Category: Repeaters

Welcome to 2020, where “social distancing,” “the new normal,” and “stay home” are the new meme phrases to replace “in this economy.”

But life and the bar go on relentlessly no matter the state of the planet.

It’s that time yet again. Results for the 2020 February bar exam are in for every state (pass rate in California 26.8% WTF?).

Anxiety squirting into your heart every time you thought of the moment of truth. Heart ricocheting around your ribcage as you check for your name on the pass list.

Waiting is the hard part. It’s even harder to get non-lawyers to shut up about obligatory “aww… you got this” and “I’m sure you passed” comments for weeks and months.

Well, I’m just gonna ask you. Did you pass?

Bar exam takers are some of the most anxious and superstitious people on the planet.

• They spend more time agonizing over which subjects will be tested than actually preparing for each subject (…and then get really mad when the subjects actually get leaked, like they did for the California Bar Exam in 2019)
• They plug numbers into score calculators to figure out how many wrong MBE answers they can get away with… AFTER the bar (I’m also guilty of this)
• They get worked up over the smallest indications of possibly passing the bar (“My account won’t let me sign up for the next bar exam! My character and fitness status is different! There’s some text that changed colors! I “hacked” my account and read HTML markup and my tea leaves just moved on their own! Does this mean I passed the bar?! Do they even have my answers???”)

It wouldn’t surprise me if someone used a ouija board to divine what a magic 8-ball would say about their bar results.

I’m only judging a little bit because it’s natural to get anxious over a high-stakes exam. But we sometimes focus on minutiae too much that ultimately doesn’t matter.

One such question that some repeaters (or first timers who don’t take it in July) have is whether they should take the bar in February or July. The lingering concern is whether the bar is harder in February than in July. Is it really?

This is an understandable question but one that you need not worry about too much.