I am Meghan, the one on the left. I sat for the bar examination in July, 2004. I remember a lot about the summer that I spent studying for the bar — most notably that throughout it I routinely promised myself that, should I pass on the first go-round, as a reward I would never, ever take another bar exam. Otherwise put, although there were some parts of that summer that were almost pleasant, they were in no way pleasant enough to make me want a repeat. (I passed, I am a lawyer, and I have never taken another bar.)
In 2010, I fell in love with Kristen, who had completed her first year of law school. It’s now June, 2012. Kristen and I live together in a teeny-but-fabulous place in Downtown Hartford, Connecticut with a fourteen-week-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Daphne. The picture above is from Kristen’s law school graduation in May. Kristen has now officially commenced studying for her own tussle with the July 24-25, 2012 bar exam. When I started looking around to find something to read about supporting a partner or studying to take the bar I couldn’t find much out there. There area few articles out there with good tips — for instance this article, which advises: “Try not to take the moodiness and tension that sometimes comes with Bar stress personally. This too shall pass,” and “[i]f there is any inter-active studying that can help your Bar Applicant (B.A.), participate in that. Be willing to test your B.A. with flashcards, if s/he wants that. Agree to listen to bar review tapes whenever you’re in the car together.”
(By the way, although those suggestions are fairly obvious, they are also easier said than done. Listen to a Property lecture on tape and you’ll know what I’m talking about.)
I couldn’t find any first hand tales of being a partner through the bar exam study summer, and I wished there had been one, so I decided to write one. This is it. I hope it helps you understand more about what your loved one is tangling with, how to help her get to the other side of it, and how to get yourself safely there too.
