The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • The Results Are In

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    Ruth Carter

    The results from the July 2017 California Bar Exam were posted on November 17th. I suspect you can tell by the delay between results being released and the writing of this post, I didn’t pass.

    Reminder: Rob-tastic and I teamed up with Barbri to document and share our stories from studying for the July 2017 California Bar Exam.

    He’s Zen. I’m Grumpy.

    Bar Results Day
    For the week before bar results were out, I was literally counting down the hours. There was nothing we could do to change the outcome. We just had to wait until the designated time when our results would be available. At 7pm on the button, I input my application number and a screen popped up that said my number didn’t match anything on the pass list.

    I gasped. I did the full-on “gay gasp.”

    I double and tripled checked my number, hoping that I typed it incorrectly.

    No I didn’t. I failed bar exam.

    I texted Rob. He didn’t pass either.

    I was shocked. I spent the rest of the night in a daze with dashes of anger that were more pronounced as the hours passed. (On the flip side, I channeled my anger into a 17.5-mile run the next day. I averaged 9:46/mile.)

    Telling the Friends
    The bar results would soon be public for all and enough people knew the date they’d be released, so I knew I had to face the music sooner than later. Running for three hours gave me time to think about how I’d break the news. When I got back from my run, I posted to Facebook:

    Bad News: I failed the CA Bar Exam.

    Good News: I can bang all the Californians I want b/c the CA Rules of Professional Conduct don’t apply to me.

    I know it’s not the classiest thing to post, but it was right mix of bluntness, anger, and sarcasm in the moment. Of course, all my friends were loving and supportive. Many of them responded with notes that I’ll pass it next time, which I thought was odd because I have no plans to take the California bar next year. My existing obligations and commitments don’t allow me to turn around and try again.

    Will We Ever Take the CA Bar Exam Again?
    Rob-tastic has already said that he’s taking the California Bar Exam again next summer. If he passes the second time around, I won’t need my own California license as long as we’re at the same firm. We’re both still fans of Barbri, and will use them again for future bar exams.

    Oh, and I have to make a confession: I bought postcards planning to send them to our favorite Barbri instructors to thank them for their help during bar prep. We didn’t get to them before the bar exam, and I figured we could send them after we got results. Now I don’t want to send postcards. I still appreciate our favorite instructors.

    So How Are We?
    Rob says he’s “pretty Zen” about his results, “little disappointed, not terribly shaken up.” The fact remains that failing this test doesn’t change the fact that we’re lawyers. We’ve been kept plenty busy with client work, so we don’t have much time to think about this test. He’s putting any extra energy he has towards studying for the patent bar which he’s taking early next year.

    I, on the other hand, am grumpy every time I think about my bar results. Failing was not part of my master plan, and I’m bummed I spent nearly $600 on my California character and fitness application. Thankfully, I have other projects keeping me busy so I don’t think about it often.

    We want to thank Barbri for being our partner in this journey. We don’t attribute any of our results to them. If and when we take another bar exam, we’ll be doing it with Barbri’s help.

  • Solving the Problem of Bar Exam Travel

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    Ruth Carter

    My phone rang at 7:50am this past Sunday. Who in their right mind would call me that early in the morning, and on a Sunday? I looked at the Caller ID on my phone and saw that it was my friend, Erin. We’d tweeted at each other earlier that morning so she knew I was up.

    Erin was in a panic. She was at the airport to fly from Phoenix to Portland to take the Oregon Bar Exam this week.  She was supposed to change planes in Denver and her flight was delayed due to the storm in Colorado. She was petrified about getting trapped in Denver and was calling for advice. I calmed her down and she ended up changing her plans to a direct flight.

    Virginia Bar Exam by Philip Larson from Flickr
    Virginia Bar Exam by Philip Larson from Flickr

    Erin’s situation got me thinking – why do you have to go to a state to take their bar exam? I think there should be a national bar exam, but until we get that, it makes more sense to take the bar exam wherever you live. Everyone takes the bar exam on the same days so why not set the system up so you can take any bar exam at any testing location, but throw in an extra fee for people taking other state bar exams? The main fee would go to the state whose bar exam you’re taking and the extra fee would make it worth other state’s while to let you test in their location. If the fee is cheaper than an airplane ticket, everyone wins!

    The way the system is now, some states have a 2-day exam and some states have 3. I’d change the system so everyone has a 2-day test and make sure the testing time blocks are all the same (3 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon). I’d put the out-of-state test takers a separate room or section to make it easier to give those individuals their test questions. The instructions are the same – answer the questions in the time allotted – so that’s not a problem.

    I don’t think this idea has a potential problem with cheating more than the current system. Only a moron on the east coast would try to communicate with a west coast test-taker and tell them what’s on the test. When I took the bar exam, we had to be at the test location at 6:45am to start the test at 9am. There would be little if any time for someone in a different time zone to tell another test taker what’s on the test. Plus it’s nearly impossible to get a message to anyone during the test. We were only allowed to bring a clear Ziplock bag into the testing room. It could only hold our keys, wallets, and medication pills (no bottles). You couldn’t bring in anything else – no cell phones, no water, no paper, no pencils, no Kleenex, no feminine hygiene products – nothing! There’s nothing to cheat with, and even if you snuck something in, there were proctors everywhere and they’d notice if you did anything suspicious.

    It just makes sense to treat the bar exam like the LSAT or the MPRE – you sign up to take the test at the testing center closest to you. You’ll have to pay a little extra to take another state’s test in your home state, but that’s a better plan than having to risk not being able to take the test at all because you’re trapped in an airport after spending thousands on bar prep, a plane ticket, and a hotel.

  • Love & Support for Bar Exam Takers

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    Ruth Carter

    Postproc by Kokotron Ruth Carter
    Is this you?
    Postproc by Kokotron

    I’ve received three calls in last week from friends who are studying for the bar exam who needed advice and support. To everyone who is studying for a bar exam and starting to freak out, I know where you’ve been. I was you a year ago.

    I definitely had my freak out moments while I was studying for the bar. If it was really bad I would call my friend Eric Mayer. Every time I started to panic he told me that I would be fine if I did whatever BarBri told me to do. It was comforting to hear that. I did always feel confident that I was studying enough, but hearing that following the BarBri plan worked for others was enough to convince me that it could work for me.

    I had my biggest pre-bar exam freak out sometime after BarBri class had ended and I was studying on my own every day. I like to pace when I’m going through my flash card and that day, I felt claustrophobic in my home. It’s important to note that I live in an 1800+ square-foot home and it has an open layout. There’s nothing here that should make me feel claustrophobic. My perception was completely skewed by my anxiety.

    I decided I needed more space, so I slathered sunscreen on my skin, put on my Camelbak backpack filled with water and a hat, and took a 2.5-hour walk with my flash cards on a 110-degree day. I’m sure I looked like a crazy person muttering to myself while walking up the street and flipping through my cards. When I got home, my shirt was completely drenched with sweat.  Even though I was having a freak out, it turned into a pretty good day. My walk took the edge off my fear and I learned a lot about commercial paper and secured transactions in the process.

    Hand Hearts by Krystal T, Ruth Carter
    Hang in there!
    Hand Hearts by Krystal T

    By the day of the bar exam, I was ready to hit it hard. I remember standing around the convention center before the test with some of my law school friends who were older than the average student in our class. We all remarked that taking the bar exam was a challenge, but it didn’t make our lists of the top 5 hardest things we’ve done.  If you have overcome hardship in your life or survived labor and delivery, you can get through the bar exam.

    If you’re studying for the July bar exam, just stay the course. Do whatever BarBri tells you to study and do whatever you need to do to memorize the law. Whatever got you through law school will still work. Make sure you’re eating well and getting though exercise and sleep. The occasional ice cream indulgence also helps ease the pain of bar prep.