NWR: Anyone else studying for the bar exam?

I'll hold off wedding planning, or better still hire a planner and just do constant check-ins.... Idk know what support system you have to pull both off simultaneously. Good luck

I'm not, but my friend is, and at least her wedding is in December. You can do it! It will all be worth it in the end once you pass!

I didn't plan a wedding while studying for the bar exam. But I did plan one while working full-time, going to law school three-quarters time (and over the summer session), and serving on law review.

I expected my FI to do at least half the planning. I kept the planning as simple as possible (e.g., restaurant reception, so we only had to deal with one vendor for food, alcohol, venue, etc.). And I accepted any help that was offered. For example, when my MIL offered to take care of the flowers, I gave her free rein to pick whichever ones she wanted, just so I wouldn't have to be involved in any of the decisions.

Currently in law school and just finished the first year. Not quite at the bar yet but I can only imagine what your feeling. Just breath, try and get a coordinator or an all inclusive venue it will make life ten times easier.

Remember, you don't want to take that exam again! Go all in and study hard, but smart. Do old exams and you will be just fine. I studied like a job, 8-5pm. So, I can see how you can have time to wedding plan also. remember this sacrifice is just a small part of like and it will all be worth it!

I didn't study for the bar but last summer I spent at least 3 months studying for my qualifying exam for grad school. I'm going for a PhD and it determined whether I could get my master's and pass on to proposing my thesis. I am studying astrophysics so I had to literally know anything in the universe because they could ask me about anything. I had questions about the sun, galaxy clusters, how very specific instruments work, planets around other stars, etc. It was almost 2 hours of standing on my feet in front of 5 professors trying to prove that I knew crazy physics and astronomy. I have never been so terrified! But you know what?? I passed and it felt amazing and I felt so accomplished. So you will have an amazing feeling after you finish it. Even if you don't pass you can still take it again and you're only helping yourself by learning material even better. It will be worth it and you can definitely do it!

As far as the wedding goes? Well I think you're crazy for trying to do both at once, this is why our engagement was 2 years, there is no way I could have planned my wedding last summer with my exam in September. Just remember that whatever happens is meant to happen and you'll be okay in the end!

How much wedding stuff do you have left to do?

Not a lawyer, but I am a doctor with my licensing exam coming up in the fall. Luckily it a few months after my wedding so I'm not too stressed right now.

You wil survive!!! My recommendation is to buy as much help as you need to make life easier! Get a wedding planner if you don't already have one, minimize the diy, and focus on your exam for most of the day, and relax with thoughts of you wedding at the end of the day. don't let the wedding stuff get to you, if a problem arises, pay for someone else to deal with it.

I'm not studying for the bar yet, but just started my 2nd year of law school and would be happy to commiserate! I took the LSAT 2 months before my wedding and started applying to law schools right after, while working full-time and a part-time job on weekends. And DH was doing grad school, an internship and working part-time, so basically we never saw each other.

You can do it, you just have to be ruthlessly organized and prioritize your time. I got married last October and had my final exam for my court reporting/stenography course in September. I was also working full time the whole summer and until the wedding. Was it busy? Yes. Did it all work out? Yep. Would I want to do it again? Nope. But this is your life, you only have one shot at it, so do what you have to do! It will end

Thank you all for your kind words and support!

Funnily enough, I was not on WW all day yesterday to respond because I was taking a full length practice exam offered by my bar review course.

Can't believe in one month from today I will have taken the bar and will be just finishing up pictures at this time before the ceremony starts! AHHH! It's definitely a lot going on all at once, but it was extremely important to FH and I to get married and enjoy a honeymoon before I begin working at a law firm this fall.

Wow, kudos to you for knocking out those two huge accomplishments simultaneously! That's really amazing and you should be extremely proud of yourself

If you need to commiserate, I'm finishing my dissertation for my PhD while doing this whole wedding thing.

Honey, I feel you. I took the bar last summer while at the START of the planning, so my "breaks" from studying were for venue visits and crying over OMG HOW MUCH DOES THIS COST?

You WILL survive. The best advice I got going into bar study was that the hardest part is "managing the fear." And it's true - it's so easy to get wrapped up thinking about how you're not progressing enough, that there's too much, that your life is over if you fail... But none of that is true.

If you're taking BarBri - or really any commercial review course, but I speak from BarBri experience - the MBEs they offer are harder than the ones on the actual bar. And the BEST prep advice I can offer is to find a friend who is also studying and study together every day for the last two weeks. Outline essays, quiz each other, basically stay social to stay sane. Also, and I think this is why I passed: I practiced writing essays when I didn't know the law. So much of the test is the art of making shit up and applying it; practice feeling what it's like to not know anything and then make up the mortgage rules and then apply those to the facts. You'll still get points.

Also, I had THREE friends get married two weeks after the bar - they had beautiful weddings, and they passed

@SB821, that is such good advice.

Yes, I am taking barbri and have heard from many that the practice MBEs are way harder than the actual exam. Great to know, but just need to remind myself of that constantly.

The essays are seriously what's killing me. Had a brief breakdown today when I tried to do a practice essay they assigned and realized I actually had absolutely nothing to say. Zero. I read through the answer and took notes on it instead of actually doing the essay, but I guess in the future I'll take your advice and try to put something down on the paper to practice the art of faking knowing the law.

I am not studying for the bar; but decided right about the time FH and I got engaged to enroll in a second Master's program. Last semester I completed the majority of the wedding planning and took two classes. Ate. My. Lunch.

This semester is better because I am not doing any planning activities. Once the big plans are made, it makes it easier to juggle both activities.

@MiiiMiii - just saw your post. How are you holding up?

I keep scrolling up to your wedding date... why did you make your wedding less than 2 weeks after the bar????

sidenote: my FH is studying for the bar, and I took the bar last July.

I also started rule-dumping the easy stuff. For each subject, I memorized a little blurb I could vomit out right away. "California is a community property state. Community property is defined as _____, where separate property is _______. Assets in community property state are divided upon dissolution of a marriage or death. A couple is "married" in CA if...."

You get the idea. Like none of that stuff is hard to remember because it's the basics, so if that's all I could remember to put down on the essay, at least there was SOME rules and application

And I started doing 2-3 essays a day in July, but usually just notes and outlines - no more than 20 minutes each. I think the most important part is just to get used to the types of fact patterns they use.

GOOD LUCK and you will do great. Are you taking the NY bar?

Hey! I took the bar last summer at the beginning of my wedding planning journey. There was no way in hell I was going to get married the same summer I took the bar so I had a long engagement.

It's hell. I was working full time while studying for the bar, so I would wake up at 5 AM, do a brief workout, do 3 hours of bar prep, work all day, then come home and do 3 more hours. Then catch up work on the weekends. But, and this is super important, it's a temporary hell. You WILL get through it.

The essays are terrifying. Are you in an MEE/UBE state? I was, so I think we had like 17 or 18 topics that could have been tested? I knew nothing about secured transactions. Like zero. I memorized a few rules that I could spit out but that would be the extent of any essay I was able to write. I lucked out that it wasn't on my bar exam, but if it had been I would have been screwed. Just remember that odds are that even if the topic you don't know does show up on the exam, that's only part of your grade. Write down the rules you know and move on to focus on the other parts. Good luck!!

Yes, taking the NY bar. Pretty disappointed that this is the last year before they switch to UBE...

I've started to get used to spitting out rules (and all of their exceptions, even when none apply, just so I can say none of the relevant exceptions apply), but having had professors who HATE that kind of word vomit, it has been tough getting into that habit.