Bad economy can make taking the bar exam even more stressful 

Posted: 1:00 am Mon, July 27, 2009
By Michelle Lore

The lack of sleep, quick meals, missed social events and late-night studying will soon be over. This week more than 830 would-be lawyers will flock to the RiverCentre in St. Paul for two days to sit for the Minnesota bar examination.

Test takers say that preparing for the exam has been stressful, in part because of the vast amount of information they must digest and to a lesser extent, the uncertain economic times. But for most, thoughts of anything but the exam have been put aside for the past eight weeks.

“All of the issues with the economy and employment have to be put in the back of my mind and all of my focus has to be on the law that I need to know for the bar,” said University of St. Thomas School of Law grad Rasheen Tillman, who has not yet found employment. “If in the end I don’t pass the bar I wouldn’t have a job anyway, so it all comes down to passing.”

Scott Swanson, director of academic achievement at the University of St. Thomas Law School, runs a dedicated bar review course that meets twice a week in the two months leading up to the exam. He said that despite the downturn in the economy, he doesn’t think that the stress level of test takers is higher than usual.

“Bar exam stress is its own separate thing,” he said.

Laptop use

It won’t be a record year for the number of people taking the Minnesota bar — that record was set in July 2007, when 871 individuals sat for the exam. However, this administration of the bar will set a record for the number of test takers using laptops to take the essay portion of the test.

According to Margaret Corneille, director of the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners, 690 of the 835 individual who have signed up for the exam (or about 83 percent) will use laptop option this time around.

When test takers were first allowed to use computers in July 2003, only 51 of the 679 people who sat for that exam took advantage of the opportunity. The number has grown every year, with a huge spike between 2005 and 2006 when it nearly tripled.

Computer users are required to download blocking software that prevents from them accessing anything on their laptop other than the word-processing program during the exam.

William Mitchell College of Law graduate Emily Swann will be one of the computer users this year. She said there’s no spell check option and most likely no cut-and-paste option — just simple word processing. “I think they are trying to make it as fair between [those who use a laptop and those who use a pen] as possible,” she said.

The use of computer technology for other aspects of the bar exam has grown as well, primarily the studying process.

Most bar exam takers go through the Bar/Bri preparation course, which has traditionally consisted of live lectures and essay writing workshops. Today, the Bar/Bri lectures are also available to students online. Bar/Bri also offers online StudySmart software to help students prepare for the multistate portion of the exam.

“The software provides hundreds of MBE practice questions,” said University of St. Thomas Law School graduate David Platt, who is taking the Wisconsin bar this week. “Students are able to readily determine which subject areas they are strong in and which subject areas require additional preparation.”

Some students forgo the traditional bar review prep plan altogether, however, instead opting for home study courses such as Study Group, which includes audio lectures that can be downloaded onto an iPod.

Living the law

Whatever study methods the law grads employ, it’s a stressful time for them.

“Everything in my life came to a halt,” said Tillman. “I live, breath, and sleep the law. I am trying not to burn out, but it is tiring studying day after day for such long hours.”

While the stress is real for all test takers, those law grads who don’t have a job lined up may feel it more keenly.

“There’s this fear that you really do have to pass it or people aren’t going to hire you,” Swann explained.

University of Minnesota Law School graduate Aaron Kinser, who expects to begin working with the Army JAG Corps in a couple of months, acknowledged having secured employment takes a little of the edge off.

“I think it would be difficult trying to do both — having to worry about looking for a job while studying for the bar and being concerned about what I’m going to do after taking the bar,” he said.

Despite intense competition for law jobs right now, for many test takers job searches have taken a back seat to bar study for the time being.

“I learned pretty quickly that I had to choose between my job search and studying for the bar,” said Tillman. “Completing job applications and interviewing is so time-consuming and stressful that it can take all of your energy and time away from studying for the bar.”

Similarly, while Swann has sent out a couple resumes over the past two months, most of her time has been spent studying. “I’ll pick up my job search after the bar,” she said.

Swann pointed out that even those who do have jobs lined up are anxious about passing the exam.

“If you have a job most employers presume you’ll pass the bar,” she said. “So there’s this pressure that you have to pass or you’ll lose your job.”

Platt said that his employer, a law firm in Appleton, Wis., has been very supportive of his study efforts. “The firm has encouraged me to focus on bar preparation rather than work during the summer months,” he said.

Hamline University School of Law graduate Neda Shahghasemi, who is taking the New York bar exam this week, is one of the lucky ones — she has a job lined up that doesn’t actually require her to pass the test. (She’ll be working as an international case manager for the American Arbitration Association in Manhattan.)

“It’s had a great effect — just knowing that no matter what, I’ll have something to do even if I don’t pass,” she said. “Not having that stress helps a lot.”

Some test takers, particularly those who’ve not yet secured employment, say the tough economic times have actually drawn them together.

Because most people don’t have jobs, they feel a certain sense of camaraderie, said Swann. “There might be more pressure if the economy was good and most people had jobs and you were the only one that didn’t,” she said.

Platt said a lot of the stress surrounding the bar preparation is a byproduct of the immense amount of information tested. But he’s also practical, viewing the exam as a rite of passage for Minnesota law school graduates. “[It’s] just a part of the process of becoming a lawyer,” he said.