Every law student considers the question of how early to start preparing for the bar exam. If you’re a 1L, should you worry about it? If you’re a 3L, have you waited too long? You can ask four different lawyers this question and get nine different answers. Some will tell you that you should not even think about the bar until you take a bar prep course and some will tell you that you ought to choose your law school electives based around the bar subjects.
But the best answer to this question is probably that you ought to start your bar prep as early as you possibly can by learning how to do legal writing clearly and concisely.
[Read more…] about How Early to Start Preparing for the Bar Exam, and How?
At orientation on the first day of law school, I remember an important-looking man standing at the front of the room and telling people that law school was stressful, so maybe it “wasn’t a great time to stop smoking…if you’re a smoker.” That was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the stupidest advice I’ve ever heard. It’s literally always the right time to stop smoking cigarettes. The guy speaking at my orientation had a point, though: He believed that we each have a limited bucket of discipline, and that we ought to spend it wisely.
Studying for the bar exam sometimes feels like a vortex that swallows up everything. It sometimes feels like the same day over and over, like the movie Groundhog Day, and the only thing that changes is the subject you’re studying. It feels like the outside world has ceased to exist.
If you are at a law school that 
We get this question a lot: “If I take and pass the Uniform Bar Examination (“UBE”), does that mean that I can practice in any state that adopts the UBE?” I’m sorry to tell you, but the short answer is no.
Congratulations! The bar exam is done! You did the work, you paid your fees, and then you sat in a room with a bunch of nervous, sweaty, overworked people just like yourself and now it’s over. Great! But…wait, now what? Well, now you have wait with bated breath for your results and, believe me, waiting is the absolute worst. The bar exam was a challenge, but it’s over now.