Bar Exams

4 Tips For Life Beyond The Bar Exam

Life lessons from July 2017 bar exam prep.

By  
on

The bar exam, like any stressful situation, challenges people to change and grow. Every class of students is different, but there are a few underlying themes that hinder bar takers year after year. With July 2017 bar prep in the rearview mirror, I reflected on a few of these concepts and came to the realization that bar takers face some roadblocks that we all face in regular, day to day life.

1- Make peace with the unknown

When it comes to the bar exam, one of the biggest challenges students face is memorizing any and all law that they can possibly be tested on. I try to tell them, early and often, that memorizing everything is never going to happen. Honestly, it is not supposed to. Part of the bar exam’s charm is not knowing exactly what you will be tested on and having to figure out a way to address it on game day.

What ultimately hurts the student, however, is an inability to make peace with the unknown. The fact is they know what can be tested but not exactly what will appear on the test itself. And this element of the unknown can wreak absolute havoc on their confidence and ability to focus. They worry, and worry, and worry until they are so distracted they can’t focus on actually learning anything. And you know what happens? They get to the bar exam, and there is STILL something they have never seen or don’t remember.

Life lesson #1: Worrying about something isn’t an insurance policy that it won’t happen. Instead, it is more productive to focus your energy on what you can control with your own efforts (or at least that is what my therapist tells me).

2- Spend more time working than looking for shortcuts

In contrast, some of my students go the exact opposite way of trying to learn “all the law” and instead become completely obsessed with the statistics of the exam. They want to know exactly what is tested, how frequently, and in what format. They can lose hours and hours of studying (and sleep) to late night Google binges complete with online score calculators and predictors. And then they wonder why they feel super stressed out and that they have no time. Sometimes, they even go so far as to rely on the predictions they find to inform where they focus their studying.  I’ve talked to more than one heartbroken student in October who said “but they PROMISED there wouldn’t be a Secured Transactions essay…”

Sponsored

Life lesson #2: I get it, when a task seems overwhelming, a natural reaction is to try to find ways to either 1. Not do it at all or 2. Do it faster. However, if you don’t have time to do it right the first time, you probably don’t have the time to do it all again.

3- A lack of self-confidence kills dreams

Sometimes when I am talking with a bar taker who is having a low confidence day, I feel as if I am listening to a possessed version of Thomas the Tank Engine that has been reprogrammed to say “I know I can’t, I know I can’t.”

Frequently, students start off bar prep with preconceived notions about their abilities. I hear a lot of “I’m bad at multiple choice questions,” “I can’t write essays,” and “I’m not a good standardized test-taker.” Together, we work hard to challenge these limiting self-beliefs and grow not only their skills, but also their confidence.

The hardest part for me to watch is that these students, who are so quick to believe the absolute worst for themselves, are often the first ones to encourage and believe in a friend. It is as if they believe everyone is destined for greatness, except them.

Sponsored

Life lesson #3: Mindset matters. To be fair, I’ve known this one for a long time. But watching my students challenge self-doubt and gain self-confidence every day for the last ten weeks has been a truly inspiring reminder of this important concept.

Bonus lesson: Also equally important to both the bar exam and life, if you really don’t have the self- confidence you need, then you must fake it ‘til you make it.

4- Prioritize or perish

Not to be dramatic, but this is a relatively accurate statement when it comes to bar review. In order to successfully study for and pass the bar exam, most people have to give up all other things in their life. No work, no friends, no Netflix, and ABSOLUTELY NO SOCIAL MEDIA. Studying for the bar exam is the perfect example of the concept of short-term sacrifice for long-term gain. And that concept is completely lost on some people.

I’ve heard all sorts of creative reasons as to why assignments haven’t been completed, ranging from “it was my dog’s birthday” to “I couldn’t say no to tea with my grandma.” While one of these is arguably more valid than the other (and I’ll let you decide which one), allowing either to keep you from completing your assignments indicates a lack of prioritizing the task at hand.

If a schedule is properly managed during bar review, there is time to study effectively, finish assignments, play fetch with Rover, and have tea with Nana. Time and time again, I see the students who are able to successfully strike this balance reach their goals more easily and with less stress.

Life lesson #4: If you are not intentional with your time, it will disappear.

This is not an exhaustive list of all issues bar takers face, nor is it an exhaustive list of life lessons, obviously. However, in my experience, finding ways to manage these things makes students stronger, less stressed examinees and arms them with a new set of tools to face life and its many, inevitable challenges.

Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at <a

Topics

, , ,