Under the very best of circumstances, taking the bar exam is a terrible, stressful event. It is the final hurdle before years of hard work and crippling debt can fully be realized in a career that will likely leave you miserable but [fingers crossed] more financially secure.
The February bar exam is all of that pressure, but worse. The amount of February test takers that have taken — and failed — the exam once already is significantly higher than in July. So it is certainly understandable if test takers are a little highly strung. But from reports our tipsters are giving us on the mess of day on at the D.C. bar exam, it seems there were structural issues that fully justify all sorts of jumpiness.
Apparently nobody told the proctors of the D.C. bar exam how important time is to the taking of the exam. At least that is my interpretation since we’ve received reports that they treated it as a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey… stuff.
How Filevine Helps In-House Legal Teams Manage Every Matter With Confidence
AI powers tools for data intake, document management, and drafting contracts.
Let’s hear from our irate tipsters:
Day One of the DC Bar Exam was a serious shit show on the part of the proctors. The most egregious part was when a [proctor] called out 15 minutes remaining when we still had 50 minutes left. This, of course, caused an outburst from the exam takers explaining that we had more time left. The proctor then fought with the group for a good five or so minutes explaining how three hours from our start time of 2:00 was 4:00, and we all got into a cute math argument. The proctor then left the room fuming and huffing at her supervisor to figure out why we were arguing with her about timing. Unsurprisingly, she was wrong and told us that the time was written down wrong. She then announced the new time which was still three minutes off. We then spent three minutes explaining how important three minutes to her.
Well, that sounds horrible. No one wants to take time out of the most important test of their life to argue. And, sure, eventually the issue became a few minutes, but initially the difference was an hour. That is a huge difference on the bar exam.
Another tipster indicated this issue has a history:
Introducing LexisNexis Protégé™ in Lex Machina®
Lex Machina harnesses generative AI capabilities to revolutionize the way legal professionals interact with data to improve bottom line for their business.
When the proctor was finally convinced that the test did not end until 5pm, she defended herself saying, “well it’s not my fault. The instructions are wrong.”The insane part is, I was told the timing error would happen. It’s not the first time a proctor has made this exact mistake in a DC bar exam administration. Which makes me wonder, are the instructions wrong every year? Is that why this keeps happening?
And the issues didn’t stop there:
Along with that mess, there were proctors chit chatting about being bored and their evening plans, causing bar takers to freak out at the disruption. Five minutes prior to the exam ending, the proctors from the other rooms came in to have a loud laughing fest with our proctors. In all, I’d say the disruptions cost test takers at least 15 minutes. Many people, including myself, indicated they’re going to file complaints. I only imagine people will get more hostile if they find out they failed by a few points they could’ve made up on essays.
As Elie pointed out in 2013, when there was yet another bar exam debacle, making sure these issues don’t happen/derail future testees “would require the people administering the bar exam to take the thing half as seriously as the people who are desperate to pass it. Unfortunately, all too often, we know that is not the case.”
New year, same fundamental problem.
If you have more information about this D.C. debacle — or want to report another jurisdiction’s bar exam horror stories — you can email us at [email protected] or send an SMS/text message to (646) 820-8477.
Earlier: Prior Above the Law coverage of bar exam horror stories