Monday, September 24, 2012

Bar Exam Brain

It was the second day of the New York Bar Exam, and I couldn't remember my Social Security Number.

I wrote my name on the test booklet for the final session of the exam, but when I started to write my Social Security Number, I couldn't remember those numbers that the graders would use to match my score to my name. The numbers I needed to become a lawyer. My heart started knocking against my ribs as if it was trying to escape, and I fought to calm my breathing down. I sneaked a look around at the other test-takers who seemed just fine in the memory department. Because honestly, what self-respecting law school graduate forgets a Social Security Number?

Well, I do, apparently.

The harder I pushed through the recesses of my brain to try and uncover the missing information the more elusive it became. I thought maybe there was a 6...and an 8...and a 7. Or maybe not.

I was going to have to tell one of the proctors. I was going to have to confess my utter lack of memory, and suffer the withering stare they gave to any test-taker who would dare upset the delicate balance of the lower level of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center.

But if I told the proctors they would probably have to report it. Then the Board of Law Examiners would find out. Maybe they wouldn't let someone with such an obviously impaired memory become a lawyer. Maybe I would just fail by default. Maybe I would have to come back and take the test again. Maybe the last three years were a waste after all. A good lawyer would remember her Social Security Number. Maybe I shouldn't even be a lawyer.

One hundred multiple choice questions were all that stood between me and the end of this nightmare. But I would never get there if I couldn't remember those eight - no nine - little numbers. God, I couldn't even remember how many numbers I needed to remember.

My heart was beating approximately four thousand times per minute and for a second I thought I might pass out. But I figured that wouldn't be such a bad thing after all because maybe when I woke up I would remember my Social Security Number.

Somehow I made it through all of the questions, and walked my sadly Social Security Number-less exam book up to the proctors.

But then, as if by divine intervention, nine numbers crashed through my head. The right order? Who could know? I bent down over the nearest available surface and wrote the numbers as fast as I could, before they could fall out of my head yet again. I threw my test at the proctor and booked it out of the Convention Center.

A few times over the months until I got my results, I woke up in the middle of the night, wondering if I wrote down the right numbers. Only, in an ironic twist of fate, I could remember my actual Social Security Number, but not the numbers that I wrote down on the test. So I started planning for an alternative career.

But as it turns out, the numbers were right.

I passed.



27 comments:

  1. Oh, the (horrible) memories this post brings back. When I took my bar exam, we were strictly admonished to not bring cell phones into the room. I totally forgot and when we were given our "last chance" to retrieve them and give them to the proctor, I froze. Totally froze. I was too embarrassed to admit that I forgot about my phone in my bag. So I spent the whole exam willing my phone not to ring lest I be immediately removed from the room with a big "FAIL" next to my name. By the grace of God, my phone didn't ring and I passed the exam.

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    1. Why do they make bar exams so damn intimidating? I wish I had taken it in a regular classroom with 20 other people, instead of in the cavernous ground floor of the Jacob Javitz convention center in NYC with 12,000 other people. The place was so high strung it practically vibrated.

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  2. I suspect that they encounter many a bizarre memory slip in situations like that because you're all stressed to the max with no room for anything but the law in your brain. Very stressful anyway...

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    1. You are so right. Not only memory slips...There were people throwing up, passing out, and assorted other yucky things throughout the two days.

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  3. How insane and painful was that second day of the bar exam. TORTURE. I kept obsessing that my cell phone was still on and I would be disqualified. INSANE. I love your writing....it's so strong without calling attention to itself. And I love a law post.

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    1. Um, yes. That second day was complete torture, and utterly unnecessary. I think they just use it as an endurance exam. Like to see who can sit through two full days of answering inane legal questions without cracking up, passing out, or doing something else equally abhorrent. And thank you, thank you for the writing complement. Yeah Write has helped me find my voice in a major way.

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  4. I got all worried for you while reading this post and felt so happy at the end when you passed. . .which means you did a great job.

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  5. Great job of sucking me in and making me all worried and stuff! I felt so anxious for you and am so happy it worked out!

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  6. OMG I can only imagine how panicky that feels. UGHHH. Good thing your brain didn't let you down.

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  7. "God, I couldn't even remember how many numbers I needed to remember."

    That part made me laugh outloud. So relatable. I am not a lawyer and have never taken the bar exam, but still. Good job this week!

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    1. Thanks so much, that is actually my favorite line too, because it was so true, and so indicative of the complete and utter freak out that I was enduring. I think this kind of anxiety is pretty mainstream, everyone feels it at some point in time.

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  8. I'm fairly certain i will now have a dream of forgetting my locker combo or of forgetting where my classes are as I read this right before bed. Very well written!

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    1. Isn't it funny how stress manifests itself in dreams? Ironically enough, I never dream about this. I think about it a lot, but it never shows up, even in my worst anxiety dreams.

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  9. What a mortifying experience! All those facts swimming around in your brain and you couldn't remember a nine-number sequence. Talk about total terror!

    I'm so glad your memory finally cooperated.

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  10. ack SO glad you got the right numbers down! :)
    great job conveying how stress can freak us the F out. ;)

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  11. There is nothing worse than not being able to remember critical things at critical times. You have to wait months for the result? Oh the suspense!!

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    1. The test is given all over the country during the last week in July, and when results are released varies by state. The essays are hand graded, so the more people who take the test in a state, the longer it takes for the scores to come out. In NY, they usually don't come out until the first half of November. It's basically torture.

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  12. Oh, I hate when our brains try to thwart us. And the harder you try to remember the worse it gets. So glad that you remembered the number in time.

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  13. I am just copying and pasting this first part. Sorry ... I promise you will only have to endure it once. I'm Angela -- new to blogging and new to yeah write. But, not new to writing. Until becoming unemployed this June (effin’ Scott Walker ... oops!), I taught high school English and Creative Writing was one of those courses. So, long story short: I will always have lots to say. Feel free to curse at me if you don't want to hear all my feedback. If you want more, let me know that too. I will glady offer even further feedback, but I’m not interested in pissing anyone off my first time on the grid. Now, on to your post ...
    What an awful experience! - But you took that experience and wrote about it very well. You are able to make your readers feel a sense of anxiety too. I like how you went straight to "maybe I shouldn't even be a lawyer." I think a lot of us (especially writers, for some strange reason) go to blaming ourselves and belittling ourselves to the utmost degree in zero to sixty. All the time, I find myself sobbing "I'm a horrible mom" over the smallest slips. Good job hitting on universal experience here.

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    1. Thanks Angela, and welcome to blogging and Yeah Write! Glad you joined in on the fun. Hold on tight, and enjoy the ride. Looking forward to reading what you write.

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  14. Oh that gut wrenching self doubt!
    I have so been there, although with different details. I am glad it worked out for you... that must have been one serious sigh of relief you let out!

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  15. I wish that my social security number was the only thing that I forgot these days. Has forgetting your social security number turned into a recurring dream when you're under pressure?

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    1. Surprisingly not. My recurring anxiety dream, strangely enough, is that I am going on a trip somewhere and forgot to pack. Weird how our brains translate stress isn't it?

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  16. I enjoyed reading this piece and especially admired the pacing and your descriptive inner monologue/obsessing. I felt your anxiety and could relate to every drop of fear and panic! Well done!

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    1. Thanks so much! I don't remember ever having an inner monologue as loud as it was that day!

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  17. Love it. Actually broke out in a cold sweat reading this... Standardized tests are designed to scare the bejesus out of us, I'm sure of it.

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  18. That's so hard. The harder you try to remember, the farther away the knowledge seems. I'm so glad you remembered. I'm so glad you passed.

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