Recently in Bar Exam Category

It’s a much-lamented fact of life that student loan debt is basically non-dischargeable. Can’t pay your credit card debts? File bankruptcy. Can’t handle hospital bills? File bankruptcy.

Can’t pay your student loans? Move to Djibouti.

For one lucky law grad, however, he’ll be slightly closer to debt-free, despite three failed attempts at the bar, a single-income household, and the Ninth Circuit’s affirmation of a lower court’s holding that even if he were to pass the bar, he probably wouldn’t make much more than he does now.

It's bar review time, and there's no easy way to say this: your life sucks.

For the next few months, you'll be studying incessantly, neglecting relationships, and nervously pull at your hair, hoping and praying that you don't fail because if you do ... actually ... for the majority of you, it makes no difference: you're unemployed anyway. Welcome to 2008-2013.

Been there. It gets better. We promise.

Even still, it's an expensive test, and no one wants to suffer through bar review more than once. So yeah, there is a little pressure. It's all good though. Though you may be afraid, shoot, you may be petrified, here are some tips for survival:

Got a couch?

If you weren't one of the lucky few to land a gig before graduation, well, that's probably not going to change any time soon. Over the next year, much like a groundhog headed for hibernation, you'll need to burrow in for the cold winter summer of post-graduation bar review and unemployment.

Jay-Z once said, "Moral victories is for minor league coaches." Grammatical issues aside, we couldn't agree more -- except we'd amend that to "Moral victories are for minor league coaches and blogger-lawyers."

I'll let you in on a little secret: In 2008, when I entered law school, I couldn't even fathom the concept of working as a law blogger. I wanted that BigLaw money -- $160K of pure, unadulterated happiness. Yes, money does buy happiness. Just ask the legions of unemployed lawyers with $100K in debt. And though I'm having a hell of a good time blogging, much like Allure, I'm slowly dying with every student loan bill.

Nonetheless, I can take solace in one simple fact: I passed the hardest bar exam in the country on my first try. Moral victory? Sure. Pathetic thing to brag about? You're damn right.

In Mean Girls -- you know, the Heathers of the early aughts -- Janis warns the protagonist about the meanest girl in school, Regina George. "She's a life ruiner. She ruins people's lives."

The same could be said of the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBEX).

This week, the NCBEX warned law school deans that the long-rumored MBE civil procedure section will become a reality in February 2015, according to Above the Law.

This is not how you want to start your legal career, especially in the days of information eternality via the almighty Google.

We’ve all had the same urge that overtook Jasmine Parker of Covington, Kentucky. You’re working on a timed exam, the proctor calls time, and you are mid-sentence. It is at that point that you must weigh the benefit of those few additional words against the risks of being caught and against the obvious ethical issues.

The short answer? It’s not worth it.

The bar exam is less than a month away. If you haven't started studying yet, is there any way that you could pass it? Blake Masters says that you have more than enough time.

Masters is a Stanford Law grad and tech entrepreneur who passed the California bar after studying for only 100 hours. So yeah, he knows what he's talking about.

And he's happy to share how he did it.

Studying for the bar brings out the worst in most of us and that's part of what makes the bar exam such a strange place to be.

Following the July bar this year, the ABA Journal asked participants about the strangest thing they've seen at the bar exam. The results are as varied as they are wacky.

There are many but we've rounded up the top 10 wild and crazy stories.

Studying for and taking the bar exam is a major accomplishment. Congratulations, you did it!

You just sacrificed several months of fun and free time to get here, studying pretty much anytime you could manage it. Hours of exam prep classes and many many dollars later, it's done.

Win or lose, just making it through the exam is a big deal. So in the first few days after the exam ends, treat yourself right. We have some ideas how.

People who want to be famous attorneys are generally uncomfortable with failure. That goes double for the bar exam.

But the exam is looming and that means extra helpings of stress. It doesn't help that law school graduates are generally competitive, over-achieving, and just this side of obsessive when it comes to success.

Sure, everyone says it's not a big deal if you fail the bar. It's not the end of the world, other people fail, and you can take it again. You're still a smart person if you don't pass on your first try.

Where's the evidence you say? We've got your evidence right here.