The Almost Daily Word of Wisdom - Paranoia, the Bar Exam and Bar Review Courses

"This is a do-it-yourself test for paranoia: you know you've got it when you can't think of anything that's your fault."  Robert Hutchins (Educational Philosopher, Dean of Yale Law School and Chancellor of the University of Chicago)

When I was the California State Bar Examinations Director, I had a long time to think about bar review courses.  My impression, which I retain, was that many of them pander to applicants' paranoia about the exam.  "If you flunked, it wasn't your fault.  You were the victim of a grand conspiracy to keep you from practicing law, perpetrated principally by lazy and indifferent graders."

Here's a perspective that I think is more useful. The California Bar Exam is (a) an unpleasant necessity; (b) an imperfect but rigorously constructed and managed tool to protect all the legal "clients" of California from practitioners who don't know what they're doing; (c) the product of over 150 smart and earnest people (including question authors, graders, editors, volunteer Committee of Bar Examiners members, and State Bar staffers) who, as they say, are "just like you and me;" and (d) a legitimate intellectual exercise and "gut check" for anyone who wants to be a lawyer.  

With this in mind, I respectfully offer these suggestions.   Do everything you can to figure out what you didn't do correctly or completely that last time you took the exam.  If it was your substantive knowledge, hit the books.  If it was your performance test or essay writing, write and write and write - both on your own and with someone to help you.  If it was stress, or angst, or even panic on exam day, deal gently and patiently with that as well.  Respect the exam, and lose the paranoia.  There's no reason for it, and it won't get you anywhere anyway.





 

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