Throughout the entire bar prep period, I've been fairly good. Sure, I spend the occasional 2 hours watching a movie, take a few breaks to check e-mail and facebook, and had lunch a couple times with friends, but overall I've diligently kept my nose in the books. I've adhered as closely as possible to bar/bri's paced program, practiced countless MBE questions, outlined for every subject and made flaschards, reviewed said outlines and flashcards, outlined essays, simulated essays, reviewed all my wrong answers to both the MBE and the essays, practiced performance tests, and modified my outlines.
Now, it is crunchtime. There are only 10 days left until the bar exam. And I am freaking out. Not for any of the typical bar-inducing stress related heart attacks such as the, OMG I'm never going to remember the rules to Prop 8 or, I can't differentiate hearsay exemptions from hearsay exceptions. Instead, I'm freaking out because I've lost focus. Although I'd planned to spend crunchtime simulating essays, I've lost all ability to focus and concentrate. I can't sit through an essay and just write it. Last weekend, I was an essay writing machine, writing out nearly a dozen and a half essays and reviewing the answers. Today, I could barely get through one.
Professor Honigsberg claims that "no one has every failed the bar because they took time off from studying." Part of me thinks I just need a break. But I'm afraid that if I do, I'll never get back into study mode, that I'll just let myself slide off into distractions and will lose focus forever. I'm afraid that I'll lose valuable study time and will never learn the California distinctions for Evidence, Professional Responsibility, Wills and Civil Procedure. I don't know what to do . . . bang my head against a wall and hope I'm retaining something and learning anything from all this, or take some time off and just trust that after a day or so, I will be able to throw myself back into studying and really buckle down.
Whatever I decide, I better do it fast because my stress level is rising exponentially by the minute.
2 comments:
Okay, reading this has stressed me out too, and I'm not even *taking* the bar! I just read it out loud to my husband and he commented that everyone in the Georgetown Law Library is also studying for the bar right now. You're in good company, but the tension is palpable from coast to coast! :P Don't freak out
How did it go?
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