The first thing I’m going to urge you to do, now that the bar exam is over, is to take a deep breath. You did it! No matter the outcome, you poured your heart into your studying for the last 8+ weeks, you did your best on the exam, and now it’s over. Now, hopefully, you have some time off between this crazy endeavor and starting your job. If you don’t, no worries. Keep breathing and jump right into your new career! This is what it was all for.
When I took the bar the first time, the only thing that got me through was knowing I’d have at least a month off between the exam and starting my job as a communications specialist. I planned to travel on an extended road trip with my best friend and really relax. In fact, just before the afternoon session on the second day of the exam, I jumped at the opportunity to head to New Hampshire for a weekend of boating and relaxing with said friend. It really helped the tension of the afternoon slip by and remind me that this was just an exam. It did not decide my worth, it was simply a test. [Read more…] about What to do With the Break Between the Bar Exam and Starting Your Job
As I’m sure you’ve heard me say a few thousand times already, I failed the bar the first time. The difference between my first bar prep experience and my second, couldn’t be any farther apart. This was a purposeful design, as my first attempt was spent with a giant cloud of anxiety hanging over my head, and I decided for my second attempt that I could not live like that any more.
I went to law school with the intention and understanding that when I came out, I’d be working for a family company as their in-house counsel. But that didn’t happen. Instead, I had to take the bar exam, failed the bar exam, and had to face taking it a second time. I couldn’t figure out how to look for a job while studying for the exam because there just wasn’t enough time in the day to do it all and rest.
When I first started law school, the bar exam seemed so far away, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. I was terrified by the process – so terrified, in fact, that I never asked what the admissions process was like.
From the day law school starts, you are inundated with offers from commercial bar prep programs for lower rates, free highlighters, or candy, in return for signing up to use their program. Many of my classmates locked in these specials within the first semester of school and had their payments broken into portions that were then added to their school tuition bill. Half-way through second year, one company had joined forces with my law school to offer their prep program as part of the tuition fee – everyone got it automatically, but you could opt out. 
“You can’t pour from an empty cup.” I don’t know about you, but I heard this phrase quite often during my first year of law school – mostly from people not in law school who were worried about my stress levels. And I can remember thinking, “they just don’t get it. This is the path I chose, and I will always be stressed out and fried.”