Six weeks into the bar review course (which was mid April), I was starting to have serious doubts about whether I was ready for the exams in July. I felt pressure because in order to sit the July exams, we had to submit our completed application by April 30, and pay the $750 fee as well. I had already invested a lot of money to join the course, so was I really prepared to spend a further $750 to apply to sit the exam as well as put money aside for flights and accommodation for the July exam?
I had a catch up call with the mentor that Bar Bri International had assigned to me. The call was helpful to some extent, she encouraged me keep doing the practice questions and learn the substantive law. But honestly, it did not erase the doubts I had at the back of my head. I was really struggling with Constitutional law, Real Property and Torts which were 3 of the main subjects to appear on the exam without a doubt and my scores on the practice questions for these subjects were relatively low. But, because I had been waiting for this opportunity for so long and had already got this far, I decided to apply to sit the exam.
I reasoned with myself that as my working hours were going to be reduced from 30 hours to 22.5 hours a week closer to the exam dates and I still had 10 weeks before I flew out to New York to sit the exam, I could do it! I had no choice but to believe right? All the sacrifices I had make surely would not be in vain right? What did I have to lose? Not sitting the exam would cost me £500 to defer until the following year which was around the same amount as paying the fees to sit the exam when converting into British Sterling so either way my pocket would be a little lighter! At least I got a little trip to New York choosing to sit the exam LOL!
By this time I had not even heard back from the New York State Board of Examiners about my eligibility to sit the exam, so it was a bit of a gamble but I was advised that once I had applied, they would probably respond quickly about my eligibility and they did!
Following the application to sit the exam and eligibility confirmed, I had the task of finding a notary public to attest to my handwriting sample that had to be sworn and sent back to the Board of Examiners. There are not many in my city and the one I found wanted to charge a rate that I felt was extortionate just for me to write a few lines in front of them! LOL! I was able to find a solicitor close to my workplace who charged more the half the price!
Now that all the administrative stuff had been sorted out, it was back to books..focusing most of my time outside working hours and weekends to study.
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