Many of you will be taking the bar exam next week, and you probably are involved in last week drills and not reading this blog. That would be the appropriate choice!
However, those of you, who are not sitting for the bar exam, have plenty of time to send a message of encouragement to your friends who are facing that challenge next week. Just a text message or a brief voice mail message can mean a lot and will be appreciated. If you have been in their shoes, you will identify with them and remember that a positive attitude goes a long way.
Remind them of all their past successes and tell them that you have great confidence in them. Most of all, tell them that you will be thinking of them. The bar exam will be over soon, and it is nice to remind your friends that you are looking forward to spending time with them again. The best part of summer is left, and it will help them to know that good times will begin to roll for them again.
Here is my best advice to pass on to them if you have the opportunity:
- Get a good night’s sleep each night before the exam, and be confident. A positive attitude goes a long way;
- It is a marathon and not a sprint. Treat it like one. Clear your head, be steady, keep up the pace, and round that next corner with confidence;
- Do not second guess all of your answers and obsess about them after the exam. First of all, it is hard to recall just exactly how the question was phrased—especially on the multi-state exam—and that kind of obsessing can seriously erode your confidence. Over analyzing is rarely a good idea, and it is certainly not a good idea when you have to keep up your spirits and energy for another day of testing;
- Don’t discuss the exam with others who are taking it. Most of them will not give you candid responses about how they feel or how they think they are doing. They are trying to hide their fears just like you are; and
- Do something that will relax you after each day of testing. Take a walk, get an ice cream cone, sit by the water. Take deep breaths and remember that you did well in law school and you know a lot of stuff. You worked hard to prepare for this exam, and your job is to give it your best shot. Don’t let anxiety get in the way of that goal.
Loved ones deal with the bar exam ordeal differently. My mother tied a quilt each time one of her children wrote a bar exam, thinking of them continuously throughout her stitching. I prayed and sent positive mental energy each hour on the hour when my daughter was writing both the New York and the New Jersey bar exams. The good news is that these very different approaches worked just fine. Everyone passed. Different strokes for different folks, and I hardly can imagine myself tying a quilt!
So, tell your friends to break a leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am pulling for them and for you—- if you are listening!
