Sixty-Five-Year-Old Man Takes Bar Exam

First, let’s set the appropriate musical accompaniment for this post:

Next, let’s say those adoring fans are the tens of thousands of recent law grads and other bar admission candidates, such as myself, who are taking a bar exam next Tuesday and Wednesday. Now I’ve set the mood.

The above graphic shows that I’ve completed nearly all of my assignments in the Themis bar review course. The only remaining substantive assignment is to read the instructions for taking the exam (I’ve done that twice, so far) and travel to the exam site. Saturday I leave for Durham. Monday I will attend my character and fitness interview at a Raleigh law firm, and then drive over to the McKimmon Conference and Training Center, where I will be taking the exam. My packing list includes the exam admission ticket and candidate statement understanding the rules of conduct, both signed. Also on it are my laptop and its power supply, already packed in the bag.

I have made significant progress in my essay answers over the past two weeks, earning a 5 out of 6 on my final graded essay. I am much better at following the traditional IRAC pattern in my answers: setting out the issues, rules, analysis, and conclusion. No doubt I will encounter an essay prompt where I have not fully memorized all the rules, but I think that I can avoid a full panic in that situation. If I cannot elucidate the rule, I will set out alternative rules and their outcomes based on common law or analogous statutory principles.

My performance on the MBE practice has left me with the belief that at the end of Tuesday, the day of essays including the Multistate Performance Test, I will have a good feeling for whether I will pass the exam. The official notice should arrive by postal mail by the first week of September.

My study plan between today and the exam is to again review the lecture handouts, which I find to be lucid and fairly comprehensive.

To paraphrase Lin-Manuel’s Alexander Hamilton at the Battle of Yorktown, “See you on the other side of the exam!”