Nine Years Later: Preparing for the Bar Examination

 

Over the years, friends, family members and law students have asked me about my experience preparing for the North Carolina Bar Examination (“Bar Exam”).  Since today – August 25, 2020 – marks nine years to the day that I learned I passed the Bar Exam, I thought this was a good time to provide a high-level view of my bar preparation journey.  

Passing the Bar Exam was truly a culmination of my dreams.  But, in order to truly appreciate the triumph, it is important to understand that “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”  There was more than enough struggle to last a lifetime in that summer.

 

I remember summer 2011 like it was yesterday.  I thought about all of the events I would miss because I would be devoting my entire summer to preparing for the Bar Exam.  My fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, was celebrating 100 years of existence.  I knew I would not be able to attend the celebration. I knew my friends would be enjoying the summer by going to pool parties, day parties and generally doing whatever they wanted to do.  I knew I would be unable to do so.  There was so much work to be done and the stakes were incredibly high.  I was blessed to receive an offer of employment prior to graduating from law school from a Raleigh law firm.  But my offer was contingent upon me successfully passing the Bar Exam in July 2011.  And although firm leadership made it clear that you could take the test again in February should you not pass, I knew that I did not want to have that stress on my back.  I knew that I had to pass on my first attempt.  I was prepared to give everything I had inside of me to accomplish this goal.

 

So, what is the Bar Exam?  It is an entrance examination administered by states to students who have graduated with a law degree.  It tests most of the subjects learned (or should have learned) during law school.  The Bar Exam is offered two times per year – in July and February.  The July examination has historically been administered on the last Tuesday and Wednesday in July.  In North Carolina, it was a two-day examination with 12 essays and 200 multiple choice questions.  Overall, the exam lasted for 12-hours over the two-day period.  It is a beast of an examination.

 

What is bar preparation?  It is exactly what it sounds like.  It is the period of time you spend studying to take the Bar Exam.   Law schools typically advise students to enroll in a formal bar preparation course.  But, as with most services, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.  Luckily for me, the firm who made a contingent offer of employment to me was invested in my success.  So, they paid for my bar preparation course, which cost a few thousand dollars.  But for the firm paying for the course, I would have either had to borrow the money from friends/family, apply for loans, or not enroll in the class at all.  Of course, some students studied independently without taking a formal class. Some students willingly chose this option, while others were forced to do so because they did not have the funds to pay for the preparation course.

 

The bar preparation class started the Monday after I graduated in mid-May 2011.  The class was prerecorded, so you reported to a classroom in the law school to watch a three-hour video on a legal topic such as Torts or Criminal Law.  The preparation class provided each student with an outline for each subject to be covered, which you could fill in as you watched the lectures.  At the end of each session, the goal was to have a nice condensed outline of the subject you studied that day. Some of the topics we covered were: Criminal law, Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Evidence, Torts, Contracts, Business Associations, Property, Real Estate Finance and a host of others.  I want to say there were about 25 topics that could potentially be tested.

 

After the first couple of days of class, I knew I needed to maximize my time.  So, I developed a strict study schedule.  I arrived at the law school at 7:00 a.m. I started reviewing the material from the previous day from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m., which is when we could watch the pre-recorded lecture for the day.  From 9:00 a.m. until about 12:00 p.m., I sat in the class, took notes, and tried to absorb all of the concepts that were being thrown at us.  At times, I felt that the lectures were a review of material I learned during my three years of law school, but other times the material was new. 

 

I usually ate lunch from 12:00 p.m. until 12:30 or 12:45 p.m.  Around 1:00 p.m., I went to my private study location in the law school.  So, this is where I have to show some love to one of my wonderful professors and acknowledge the importance of building strong relationships.  I had one professor who gave me a key to her office.  She told me I could use her office to study because she would be away from the law school for about a month.  When she returned, however, she knew I would not have a silent place to study, so she gave me the keys to another room in the law school library.  This room was secluded.  There were no windows or students to offer distractions.  The room was equipped with a small couch, good lighting and a nice desk.  I spent all of my time in this room.  I took naps on the couch.  To keep it 100, I even took naps on the floor, since the couch was so small.   

 

While studying, I still wanted to take some time to laugh and try to have some semblance of normalcy.  The best way to do this was through social media.  So, I instituted a very strict break routine.  If I started studying at 1:00 p.m., I would work until 1:50 p.m.  Then, for ten minutes, from 1:50-2:00, I would either take a quick nap, return text messages, or browse social media.  But no matter what, at 2:00 p.m., I would get back to studying.  I repeated this cycle until I finally left the law school at 7:00 p.m.  Once I got home, I immediately went to the gym to hit the weights and then I would eat dinner.  By 9:00 p.m., I would sit back down to review topics for another hour or so.  Finally, by 11:00 p.m., I went to bed.  I repeated this cycle every day from mid-May through  July 23.  At that point, I stopped studying all together.  I knew I would be taking the examination on July 26-27.  I knew that I was ready. And, if by chance I was not ready, there was nothing I could do, so I decided to relax my mind.  

 

In hindsight, I believe I over studied for the Bar Exam.  I believe I could have passed the examination if I had studied for 10 hours per day instead of 12-14 hours per day.  I’d be lying if I said this period did not challenge me in just about every conceivable way.  There were times when I felt that I was not doing enough. There were times when I felt incredibly confident.  There were times when I was just in a bad mood because my entire summer was spent holed up in a room with just my thoughts, faith and books.  In an odd way, being able to endure this process in 2011 has helped me cope with the solitude and stress of the global pandemic.

 

To those who are interested in a career in the law, I would encourage you to really think about the benefits and the sizeable costs of pursuing a legal career.  Not every lawyer is wealthy.  The truth is, the legal field is hard, time consuming and particularly difficult if you are a minority.  African-Americans only make up 5% of the legal field.  But if you want to do it, or want to speak to someone about this field, I am happy to share my experience. 

 

Peace