The Bar Exam.  Re-visited.  I am planning on taking the February 2016 bar exam.  Since I’ve already shared about my experience in not passing the bar exam the first time I took it, I thought it would also be helpful for those interested to know a little bit more about the bar exam.  My comments are specific to my personal experiences, and specific to the Hawaiʻi bar exam.

A bit of a dry post, but I hope this will continue to open the discussion about the bar exam.  Nation-wide, there are continuous efforts to evolve within law schools, the profession, and the different standards set forth.  On a more personal level, you’ll be more well-prepared if/when someone you know, or perhaps yourself, decides to take the bar exam.

A little background about the bar exam

The bar exam is a comprehensive exam that tests 13+ subjects, some subjects one may have taken in law school, but it is rare (in fact, I don’t know anyone for which this is not true) for someone to have taken every subject tested on the bar in law school.  Regardless, the bar exam is its own thing and may test different rules of a given subject area compared to what is taught in a semester law school course.  Many people will ask, “so what area of law do you specialize in?”  It doesn’t matter for the bar exam; one needs to know all subjects tested.

In Hawaiʻi, the bar exam is a two-day, all day test.  There are no scheduled breaks, with the exception of lunch.  The bar exam includes 6 essay questions (35 minutes each), 2 “closed universe”-type real lawyer assignments (90 minutes each), and notoriously known 200 multiple-choice questions.

There are two issues that I’d like to highlight regarding the bar exam studying process:  financial costs, and studying itself.

Financial costs are HUGE!

Ok, here it is:  it costs about $2000 to take the bar exam.  It is about $800 to take the bar exam, and upwards of $1200 for a preparatory course to help you study for the bar exam.

Aside from the costs that add up to just take the bar exam, it is usually recommended that a bar exam taker treat studying as a full-time job.  This means multiple things, but mainly that a bar exam taker does not usually work (for money) while also studying for the bar exam full-time.

Studying is…not (always) fun.

Studying day after day is difficult.  Add to studying everyday, the compounding factors of increasing insecurity of what you thought you already knew or learned, the trickiness of how the bar exam tests the material that one must know to be deemed competent, and the added pressure of what’s at stake with taking the bar exam to become a licensed attorney.

There’s a saying that the “law is a jealous mistress.”  Similar to law school, bar study can easily suck every minute of your day.  This may mean sacrificing attending a family event or outings with friends.  It is most difficult for me to see the sacrifices that my family must make in order for me to put my best effort forward to pass the bar exam, but I am forever appreciative for their support.

The flip side to studying being a full-time job is that stamina is key.  It is critically important to maintain balance to be able to sustain the marathon schedule of studying for the bar exam while also trying to “peak” at the right time on exam days.

Another piece to balance is to stay level-headed enough to not freak out because of the stress.  It can be especially difficult with some subjects that may seem foreign, especially when you haven’t studied the subject before.

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With that said, I am setting my focus on preparing to pass the February 2016 bar exam.  After not passing the bar exam, I re-visited why I want to pass the bar exam.  The reason why I want to pass the bar exam and become a licensed attorney is quite simple:  to best serve the Native Hawaiian community, my community that I had always set my goals on serving.

In hopes of maintaining balance throughout this process, I will focus my energy on being disciplined with my time and study schedule.  Focusing my energy on studying and following my personalized study schedule will enable me to take my scheduled breaks to enjoy with family.

Aʻo aku, aʻo mai.  To teach, to learn.  Or as I’ve experienced, it’s a give and take of sorts where I am not only the teacher to my children, but my children teach me.  I can’t pinpoint an exact event that brought this topic to my mind, but it has been something that continues to be at the forefront of my mind as I learn from my children daily.

There are a couple of different ways that this arises.  First, I continue to learn how I must keep myself in check and be aware of how I may be (implicitly or explicitly) imposing my personal biases.  Second, the lessons I’ve learned thus far in becoming a mother are widely applicable to various aspects of life.  In many ways, my children are teaching me so many more things than I am teaching them.

Aʻo aku

What I am explicitly teaching my keiki is often more easily tangible than what I am implicitly teaching my keiki.  This may seem obvious for some.  However, when teaching my keiki, I often times need to check myself and my own biases that I’m imposing on my keiki.

Interestingly, I see my daughter picking up on my biases that I am portraying, whether explicitly or implicitly, when she “mirrors” it back to me.  In addition to biases, and this is likely more obvious, my daughter will also mimic my behaviors.

A note on implicit biases:  I took a class in law school called Implicit Bias, and we used these tests on this website to assess our implicit biases.  It’s very eye-opening!  Check it out!

Aʻo mai

Recently, while my daughter was reading (she can’t technically read yet, but she’s pretty much memorized the story and will flip through the book and “read”/paraphrase the story from memory) through one of her books, she asked me what something was and pointed to the object.  This isn’t new behavior for my daughter.  She’ll often “quiz” me, or anyone who is reading with her, probably because we ask her the same questions.  Nevertheless, I asked her what it was so that she would answer.  She kept asking me so I thought that maybe she didn’t know.  So I answered her and she said excitedly while clapping her hands, “pololei, Māmā!  Maikaʻi!” (correct, Māmā!  Good!), similar to what I usually tell her.  I laughed and thought of how I am more often the student than I probably realize when it comes to my keiki.

More broadly, as a non-native speaker and someone that began as the least knowledgeable person with regards to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi between my husband and I, my keiki have forced me to up my game, especially with ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.  Speaking only ma ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to our keiki, it has forced me to learn how to express myself when I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say.