One of the things I am really thankful for during my journey to the New York Bar is that a Facebook and WhatsApp group was created for those of us who were doing the home study programme with Bar Bri International.
I had a 'study partner' who I could reach out to if I needed clarity on an issue I wasn't sure about or when I just needed someone to talk to about the exams. Her name was Samantha and she became my study partner by default, but looking back I believe it was meant to be. We lived in different cities in the UK at the time, so we mainly communicated via WhatsApp.
When we sat the bar exam in July 2016, we found out that we were both staying in the same area in Brooklyn, which was great because I had someone to speak to, have lunch with and travel back with after the exam. Neither of us passed the exam first time and we were reunited as we re-sat the exam in Buffalo. The last days leading up to the exam, she was the only person I really spoke to as we were both focused on the same thing. We travelled to and from the exam venue together.
Tuesday 22nd February 2017, day one of the exam. I went to sleep early the night before, but because my body clock was still adjusting to the time zone in New York, I was awake by 4am!! Breakfast at the hotel wasn't even until open until 6am. I spent time with God, reading my Bible and praying, then got ready. When it was time for breakfast, I went to get something to eat and took a few revision notes with me just to read over breakfast.
I was quite relaxed and had a positive mindset. I had done all that I could do, so I didn't see a reason to fret and get all anxious. I had confidence and faith! Samantha came to pick me up and we went travelled to the exam venue.
I felt like day one of the exam went well. Despite not spending much time studying for the Multistate Performance Test section of the exam, I was so happy when one of the examexercises was to provide advise on an intestacy/wills issue, because it was almost identical to the only two practice exercises I did two days before!
In the afternoon, we had six essay questions to write. One of them was about corporations a topic, I confess that I didn't do much studying on because I really didn't think it would come up on the exam this time around. Well I was wrong! In answering the question, I literally just wrote down everything I remembered from the first time because that's all I could honestly remember! I think in another exam question, I ran out of time and only managed to write, what the narrow legal issue was and the rule of law, half a paragraph lol! But other than that I was pretty confident. The detailed answers on the other essay questions and the MPT made up for the two questions I probably didn't answer as well or as detailed as I could have.
Now it was time to go back to the hotel, chill for a bit and do a little more revision, ready for day two which was the the 200 multiple choice questions!
