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Dudes.  The CA Bar Exam… it’s as much a test of reading comprehension and endurance as it is a test of legal knowledge.  I don’t think they could have tested more on Professional Responsibility if they tried.  Many topics I was ready for did not come up on he exam, which I expected to happen, but the fact that so many of the topics that did come up were so… intentionally obtuse… ugh.

So, the BarBri class that everyone takes to prep for the bar exam (and there is one for every State) is a class just to help you pass the Bar Exam.  There are no silly aspirations of teaching law in the 10-week course, just learning the knowledge needed to defeat the Bar Examiners.  BarBri looks at the past 25 years of exams, and notes what topics within each area of law have been heavily tested, which have not, the format of questions, the expected style of answers, and teaches students how to best form their answers to these expectations.  Of course, the Bar Examiners of every State dislike BarBri for doing this, and so they will tend to mix things up, just to be unpredictable and maintain the difficulty of the Bar Exams.

This means that BarBri and the States Bar Examination Boards are engaged in a big game of cat-and-mouse at the expense of us lawyer candidates.

The essays really emphasized this game.  It was as if the CA Bar Examiners said, “Okay, let’s test you on Civil Procedure, but not on Personal Jurisdiction; let’s test you on Constitutional Law, but not on the individual rights; et’s test you on Professional Reponsibility, but not the Duties of Confidence or Loyalty; and let’s test you on Torts (i.e. personal injury claims in civil-not-criminal court), but let’s pick a tort that we’ve only mentioned once in the past 25 years of giving this exam that no one ever bothers to study because it is so minor.” 

Many people were cursing under their breath at the end of the morning on day 1 and day 3.

Whatever, it’s over and hopefully I passed.  I find out in late November, and since the CA Bar Exam has something like a 65% pass rate, it is entirely possible that I failed.  So who knows, but I didn’t leave anything in reserve, and I finished every question completely, so whatever will be will be.  Until mid-September, I get to relax and recover.  Today specifically is to be spent physically recovering, and likely planning out my flight to SD.

Also, random links because I feel that I need to provide them to start to feel a little normal again: Bacon Explosion (via my GF) and China malaise regarding Twitter (via orangejello).

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