Expedition: Bar Exam
Blondini joins us this week as a guest poster.
So I have started the expedition made by thousands of law school graduates every June, lasting until the end of July. For two months we will will stagger between Starbucks and the library while our family and friends bask in the sun unfettered and revel in the joys of summer. For recent grads, the torture of law school has morphed into an 8 week preparation for the “hardest test of our lives”. Two weeks ago I began the grueling process of studying for the New York Bar Exam with BAR/BRI and was pleased to discover that Bar preparation was quite entertaining.
On the first day, BAR/BRI gave us two pieces of advice, that (essentially) were:
- Strive for mediocrity.
- If you ever start to doubt yourself, realize that there is always someone dumber than you who has passed the Bar Exam.
It was comforting to start off studying for the Bar Exam knowing that a passing candidate only gets about 65% of the multistate questions correct and that 5 out of 10 points for each essay is sufficient to convince the NY Bar Examiners that you’re competent to practice law unsupervised. This notion of mediocrity might have been new to some students, but to me it was reminiscent of first year when the mantra C = JD was adopted by half the class.
But what made me feel really confident about taking the Bar was looking around the classroom. In the front of the class the Asian students were furiously typing every third word into their pocket-sized computer translator thingys. Not only do most of these students not speak English, they don’t even use the same alphabet as us — I was golden. Hailing from countries such as Sweden and Brazil, the LLM students seem to spend more time copying my notes to get the correct spelling than actually paying attention. And don’t get me started on the kid sleeping in the front row, kicking his legs in a puppy dream. Looking around the classroom at the other students, I felt definitely confident in my Bar prep.
The second piece of advice was that if you ever start to doubt yourself, realize that there is someone more stupid than you who has passed the Bar Exam. The way to do this is to think about a person who graduated before you, who, when you learned that they passed the Bar, were flabbergasted. Think of that person and tell yourself, “If that idiot can do it, so can I”. The BAR/BRI spokesperson went so far as to suggest that we find a picture of this person, cut it out, and look at it for inspiration during a tough day. Our knowledge and skill will propel us through the easy days, but the unimaginable success of morons will get us through the tough ones. After that first day, you’ll think of that idiot and smile.
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That sort of reinvigorates my faith in bar/bri. Striving for mediocrity is probably a good idea since we’re supposed to memorize more data than the human brain should be able to retain. There’s no sense making it explode.
And as to the “person of questionable intelligence” passing the bar exam — we certainly all know one of those :p
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I may or may not be related to one of those “persons of questionable intelligence.”
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
June 8th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Nope :P
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I would not judge someone like the sleeping guy in the first week of bar prep. I can’t speak from personal experience (didn’t study for a July bar), but the anecdotal evidence I gathered from friends was that July 4th really is Judgment Day. Ideally, you’re well on your way in the bar prep. Alternatively, you are able to kick it into high gear at that point. If you don’t fall into one of those two categories, then you’re screwed.
So if that guy is still sleeping in week six, he’s toast.
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I think its great that you are feeling confident and great about your Bar Exam prep, but I also think your indirect generalizations about Asians and LLM students are offensive. I understand that the “If that idiot can do it, so can I” mentality helps feeds the ego during this stressful time, but you seem to be taking that mentality to an unnecessary level.
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For someone who only strives for mediocrity, you have your work cut out for you. Your incredibly offensive comment about Asian LLM students can only be described as racist and clearly demonstrates that you will one day be one of the “dumb” people someone uses as inspiration on a hard day. Shame on Legal Geekery for allowing such a blatantly ignorant person post on an otherwise entertaining site.
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Joshua Auriemma Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
@Victoria, I’ll admit that I was semi-reluctant to post this, but after careful review, I didn’t think the comments were racist so much as observations of the people in her class. She didn’t say “LLM students are dumb,” for instance: she was talking about the LLM students in her class.
I am sorry that you found the post offensive, though.
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k.re Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 9:57 am
@Joshua Auriemma,
However, she did say, “Not only do most of these students not speak English, they don’t even use the same alphabet as us — I was golden.”
This implies that all people who appear to be of Asian descent are not American, and don’t speak English. Clearly wrong. Further, even if said students are foreign-born, the comment assumes that they do not speak English fluently, and that they can’t prevail on an exam.
The comment creates an “us” vs. “them” dynamic. Who is “us”? Is this where we get to read garbage about the “real” America?
Worse, the comment effectuates stereotypes of Asian people as academic robots– “scribbling furiously,” as if they are the only ones doing it… as if by virtue of their heritage, Asian students are more or less inclined to study.
I’d really hate to hear her opinions on other people of color in the room. Were the Black students “writing raps” about Torts, or Native Americans doing a rain dance about Civ Pro? Please. Stereotypes are not funny, and the author of this post should know that blonde hair alone, an attorney does not make.
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I think assuming that you are “golden” because Asian students don’t “even use the same alphabet” is not an observation but rather a conclusion about the success of a group people based on an arbitrary trait.
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I’m sorry if my post offended anyone but I assure you that was not my intent. The comment about the “idiots” who passed the Bar before me was not directed at either the LLM or the Asian students. I apologize if my comment regarding students translating words or copying notes for spelling was insensitive. It was merely an observation about the students in the class. I admit that I think I might have a better chance at passing the Bar exam than a non-English speaker and that was all that I was saying. If I were to study for a qualification exam in another country, I would most certainly be at a disadvantage by not being a native speaker.
I am by no means discrediting the intelligence and perseverance of any student studying for the Bar exam. I am however, maintaining a sense of humor to get through this stressful time. This post was intended to depict the “lighter side” of studying, and I apologize for any offense it has caused.
Blondini
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The commentators to this post need to get a sense of humor and perhaps some intelligence. If you can’t acknowledge that a foreign language speaker (whether Asian or otherwise) is going to have a more difficult time passing the bar, you aren’t living in reality. Statistics show that only approximately 55% of foreign language takers pass the NY bar exam.
Further, if you read closely, this post doesn’t question the intelligence of these foreign speakers, merely makes light of the challenges such students face. If you don’t get that, you probably won’t pass the bar exam anyhow since you clearly lack the necessary reading comprehension skills. If you need assistance to distinguish between racism and light-hearted observations regarding foreign language speakers tackling a difficult exam, perhaps we can arrange for some reading comprehension tutoring for you – or maybe you just need a pocket translator yourself.
Being a foreign language test taker myself and having passed two different bar exams, I see no problem with this post. Get off your high horse, consider spending less time working yourself up over nothing and focus on your reading comprehension and sense of humor. You’ll need both to pass the bar and get a job.
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Rochelle Reply:
July 11th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
@Lawyer, the point is not that one can’t take a joke or acknowledge a statistic. The point is that even though she did not mean to, Blondie’s comments are offensive.
And worked up over nothing? Even Joshua, the head honcho of this blog, admitted he was at first reluctant to post it. Why do you think he was at first reluctant? Because obviously he knew the post would come off offensive to others! I appreciate Blondie’s apology and I hope that she does not brush off this experience like you, thinking such commentators are just uptight people with no sense of humor who did not get her jokes. The problem with racism is people like you who refuse to look outside their personal comfort zone and genuinely try to understand how the comment/viewpoint/action/etc can come off racist/offensive to others.
If anyone needs to get off their high horse, it is you Lawyer. How surprising that you take the immature route and assume the commentators will not pass the bar or haven’t already done so. I have passed both the California and New York bar, and have worked at a large law firm in New York for the past 10 years. I also do on campus interviews for my firm, and I have done everything in my power to weed out candidates with your type of inappropriate sense of humor.
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I’m glad there was an apology for the Asians “copying notes, using translators etc.” comment — my partner is from Taiwan and came to the States when she was an adult –she just got through bar/bri and is about to take the Bar in three days — you would not believe the anxiety and lack of confidence and self doubt she feels, constantly not feeling like she can pass the bar because of language problems, putting in hundreds of extra hours on that translator device. This is a girl who came to law school from helping sweatshop workers in NYC’s Chinatown.
Nobody’s golden because of her struggling — thank you for saying you didn’t mean to offend.
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