Anniversary: Graduated Law School – The Real Studying Began
Today marks the day two years ago that I completed all of my coursework for a Juris Doctorate Degree from Rutgers University School of Law. How excited I was and how naive!
Little did I know that the real work and the real stress was about to begin. Christmas went by in a blur that year as I descended into my dark cave of bar exam study only to return to the light of relationships, movies, leisure reading and dinner conversation at the end of February. Ten weeks of total immersion in things I frankly cannot remember on my best days of mental acuity.
My plan was to use the self paced study program prepared by The Study Group. Their material is much more imaginative and beneficial than their vanilla name would let on. I had charged the $1500 to my credit card just before Thanksgiving and the unopened box of bar study materials would be my only Christmas present that year. How I longed for coal!
I listened to lectures on my iPod as I walked the neighborhoods around my home in the woods of Indian Mills, New Jersey. People stared as I audibly recited the mnemonic devices, a babbling scholar drowning in a see of disjointed letters and corollary words. People steered clear and I appreciated it. I silently seethed with jealousy as the people in the diner talked about ball games, television episodes, current events and anything non-law related as I waited for my eggs and coffee.
At home I attempted to stay engaged, a wonderful wife and a precocious ten-month old lovingly demanded my attention when I could give it. She told me she would love me and others said they would not think any less of me trying to pass the bar, be Mr. Mom and pastoring a church if somehow I could not break through on the first try. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that JFK failed the bar multiple times I could have paid off my student loans.
The second part of my bar prep was to do the free course with Debbie Sanders. Rutgers Camden did a great job contracting Debbie to teach essay writing for the bar exam. Not only did I learn how to write an essay specifically for the New Jersey Bar Exam (some students were also studying for the Pennsylvania Bar Exam) but Debbie did a wonderful job encouraging our harried and defeated bunch. I think Rutgers still offers the course but even if they don’t Debbie tutors for the bar privately. If you need to contact her I can get her info for you.
I went to some of the Barbri classes at the law school but for me they were a waste of time. A video presentation on a small tv cart was not going to help me so I just went back to studying my outlines, listening to lectures on my iPod and doing a couple thousand questions.
The days of the exam came at the end of February and I walked out certain that I would be sitting back down to take the exam again in a few months. After the last day’s test I sat down with a friend at Elephant and Castle in Cherry Hill to debrief and went home for a late dinner. That night my wife surprised me with news that we would be having another child. I am so glad she did not find out until after the testing was over!
For all of those about to sit down for the New Jersey Bar Exam I would offer a few tips:
- Use some form of specific study material, there are a few out there. It is worth the few thousand dollars it might cost. Think of it as insurance against six months of lost wages and how many billable hours you will gain by passing the test the first time out.
- Do something for the essays, maybe it is a class like I was able to find at Rutgers-Camden or a private tutor. Preparing for the MBE – Multistate Bar Exam is not the same as preparing for the Essays.
- Write Essays and have the critiqued. If you cannot get into a class or find a private tutor, ask the Dean for the name of an adjunct who could review your essays.
- Lean on the Law School. Even if you think they don’t care a bit about you, it is simply an economic issue for them. They make their bones on bar exam passage rate which increases their prestige and if they ever want to get a dollar of alumni dollars they need you to nail this. Tell them what you need to succeed.
- Take a day or two off at Christmas and New Year’s or if taking the July test, Independence Day. Also take a day off right before the test and go do something you love. Remind yourself why you went to law school – to make enough money in less hours to go do things you want to do! Most drones forget that and burn out on the law becoming wretched shells of people. Don’t be one of them and that starts now.
- Do 2,000 or 3,000 questions. I did sets of 25 and 50 a couple times per day. I hated it but the only way to really learn how to ride a horse is to get on a horse. Do questions. Do more questions.
- Make flash cards for the questions you miss and review those. You will end up with hundreds of cards at one point, then before the test you will get down to fifty and you know you will be ready.
- Do two practice tests, one six to eight weeks out and one two weeks out. Do not do one three days before your exam – it will only freak you out. You will fail the first miserably and probably the second. I did, I also passed so relax.
- Go to the hall where you will take your test. Walk around some. Even if you have to slip someone a twenty go in, find the room, find the bathroom and visualize you blowing through this thing.
- Pack your stuff for the test the week before. Use the bag when you study. Get used to it.
- Stay close to the site if you need to. I watched four people come late because of traffic and car problems. They were defeated before they started. Three didn’t even finish the first day they were so psyched out. I was up way too early, drove to a coffee shop a half mile from the site, had my coffee and knew that even if my truck would not start I could run the last stretch and be on time.
Two years later and I sit in my chair typing and reflecting. I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with my two year old, gave my one year old a bath and am thankful that I don’t have to start a descent into the dark cave of studying for the NJ Bar Exam tonight. But I survived, and you will too.
Published by: admin on December 12th, 2009 | Filed under General
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James Schroeder, Esq.
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