Bar Fight

In many ways, law school is a break. It's a nice three-year breather situated between two colossal tests: the LSAT and the Bar Exam.

The LSAT is a bitch. Anyone in law school who has lost weeks and months off their lifespans prepping for the test will tell you that it's almost not worth it. The sleepless nights, the immense stress, and the seemingly endless LSAT problems somehow meld together into a nightmarish cocktail of living hell. The best part is that like the SAT, your score is only useful until you get accepted to a school. After that, it means nothing. For example, I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard the phrase "LSAT" mentioned since coming to Boalt.

The Bar Exam is bigger than the LSAT. Way way bigger. The California Bar is a three-day ordeal covering such topics as Property, Constitutional Law, and Trusts & Estates. Most 3Ls devote their last semester in law school to studying for it. And of course, you can't practice law until you've taken it.

The fact that law school is something of a valley between two standardized test peaks is something I think all law students try not to think about too much. But eventually, the time comes to face The Beast, and the recent law graduate discovers what he or she is made of (turns out it's mostly case law with some doctrine filler).

Given the amount of stress that a life-altering test of this magnitude can impose, it's probably not too heartening then to discover (for us Californians at least) that the California Bar is the hardest bar exam in the country. Mayors, famous attorneys, and even prominent legal scholars have all failed it. On the bright side if you fail, at least you''ll know you're in good company.

*goes back to not thinking about it*