• Answered 1,028 multiple choice questions (735, or 71%, correctly)
• Wrote 42 practice essays (15,600 words total)
• Wrote 5 practice performance tests (3,900 words total)
  
• Invested 180-200 hours altogether

By most standards this is lax preparation, but I feel like it should be enough. I broke my back to get good grades for the last three years, so I shouldn't have to cram here at the end. My practice work adds up to roughly five bar exams. Number six will count.

Inventory

This is the kit I'm bringing with me to the bar exam.
1. Laptop (essays are on day one).
2. Two pencils, two pens, and two highlighters. No sense risking being caught without the right writing implement.
3. Eraser. I probably won't need this until day two (multiple choice), but I might as well pack it now.
4. Soda. Because I think the stress-reducing effects of a swig of sugar water will outweigh any loss of time that results from extra bathroom breaks.
5. Earplugs. I never used these for law school tests, but the bar exam will probably be more crowded and louder.
6. Gum. The all-purpose stress reliever.
7. Origami paper. Applicants have been instructed to take their seats thirty minutes before test time. I'll need something to pass the time.