I took the Oregon exam two years ago, almost to the day I imagine. I've already exchanged a few "there but for the grace of God go I" emails with friends and classmates today as we recall the horror of the whole experience (and we passed!).

This will certainly seem trite to non-lawyers and people who've suffered real trauma in their lives, but I don't know that I've ever been more emotionally drained than I was after the second day of the test. Shudder.

Good luck to all. Like John said, in the grand scheme of things the trauma of the bar exam is a blip on the radar, it is an absolutely exhausting emotional experience. Three years of school/debt, months of study, and (especially in the current economy) the pressure of years of work coming down to two days and how charitable the essay grader is feeling on #134 of 543 exams they need to get through. Good luck to all.

That explains it: I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

My bro took the Idaho exam multiple times. I believe he may have set the state record before he finally passed. Did this make him a better attorney?

Did this make him a better attorney?

No, but it made it that much longer before he could compete with Idaho attorneys for clients. Existing attorneys are those who elect the bar officials who promulgate the bar's rules of admission among other things.

Full disclosure: I was admitted in Oregon in 2002.

Remember, passing the bar exam demonstrates possession of the minimum level of legal competence required by the various states.

I believe the bar should be set higher after having worked with minimally competent attorneys for the past year.

Somewhere out in the distance I hear the faint sound of an ambulance calling.

My Mom is an atty (retired) in British Columbia. Same common-law system as here.

Over there after law school (same 3 yr system as here) you have to article (clerk) for an atty for a yr or more before you are deemed eligible to take the bar and practice law.

Sort of an implicit admission that law school does a bad job of preparing one to actually practice law.

But it is great if you want to sit around and talk about rent-seeking and the restatements and yammer about Justice Cardozo.

PS Jack no, not all law school profs are like this. If your bar-bri class was an indicator you most certainly do not fall into this class of profs who seem to have their head in the academic clouds.

One of the oddities of the bar exam is that the multiple-choice portion, called the "Multistate" because every state except Washington uses it as part of its bar exam, tests knowledge of general principles and not state-specific law. The "correct" answers to some of the multistate questions, such as those relating to joint tenancy in real property, would be malpractice if given by an Oregon lawyer to an Oregon client.

Good luck to all! I will never forget the day I finished taking the exam. It was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced.

Honestly, I felt better that day than the day I received my results.

And I'm not ashamed to admit that I drank many glasses of wine that night.

Preparing for and taking the bar exam is brutal. Unless you've been there, you can't quite understand.

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