The Bar

For those who don’t know I thought I would begin today by telling you a little about the bar exam. After having completed three years of legal education at an accredited law school, you must pass the bar exam administered by state bar organizations to have a license to practice law. Each state’s bar exam is unique but almost all states use a two or three-day format. Most states incorporated the Multistate Bar Exam, (MBE) a six-hour, 200 question multiple-choice exam as a component of their test. The MBE is then is followed by a State-specific law, which is often tested on a second day, usually in essay format. So needless to say it is intimidating to even the stoutest of souls.

My first goal in the attempt to pass the bar was to sign up for a bar review course, which meant I had to decide what bar review course to take. This was not an easy decision. There are two major contenders I considered. When trying to decide which to sign up for the first thing I considered was price. Company 1 I locked in the price of 2009 during my 1L year (first year law, to lay persons) but I did not with Company 2. However, Company 1 is always more expensive. Any law student will tell you that money is tight. The average debt for a law student at graduation is $120,000. Thankfully, I am lower than that number. But not by that much so the price tag is definitely a consideration. 

Everyone recommends when taking a bar review course to go to actual classes, though you do have the option of completing an online course. So second, for Company 1 and 2, I investigated the locations and schedules for the courses teaching the bar for my state. All were equally inconvenient, so this did not really help me decide anything other than I will be taking the bar review online. 

A friend helped me make the final decision. She graduated last semester so she took the bar in February and took her bar review from Company 2 because it was less expensive. Through her studying she discovered many errors and inconsistencies in the course. Due to this, I decided to go with Company 1. The bar results were just released for the February exam and 3 extremely intelligent people I know, to my great surprise, did not pass the bar. All took the bar review course with Company 2. This could very well be a false correlation but I would rather not take my chances.

So my bar review course is now locked in, and paid in full. Still having some lingering sticker shock from the price tag. Since I will be taking the bar review course online I have decided financially it makes more sense to close my apartment by school, store my furniture (bless my brother for letting me store my stuff at his house), and fly home to study. (I went to school out of state) This will help lower costs and maybe take a little stress off me because I will be closer to friends and family.

There is a local library exactly 2 miles from my family’s home. My goal is to study everyday at the local library. As I will not have a car on this visit I will have to walk to the library. Partly in consideration of my family, they won’t have to tip-toe around me while studying, and partly because this will help me get some of the exercise I need I will be walking to and from the library everyday.

More goals to come tomorrow :)