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: The Present Tense

Got Those Bar Exam Blues

For the last month, my life has become studying for the bar exam. Needless to say, this has not been much fun, and I'm not looking forward to continuing on this path, and actually ramping up, over the next month. The typical day is going to class for 3.5 hours, and then studying at home for an additional 3-5. On the weekends, it's usually a solid 5-8 hours of studying, interspersed with checking fantasy baseball stats. This repetition is slowly eating away at me, and I'm really ready for it all to be done with.

My general feeling is that the bar exam is nothing short of a hazing ritual. The whole becoming a lawyer thing is actually a hazing ritual. First, they put you through 3 years of law school, which generally doesn't teach you how to be a lawyer. Then, they make you take a test that covers numerous subjects that most lawyers don't practice. There are some useful basics tested on the exam, but for most attorneys, they'll never use 80% of the material tested on the bar. I mean, seriously, when am I going to need to know the elements for common law arson(the malicious burning of the dwelling house of another) again?

The reason I am bitching so directly about the bar exam is, sort of, because I can. Today, I was declared morally fit to be an attorney in the state of California. Of course, that expires in 2 years (I guess as AH says, it's like a smog check), so I can't say anything too crazy, and I'm always subject to discipline too.

So all the steps for me to becoming a lawyer, except the last one are complete now. I've graduated, passed the MPRE and been declared morally fit. All that's left is this pesky bar exam.

Full post as published by The Present Tense on June 21, 2007 (boomark / email).