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Any confessions? haha

Lawworld19 wrote:Any confessions? haha

Ha! Had a party to go to last night and couldn’t resist having a few.

I have a 12 pack I plan to finish by day three of this test. I am 3 down for day 1; it was only half a day

Happy National Tequila Day guys. Of course it's on Day 1 of the bar exam.

Fuckin loads haha, well atleast Fridays and Saturdays. Tried to keep it normal, Monday to Friday afternoon is work, and weekends are weekends. Bar Prep meaning work.

Lol I drank every night of the bar. 2-4 drinks. Don't see how others didn't.

Lawworld19 wrote:Lol I drank every night of the bar. 2-4 drinks. Don't see how others didn't.

I'm with you. My motel was stocked like I was at a Shriner convention. I came a day early and stayed a day late in order to regulate my sleep, eat decent food, review without distractions, and drink alone.

It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

Smiddywesson wrote:It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

But if one comes out of the bar fearing the worst, I don't think getting shitfaced would necessarily be helpful. It could instead be very harmful, aggravating feelings of failure/depression/etc. It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions.

This is an extremely unhealthy thread that puts a pretty stark focus on the substance abuse issues prevalent in our chosen profession.

QContinuum wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

But if one comes out of the bar fearing the worst, I don't think getting shitfaced would necessarily be helpful. It could instead be very harmful, aggravating feelings of failure/depression/etc. It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions.

Maybe, all I can speak for is my own experience. I was in federal law enforcement for 30 years. The last time I took the bar was July 1989. Therefore, I gave myself a year. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I was fortunate to focus on what was important. I spent 1533 hours (around 4 hours a day) listening to lectures during my commute and studying at a desk. If it was multitasking, it didn't count, it had to be study. I've since learned that the average four year undergraduate degree take around 480 hours, 120 credit hours and 3 hours outside the class. This means I logged the equivalent of three undergrad degrees in one year. What did I learn from this? I was over prepared, and but my MBE prowness probably saved me. My computer melted down during day one, I hadn't studied the right things for two major state essays (10% overall score) and yet I walked into Day 2 like I owned the place.

What's the point. Even I, who had done 3800 slow, reasoned, researched practice questions, and had documented notes, even I who walked out of Day two thinking I crushed the MBE, was beset with anxiety and doubts in later days. I've since researched this phenomenon here and in other sites. I was definitely suffering from some sort of PTSD. I couldn't remember things, I didn't want to do anything, I had a short temper, and I was emotional. I've since learned it is normal. The best thing I did was NOT look up things I might have gotten wrong, and because I drank for a few days, my memory of these questions is gone. Now I am focusing on getting rid of the extra 16 pounds I gained studying for the test. I can look at things in a more detached fashion, and I think I beat the test, and beat it soundly. We are just human, we all feel these emotions, and sometimes it's just better to treat them with alcohol and move on. I understand that can create problems in itself, alcohol adds to anxiety, but I feel ignoring those thoughts and drinking heavily protected me from a lot of the anxiety most others will feel over the next four weeks.

I have moved on. That's it.

PS: For those of you who opened Pandora's Box and peeked to see if your answers were right, all is not lost. Fashion Plan B, what you will do to CRUSH the test in July. It's good therapy too.

Excellent117 wrote:This is an extremely unhealthy thread that puts a pretty stark focus on the substance abuse issues prevalent in our chosen profession.

I'm discussing drinking for a few days after a year long effort to pass the bar. I haven't even been sworn in, any substance abuse problems I exhibit are obviously not the product of the practice of the law. Go eat something healthy and moralize to somebody who's not 57.

Smiddywesson wrote:

Excellent117 wrote:This is an extremely unhealthy thread that puts a pretty stark focus on the substance abuse issues prevalent in our chosen profession.

I'm discussing drinking for a few days after a year long effort to pass the bar. I haven't even been sworn in, any substance abuse problems I exhibit are obviously not the product of the practice of the law. Go eat something healthy and moralize to somebody who's not 57.

You're advocating drinking to excess in order to suppress or entirely lose a stressful/painful memory. That's not a good or healthy coping strategy to develop as you look to enter a line of work that will frequently subject you to stressful and painful situations. I'm 30, not 57, but that has zero relevance to calling out your wildly unhelpful suggestion.

Excellent117 wrote:You're advocating drinking to excess in order to suppress or entirely lose a stressful/painful memory. That's not a good or healthy coping strategy to develop as you look to enter a line of work that will frequently subject you to stressful and painful situations.

This is a very valid and sound point. Purposely getting wasted to induce memory loss is a very unhealthy habit to form in the almost always stressful legal profession. Developing that habit would quickly lead to one becoming an alcoholic.

You don’t need to drink to forget the questions on the exam. Go live life. If that doesn’t work, practice some basic meditation techniques to deal with your stress.

It’s a good and maybe crucial life skill to learn to let go of things you cannot change. Build up your ability to do that and work on resilience.

As crucial as the bar is, life has much bigger and less predictable challenges. Working on your mental health is a smart move.

Excellent117 wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:

Excellent117 wrote:This is an extremely unhealthy thread that puts a pretty stark focus on the substance abuse issues prevalent in our chosen profession.

I'm discussing drinking for a few days after a year long effort to pass the bar. I haven't even been sworn in, any substance abuse problems I exhibit are obviously not the product of the practice of the law. Go eat something healthy and moralize to somebody who's not 57.

You're advocating drinking to excess in order to suppress or entirely lose a stressful/painful memory. That's not a good or healthy coping strategy to develop as you look to enter a line of work that will frequently subject you to stressful and painful situations. I'm 30, not 57, but that has zero relevance to calling out your wildly unhelpful suggestion.

"You're advocating drinking to excess in order to suppress or entirely lose a stressful/painful memory."

No, I most certainly did not. I was referring to forgetting the questions to avoid the temptation of looking up questionable answers. This makes the month long waiting period much easier to cope with, because we tend to remember the bad answers, not the good. You can shove that holier than thou advice about what's healthy in my chosen profession, another requirement of that profession is truthfulness, you might want to practice up on that yourself. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take all that pain and stressful memories you claim I have and let you get on about your business telling everyone their business.

I drank a lot during Bar prep. The rigour of the Bar is blown completely out of proportion because people in the legal world like to make their "accomplishments" seem greater than they are. I barely studied for the Bar and passed easily.

QContinuum wrote:

Excellent117 wrote:You're advocating drinking to excess in order to suppress or entirely lose a stressful/painful memory. That's not a good or healthy coping strategy to develop as you look to enter a line of work that will frequently subject you to stressful and painful situations.

This is a very valid and sound point. Purposely getting wasted to induce memory loss is a very unhealthy habit to form in the almost always stressful legal profession. Developing that habit would quickly lead to one becoming an alcoholic.

I agree, if I were to take the bar exam every week, going on a binge after the bar would constitute a problem. Thanks for your observations.

QContinuum wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

But if one comes out of the bar fearing the worst, I don't think getting shitfaced would necessarily be helpful. It could instead be very harmful, aggravating feelings of failure/depression/etc. It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions.

"It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions."

Ah, an open recognition that we are discussing two entirely different things.

Lord Blackstone wrote:

Lawworld19 wrote:Lol I drank every night of the bar. 2-4 drinks. Don't see how others didn't.

I'm with you. My motel was stocked like I was at a Shriner convention. I came a day early and stayed a day late in order to regulate my sleep, eat decent food, review without distractions, and drink alone.

I don't know about you, but I detected a marked decrease in my practice MBE questions after even moderate drinking the night before a practice test. Don't you think it would affect your test scores?

Smiddywesson wrote:

QContinuum wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

But if one comes out of the bar fearing the worst, I don't think getting shitfaced would necessarily be helpful. It could instead be very harmful, aggravating feelings of failure/depression/etc. It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions.

"It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions."

Ah, an open recognition that we are discussing two entirely different things.

Drinking to forget specific bar questions seems like a sort of drastic response when you could just not look up the answers.

nixy wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:

QContinuum wrote:

Smiddywesson wrote:It's a timed test, and one assessing your mental clarity. I shouldn't have drank anything while prepping. However I only really tapered down to nothing in the last two weeks.

At the other end of the experience, I suggest you drink as much as you can hold immediately after taking the bar. Our minds only remember the bad, the questions you botched or which stumped you. Drinking impairs your short term memory (bad for prep) and keeps you from running over the questions at 3 am while you wait for your results (good for keeping the dreads at bay). But, it also increases your anxiety.

Bottom line:
Don't drink coming into the exam.
Afterwards, drink heavy until you forget the questions and essays. Otherwise you won't let it be.
Then immediately start getting your health back. It's amazing how out of shape I got in three short weeks leading into the exam.

But if one comes out of the bar fearing the worst, I don't think getting shitfaced would necessarily be helpful. It could instead be very harmful, aggravating feelings of failure/depression/etc. It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions.

"It's those feelings that are the most harmful, IMO, not a clear memory of specific exam questions."

Ah, an open recognition that we are discussing two entirely different things.

Drinking to forget specific bar questions seems like a sort of drastic response when you could just not look up the answers.

Which would do wonders for your confidence if your answers were wrong? You seem to have missed the point. You don't have to pickle yourself, you just have to avoid the temptation to peek for a few days and you won't be able to torment yourself by seconding guessing.

That's it, we're done here.

Right, I’m saying just don’t look up answers, think about questions, or second guess yourself. That doesn’t require drinking to accomplish.

And if you want to drink, you do you. It just doesn’t have the magical purpose you seem to be attributing to it.