Fantastic guest post today from Lee Faller Burgess of Amicus Tutoring about what to do if the unthinkable happens, and you fail the bar exam.
I’ll turn it over to Lee:
You Failed the Bar Exam. Now What?
Almost anyone who has sat for the bar exam has imagined failing. You log in to the website Friday evening and your name doesn’t appear on the pass list. You are not exactly sure what to do with yourself. You have such a mix of emotions. Where do you even begin?
Well first, you are not alone.
Typically, between 45 and 50 percent of the people taking the California bar exam will not get good results on results day.
I personally know very smart and accomplished people who did not pass. It does not mean they weren’t smart enough. It does not mean that they won’t be good lawyers (I know many great lawyers who didn’t pass the first time). It just means they couldn’t beat the test the time that they took it.
So what do you do if you find yourself in this situation?
Immediate Steps to Take
1. Be disappointed.
It is important that you allow yourself to be disappointed and frustrated by the outcome. The bar exam is a very emotional experience and you put in a lot of time and effort to take the exam four months ago. You want to give yourself time to deal with the results. That means you should take the weekend for yourself.
It is up to you how you want to handle it. If you don’t want to hear from people about whether or not they passed, consider turning off your cell phone or not checking Facebook. The results will go public on Sunday and then people won’t have to ask you if you have passed.
But on Monday you need to start re-grouping and move on to the rest of the steps below.
2. Commit to taking the bar exam again.
The next step is committing to taking the bar again. This may sound like an easy decision but it is not.
It has many parts to it.
- Time: It takes time to study for the bar again. You may be working and already have a job. You may have to consider whether or not that job will allow you to take time to adequately study and prepare. You must decide which bar exam you are going to take next. I typically recommend the next bar cycle so you retain as much information as you can from your previous testing experience.
- Money: I hate to say it, but finances are an important piece of taking the bar again. We all know and appreciate that taking the bar is not cheap. The test itself is expensive, even before you decide to pay for any additional preparation help. Most bar takers are already in debt from their law school loans and previous bar-taking experience. It is important to determine if you can financially support yourself taking the next bar exam. You do not want to be distracted while studying by having to worry unnecessarily about finances.
- Attitude: This is in many cases the most important part of getting yourself ready to commit to taking the bar exam again. Everyone deals with a challenge like this differently. But you must emotionally commit to beating this test. You must decide that this is a goal that you want to achieve and you are going to do your best to get there. You cannot approach re-taking the bar exam without determination and gusto. You cannot approach it simply with a fear of failure. You must decide that you will overcome this challenge and give yourself the best chance to do so.
3. Change the way you approach the test.
So once you have committed to taking the test again, what do you do to make sure you are ready?
>>> Change the way you study and approach the test <<<
I had a student who came to work with me after failing the bar exam twice. A few weeks into her preparation, she made the following comment in my office:
The second time I took the bar I studied the exact same way and I got the exact same result. If I had only known that I needed to change the way I studied and prepared, I would have probably passed the second time and not be here the third time. What a waste of time and money.
This insight from a student is invaluable.
She made a very common mistake — studying the same way for the test a second time. Since that previous method of preparation didn’t work, it is necessary to determine how best to get ready this time.
Some students have a clear reason they didn’t pass: a computer crashed, they were ill, a family emergency occurred.
However, many students didn’t prepare for the test in the right way for them. So, you need to figure out a new approach.
How to Find a New Approach
How do you do that?
1. Find help. There are many different ways you can find help. If you took a large bar review course, oftentimes you can come back to lectures when you retake the exam. However, this is not changing the way you approach the test.
For that, you may need to find someone to help you prepare the best way you can for your next bar exam.
Who are those people? Well, they are bar exam tutors who specialize in helping you conquer the test (this is what I do). And you need to find a tutor whom you trust and have a connection with because you are going to be spending a lot of time together.
Your tutor is going to challenge you, call you out on your mistakes, encourage you, and help you decide the best way to beat the bar exam.
It is not an easy journey and it is important that you find someone you feel comfortable with to help you through it. Read testimonials from other students on their website or ask for references. Have a long phone conversation about the tutor’s philosophy on test taking and studying.
2. And then give it all you have got. Work with your study schedule and commit to this work every day. Don’t succumb to procrastination or self-sabotage. Commit to your goal of passing. Be an active participant in the process.
Your tutor cannot take the test for you. — YOU must take the exam. YOU must be ready. YOU must know you can do it.
Passing is not Impossible
Don’t think it is impossible to pass. It is not.
The best part of my job is getting phone calls on results day from students whose lives have been changed by passing. But those students typically were fully invested in the preparation for the exam. They worked hard and changed their approach to the exam.
Following the above steps will help you get ready to start the exam preparation process again.
I hope you don’t find yourself in this position, but if you do, know that there is hope and success around the corner.
— – —
Thanks, Lee! If you’d like to learn more about Lee and get some of her general exam taking advice, check out the interview we did a while back: Nervous About 1L Exams? Get Advice from a Rock Star Tutor.
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Got questions for Lee? Leave them in the comments!
Image by visualpani via stock.xchng.
Thanks for the post. It helps to know that those of us who failed aren’t alone. There is no way to explain to someone who hasn’t taken the bar what it feels like to know that your name isn’t on the pass list. I’ve been practicing in Oklahoma for over 9 years, but decided that I wanted to live and work in California. So I quit a good paying job at a great firm and started studying. I actually felt pretty good after taking the bar exam. A little too good apparently. I was so confident that I had passed that I sold my house, rented an apartment, interviewed and accepted a job in Newport Beach, reserved an apartment there, and planned my move all in anticipation of my expected triumph over the California bar. It never occurrred to me that I might fail. I logged on Friday night about 8:01 and felt uneasy. I put in my numbers and I only remember seeing a few red letters that said “your name does not appear on the pass list.” My face was suddenly on fire. My stomach hurt. My hands started shaking. Did I enter the numbers wrong? Tried two more times- nope, same red letters. Then I thought that maybe I was looking at the wrong numbers so I started entering other numbers on my bar ticket. As if mocking me, the website informed me that there were no letters in a student’s file number. “Holy ****” were the first words out of my mouth. Right on cue, my mom called and asked how I did. I could only muster a “Nope.” She asked again, “nope” I said. I love her dearly, but my mom did not want me moving to California. On the phone, she sounded like she was suddenly in a great mood. She was joking around about her dogs, my grandparents, and the fact that I was now stuck with her in Oklahoma. I just had to get off the phone before I said something I would regret. I felt very sleepy, but also thought that this would be a great opportunity to get completely smashed by myself at a bar. Instead I spent the next 2 hours googling “I failed the California bar, now what.” That’s actually how I got to this site. It’s Sunday and I’m still upset. Like a lot of people, I don’t want the bar exam to beat me. I’m motivated to take it again even though I swore I wouldn’t if I failed. The financial burden of taking it again is a big issue though. As law students and lawyers, we’ve been successful in school and for the most part, in life. We also have a sense of pride when we tell people we’re in law school or a lawyer because that implies somehow that we’re relatively sharp folks. We don’t fail at many things especially things that are meant to test our intelligence. That’s why failing is so demoralizing. Having to answer the question whether you passed over and over doesn’t help either. Hopefully those of us who failed will get over the initial shock and get on with life. Whether you decide to take the bar exam or not, good luck and remember that a stupid bar exam does not dictate your success in life.
Thanks for sharing your story, particularly when you don’t (yet) have the requisite “It all worked out in the end” version.
For the record, I don’t think the bar exam has anything to do with how smart you are, or how well-educated you are, or whether you’re a good lawyer or not. It’s just a tricky, stupid exam, which trips up lots of people. (Like the Dean of Stanford Law School, for example.)
And, if you actually did what you’re asked to do on the bar as a practicing lawyer, you’d be sued for malpractice!
Best of luck, and I’ll just go ahead and say “I’m sure it will work out in the end,” one way or another.
I too appreciate you telling your story. What you are going through is not easy for anyone, and given your move, you had a lot riding on whether or not you passed. As I mentioned in this post and as Alison said as well – the bar has nothing to do with how smart you are – it is about being good at taking this test.
I too wish you the best of luck!
Don’t look at it as if you “failed.” Look at it as you did not pass this time. You just didn’t earn the required 1441 points. You can do it again! You’re almost there already. That’s what I keep telling myself at least.
Good luck with February 2012!
Excellent attitude! A few more points on every section would probably be enough to get you over the finish line.
I failed twice, and recently passed the third time in July. I 100% completely agree with the “change your approach” advice, and that’s the first thing I tell everyone who failed.
It sucks to shell out the money for Barbri and then have to shell out more money for something different, but it sucks WAY MORE to fail again.
But the good news is that even if you fail twice, you can pass the third time. So glad that’s all behind me.
Congrats on passing, and starting your new job! Love the blog.
I plan on taking the Bar this coming July….this will be my 5th time. I am petrified because I am 10 years out of law school. I got married in law school, took the Bar pregnant the first 2 times and followed up 2 more times unsuccessfully over the past few years. I need to do things differently this time, so my plan is to get organized and start studying…..wish me luck
Good luck! I definitely second the advice to try and diagnose what went wrong, and take steps to attack whatever issues you have directly. For me, really hammering away on the MBE gave me enough wiggle room not to know everything for the essays. But friends have passed, after multiple tries, with exactly the opposite approach (i.e., really hammering away at model exam answers so they could recognize fact patterns and respond with the correct analysis in their sleep).
Kristi,
You will pass. I too have been out of law school 10 years, going on 11 years come December and I have not mastered the bar. However, those friends of mine that took the bar more than once all said the same thing, practice, practice, practice and go in BELIEVING you can pass. Wishing you GOD’s Speed.