“‘Elephant in the room’ … is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.” Wikipedia
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Unknown origin.
My sense is that to many students the Bar Exam is the elephant in the room. It seems constantly to be on everyone’s mind. It’s both a perpetual topic of conversation and an enormous source of stress. Despite its importance though, many students take few concrete steps during law school to prepare realistically for it. Some 3L’s come into my ALW Bar preparation classes not even knowing what’s on it.
Getting through law school and finding a job are a major energy suck, not to mention having at least a close-to-normal life. I get that. Nonetheless, the adverse career and self-esteem effects of not passing on the first attempt are very real. And, not many more than six in ten Santa Clara students are statistically likely to get their “tickets” to practice on their first tries. That’s a nearly four in ten chance of failing, from which nearly no one is exempt, regardless of their class ranks.
Here’s the real issue though. I may be wrong, but I worry that what really keeps many students from approaching bar exam preparation realistically is anxiety. It figures – doesn’t it? The Bar Exam is an enormous challenge with an uncertain outcome. That can generate a ton of unhappy questions: “How will I master all the material?” “Where will I find the time to do everything that my bar prep course recommends?” And, of course, the big question: “What if I fail?” Who wouldn’t want to avoid this predicament?
I have a slightly different view of the Bar Exam though. It doesn’t have to generate big, scary questions. It doesn’t have to be the elephant in the room! Until you get to within a month of taking it, you don’t need to, and probably shouldn’t even think too much about it being the big, impenetrable Mount Everest of exams.
Consider thinking about it this way instead. Bar preparation is nothing more than a series of small, very doable tasks. Some are complicated, but many, if not most are not, especially if you start early.
Here’s what I mean. The first day of commercial bar preparation for the July 2016 Exam is roughly 280 days away. The Office of Academic and Bar Success recommends that students answer at least 2,000 practice MBE questions to have the greatest chance of first time passage. An elephantine number to be sure.
But look at it this way instead. Of those 280 days 200 are weekdays. If you could answer ten MBE practice questions every weekday, you’d have your 2,000 before “official” bar prep even begins. If you took 1.8 minutes per question, the precise time allocated to each question on the “live exam,” this practice regimen would take less than 20 minutes a day.
Not ready for that? How about a little non-threatening preliminary planning? If you haven’t enrolled in a commercial course yet, spend an hour before the annual bar fair begins on September 21st preparing a list of questions to ask every provider. Thinking about studying with a group of classmates? Spend an hour getting that dialed in. Spend an hour making a list of legal topics you remember not completely “getting” as a 1L or 2L. Then, spend another hour investigating each of those topics until the light bulb goes on. It’s all good. No effort will be wasted. The key though, is to get started – I mean really get started.
Before you know it, you may find yourself more connected to the Exam, less anxious about it and, not incidentally, more prepared to take it.
One bite at a time – right?
