If it’s not been painfully clear by now, I am deep in bar study hell. And what fluctuates between more hellish and a mild reprieve from pangs of death by bar is that I am doing it alone in my room with an iPod. That means that every morning I get up, make coffee and sit at my breakfast room table with an iPod and the 40 lbs of books that BarBri sent me. I wear little headphones, even though I’m the only one in the house, and sometimes I chuckle a little to myself at the things the voices in my head say. I was trying to remember some of them so that when TF asked me how my day was, I could say, “Well, I’m listening to torts and the lecturer had this hysterical story about trespass to chattels. And yesterday the guy doing Crim Pro called the defendant a ‘little bastard’! Can you believe it? Oh, we just laughed and laughed!”
TF asked me what studying for the bar was like, if it was anything like studying for finals. I think he was trying to prepare himself for Barmageddon. “Will there by crying?” Yes. “What about wallowing in self-pity?” Very much yes. “Throwing things?” Mmmmaybe. “Including tantrums?” Oh. Yes.
Studying for the bar is kind of like studying for finals, if you were taking all your finals at the same time and some more finals on classes you never had because the thought of taking classes with names like Commercial Paper and Oil and Gas made you put sharp, hot, stabby things in your eyes.
And after a week of sitting at my desk, or the table, sometimes the couch, with my book and headphones, I developed pain in my neck and head so bad that I almost puked. TF made me get a deep tissue massage. Now I can’t move my head at all. I have had deep tissue massages before on my leg, when I was going to a chiropractor. I know they hurt and I know they can leave you bruised. But it’s one thing when it’s your leg, it’s another when it’s your friggin neck.
I will say (proudly) that I didn’t do one embarrassing thing during my massage. This may be the first. Although, I will say the moment I laid down I automatically reviewed all I had eaten in the past 12 hours.
So that is where I am and what I’m doing. I can’t say I expect too much excitement to happen here in my apartment, but I promise to be on the lookout. I do try to venture into modern society at least once a day, but I’m sort of embarrassed by the number of times I visit
6 comments:
Just out of curosity--how many hours per day would you say you are spending on bar review. I feel guilty--like I should be spendin every waking moment on bar review--but its starting to make me a little crazy. Any idea on what the average amount is? (I know barbri suggests 5-8 per day--but that seems like so much!)
On the average day, I spend about 3-4 hours listening to lecture, then another hour or so going over the Conviser outline, then 30 min for a quiz, and another hour to listen to the online answer lecture. All that plus the plethora of (long) breaks I take throughout the day is probably 8 hrs. Then I'll go workout for an hour or two. At night when TF is home, I'll sit on the couch and make flashcards while we watch tv. If I want, I can be done by 3 in the afternoon, but I usually take too many breaks.
Haha. Hilarious.
Do you magically get this type of attention span during law school? I've never had to study for something for THAT long in undergrad.
Well, the bar isn't exactly an undergrad exam. It's more like a three-day ordeal that many to most people (depending on the state) don't pass.
Also, it's not really about attention span, it's about endurance. If you can picture bar prep like a full-time job, I've got 3-4 hours where I'm in meetings and can't do anything but listen to what the meeting's about. Then I've got a couple hours back in my office to do work on my projects, when I can take lots of breaks. Taking a quiz is like a meeting with my boss on all the work I was supposed to be doing for him when I have to make up a lot of stuff. Then I have lunch either at my desk or I take a nice long break to eat. Listening to the online lecture is another quick meeting and then I'm pretty much out of the office for the rest of the day. I take the rest of my work (ie, flashcards) home with me and do some work on the couch that doesn't require a lot of brain power or focus.
That sounds intense. Congrats on graduating and good luck studying for the bar!I'm sure you will do fantastic :)
It all sounds like so much fun! Wish I was there! I've gotten quite good at fetching tea, cups of hot water (why do people drink cups of plain hot water?) and looking to Friday's lunch of fish & proper chips (I skip the mushy peas). If I were there, I could fetch for you! But I think all this is just a ploy to get you to appreciate your real job when it starts. Then you can say "Well, as bad as this is, at least I'm not studying for the bar!"
Post a Comment