Day Fifteen (Hillary Clinton, UCC Article 9, and David Letterman).
Meghan Freed
Posted on June 21, 2012
One of my favorite bar prep parent stories comes from a very dear, very disciplined lawyer friend. Hillary Clinton (she chose her own pseudonym . . . she really loves Hillary Clinton) has a wonderful, loving mother who frequently underestimates the tremendous discipline that her daughter posesses.
In the first week of Hillary’s bar review, her mother called her and asked if she was keeping pace with BarBri’s daily recommended homework. Hillary worked full-time, so following a full-time study schedule was impossible. She said, “Mostly.” To which her mother responded, “Honey, you are in free fall.”
Hillary wasn’t in free fall. She passed the bar on the first shot.
(This is probably thanks to me. I taught her secured transactions with a hypothetical based on a beauty parlor. Way back when I was quite proficient at secured transactions – I’d perfected them. Zing! UCC Article 9 joke!)
I turned to the internets for other top things-to-never-say-to-someone-studying-for-the-bar, and this is what the internet yielded. (The internets are funny.) Since we did Mad Libs-style letters to your family yesterday I thought I’d do a Top Ten list à la David Letterman today. You know, keep things lofty around these here parts.
10. “Don’t worry – you’re going to pass.”
9. “So and so is so stupid and he passed the bar.”
8. “It’s just multiple choice, right? When in doubt, just pick ‘D.’ All of the above. You’ll be fine.”
7. If they are taking any state other than New York or California, don’t say, “At least you aren’t taking New York or California – those are so much harder.”
6. “I just rolled into the SAT cold and got a 1020. Don’t sweat it.”
5. “Why are you studying ‘Negotiable Instruments’? It hasn’t been tested on the Connecticut Bar Exam in ten years!” (This was said to Dan when he was studying, and negotiable instruments were on Dan’s bar exam!)
4. “It took JFK Jr. three tries to pass the bar.”
3. “You could probably have done this all without spending $3,000 dollars on BarBri, but it’s too late now.
2. “Whatever, just make up the law on the essays.” (Disclosure: I’ve totally said this.)
1. “So, if you fail, you can just take it again right away, right?”
Many thanks to Dan, Laura, Emily, Jay, Steve, Pam, May, Ryan, Larry, Wendy, Elizabeth, Clio, Rob, Hillary, Heidi, and Mike.
“Don’t worry, you’re going to pass” was what set me off. When my father said this to me for the thousandth time, even after I told him not to, I yelled at him and told him not to call me until after the bar was over.
I was given the “MF-make-up-the-law” advice. I’ve also passed it along – in part because I did it & because it works. Sometimes.
I did give you that advice — and I also followed it myself. Truth is, that summer I just didn’t have the capacity to learn conflict of laws or jurisdiction or whatever that horrible essay question was about my year. Making up the law gave me something to write about, and words are a whole lot better than no words when it comes to salvaging points.