In a recent article in USA Today on January 25-27 2019 there is a discussion of how law students are not only buried in debt but many fail to pass the bar!!

When I read this recent article it hit me like a "ton of bricks."  What a terrible situation for a law student to find himself or herself in especially after attending law school for 3 to 4 years and spending hundred of thousands of dollars on college and a law degree only to find oneself in debt and unlicensed because they did not pass the bar(Such a nightmare). 

Reflecting on my own experience for bar preparation some 14 years ago, I have to say I crushed it when  I studied 5 straight weeks an average of 10 to 12 hours a day, during the time I took off from work, before I sat for the Connecticut bar exam.  

To me it was so exciting to get to the point of sitting for the bar.  I felt it was a labor of love. Though I approached the situation very differently than most lawyers did when taking the bar exam.  

Here was my recipe for success:

I graduated law school first and then studied for 12 months after graduation so that I was focused as I held a full time job during that time period.  

My motto, even in law school, was "everyday is a study day" and that is exactly what I did.  I studied every single day for a year and even the days before I took the bar at breakfast and at lunch breaks.

My advice to anyone who has not passed the bar is to take a mock bar and see what subjects you have problems with answering correctly.  Perhaps you did not memorize the elements of the specific law topic or maybe its the IRAC method(Issue Rule Analysis and Conclusion) that you never fully understood. 

Find out where your strengths and weaknesses are and fix them before you go back and take another bar exam.

Further, even if you do not pass the bar there are a lot of other professions one can do with a law degree besides practicing law.  Research these professions, look for answers in libraries and books on this topic including  the Occupational Handbook published by the US Department of Labor.

Whatever you do, don't give up.  You can always try again and take the bar and work extra hard to pass the exam. Good Luck to you.

Attorney Lauren Winer Beck