It's Over.

Everyone said when I was done I would have this overwhelming sense of relief. That might have been the case if today hadn't gone as it did. The morning went really well, I knew most of the answers, my timing was excellent (not too fast, not too slow), and generally I didn't think the problems were that hard. Then lunch happened.

People were gossiping, as they tend to. And everyone was going on and on and on about how hard it was and how it was so much harder than the PMBR questions they'd been doing and blah blah blah. My friend and I who hadn't thought it was that bad looked at each other when we overheard this with a sense of impending terror. All sorts of things were rushing through our minds. Were we making sloppy errors? Did we miss a lot of stuff? Were we letting them trick us. I just kept to myself and went back inside and avoided the discussion to the best of my ability.

Then the afternoon started. Around question 25 questions into the 100 question afternoon session I was exhausted and having trouble focusing. The problems had clearly gotten a lot harder and while I was able to eliminate 2 choices on almost every problem once I got to that point I had no clue. I started just applying the PMBR techniques; picking an "if" answer choice over a "because" answer choice, picking the most "Horn-Book" sounding answer, and largely just going with my gut since "it's attached to [my] head" as the ever so dreamy PMBR guy says. With every successive page turn I really kept hoping it would let up, that the fact patterns would get shorter, that my answer choices would stop making weird patterns on my answer sheet.

Around question 135 I realized if I didn't get it together I was going to fail. I tried to stretch, which basically did nothing for me. I decided my timing was alright and that I really needed to get up, walk, go to the bathroom (even though I didn't have to go) and clear my head. So I took a brisk walk to the bathroom (which was very close and actually not a super huge hassle to use), blotted my face with damp paper towel and pulled my act together.

I sat my down and finished. I won't say things got better, since they didn't, but I did manage to compose myself and that was all that really mattered.

I had been told that leaving the bar exam is the greatest relief you'll ever feel in your life. Like a 1000 pound weight has been lifted off your chest. I literally felt so awful I thought I was going to puke in the parking lot. Of course I didn't talk to anyone afterwards, since that would be against the rules, but lets just say I do feel a bit better now.

Being that I'm not doing anything the next couple days I plan to write a post of all the little tips. Sure it won't do anyone any good right now, but at least I'll do it when it's fresh in my memory so I can link back to it in February or next July if this place is still around.

The real question is, why have I not had a glass of wine yet?