STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

Virginia bar takers?

Bastet · Kate Spade

I took the VA bar in 2003. I highly recommend taking BarBri. It's insanely expensive and probably a rip off, but it is the best study course there is IMO. I didn't have the discipline to make my own study schedule, and the Barbri course gives a lot of insight into the exam that I wouldn't have gotten on my own. I used their computer program to study for the multistate and it was a lifesaver! It tracks how well you do in each law area and then you can have it give you a practice test w/ only areas that you need to improve in.

Also, don't cram. Study every day but get sleep. Treat studying for the bar like a job, do it at set hours and allow time for study breaks or you'll go crazy. Unless they changed it, VA has an essay day (the first day) that had nine essay questions and a "short answer" section that consisted of about 10 questions. We got an hour for lunch, I believe. The second day was multistate.

Exam specific tips: wear a pantsuit, not a skirt. Virginia has this dumb notion that we have to dress in "court attire" while taking the exam, except that women can't wear heels because they're noisy. I wore a pantsuit with a nice top and promptly removed my jacket when it was time to take the test. The women who wore their skirt suits were really uncomfortable in the junkly folding chairs we sat in. Also, bring your lunch to the bar and leave it in your car if you can. If you dislike other law students, you'll want to avoid them during lunch break. During my lunch break, I ate and studied in my car and avoided the groups of people who were discussing the exam.

Overall the VA bar has a 70something percent passage rate, I think. I passed my first try, but when I was taking it, I thought it was really hard. Most people do because of the stress. I found the multistate worse than the essays, but that's because I hate multiple choice questions and I found the multistate challenging because the questions felt like they were designed to psych me out. The essays felt like the practice ones I did for Barbri, so that helped with the nerves a bit, I didn't feel like I was doing something for the first time.

HTH, if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

-- Edited by Bastet at 10:53, 2007-01-17

Eurodaisy · Dooney & Bourke

I took the VA bar last summer and agree wholeheartedly with Bastet's assessment. About 1400 people took the bar when I did and approximately 1000 of them passed. So while the numbers are definitely on your side, there are a lot that don't make it, and, of course, you don't want to be one of them....

I elected not to take Barbri because there weren't any Barbri classes offered close to where I was living at the time. Instead, I did MicroMash: http://www.micromashbar.com/ It's much cheaper than Barbri, with no classes to go to... just books, lots and lots of practice questions (for the multistate and the essay exams), and homework assignments. MicroMash also guarantees that you will pass if you follow their method, so that's some assurance, too. I did the 3-day PMBR course as well, but in retrospect, that might not have been necessary.

I also agree with Bastet about eating in the car. Fortunately, I was taking the bar at the same time as my DH, so we ate with only each other, talked about the exam, and just generally encouraged each other. But some people start freaking out and want to rehash every single question (especially on essay day), which is extremely irritating. So don't hang out with those people or even be in earshot of them.

It's a very stressful situation, so I would also highly recommend taking a vacation soon afterwards. You will need time to decompress, calm down, and convince yourself that life will go on while you wait for the results to come out in October.

HTH!