Colorado Supreme Court
Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel
Promoting Professionalism. Protecting the Public.
A Rite of
Passage
Colorado Supreme Justices
Share Their Bar Exam Stories
By
MARIE NAKAGAWA
Spring 2014
Justice Monica Márquez, who had
flown home to Colorado the week before to take the bar exam, remembers how her
father, now-retired Judge Jose D.L. Márquez of the
Colorado Court of Appeals, drove her to the bar exam in his truck. They arrived
too early, so she sat “super stressed out” in the truck with her father and
watched as others arrived in the parking lot, some frantically flipping through
pages for last-minute studying. “I felt like I was back in kindergarten,” she
said, remembering the pillow she brought to sit on, the carefully selected pens
and snacks she packed in clear plastic bags, and the big envelope with all her
personal information for the exam. “That’s definitely a fond memory…” she laughed.
The bar exam is a stressful experience for everyone,
especially for those who are studying to take it for the first time. It might
help to know that even the Justices of our Supreme Court shared the same stress
and worry that many feel as they prepare for and sit through this two-day exam.
Chief Justice Nancy Rice, Justice Gregory Hobbs, Justice Márquez,
Justice Brian Boatright, and Justice William Hood
shared with me their reflections on how they survived the bar exam.
All five took the bar exam the summer after they graduated
from law school. The Chief Justice, Justice Hobbs, and Justice Boatright had clerkships right after they graduated from
law school, and worked full-time during the day and studied for the bar exam at
night. All five Justices had jobs after the bar exam, which required that they
pass the exam the first time.
The Justices handled the stress of studying for the bar in
similar ways to our own. Justice Hobbs, who sat for the Colorado bar in July
and then the California bar right after in August, spent the week before the
exams at a cabin in the mountains. Surrounded by the Colorado wilderness,
Justice Hobbs enjoyed nature while preparing himself to sit for the bar. “A lot
of times,” he said, “analysis and synthesis comes at you sideways when you are
not directly thinking about it.”
Justice Boatright remembers that
his apartment had never been more clean than the summer he studied for the bar
exam. “For a single guy’s apartment, it was extremely clean,” he laughed.
Justice Boatright also balanced his full-time job and
studying at night with physical activities such as long bike rides and tennis. “It’s
important to blow off steam,” he said.
For Justice Hood, studying for the bar exam was like a 9-to-5
job. His then-fiancée, now wife, however, was also studying for the bar and the
two had very different studying styles. Both passed the bar, but the summer was
not without spats over the other’s study habits (such as who went to the pool
to study and who was highlighting too loudly). The two got married right after
they took the bar.
The Chief Justice and Justice Márquez shared similar
experiences of feeling isolated that summer because they moved away from where
they went to law school in order to take the Colorado bar exam. Chief Justice
Rice didn’t know anyone and was working every day from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. She
was able to focus on studying full-time only the two weeks before the bar exam,
when the judge she clerked for let her clock in once in the morning, go to the
library to study, check back in at lunch, then go back again to the library to
study. “It was the most productive time,” she remembers.
But it was also a lonely time, as Justice Márquez remembered
how she moved to Massachusetts that summer to study for the Colorado bar exam. “I
got shipments of these boxes of cassette tapes from the bar prep course and
listened to the tapes on my Walkman every day, by myself, at the Smith College
library,” she said.
As for exam day, the Justices agree it was stressful. Chief
Justice Rice remembers being stressed during the multiple choice exam but that
the essay portion was better. She brought her own typewriter and took the
essays with about 20 other typewriter-users in a closed area where it was
quiet. Justice Boatright seriously thought about not
coming back for the essays after the multiple choice day because he thought he
had done so poorly. “I remember it wasn’t until I got to question 80 on the multiple
choice that I thought, ‘Oh, I know the right answer!’” he said.
The Justices have some advice to share with prospective bar
exam takers. “It’s a stressful time, but take the exam seriously. You have one
test to pass,” Chief Justice Rice said.
“You know that about three-quarters of the exam takers will
pass,” Justice Hobbs said. “So relax, be competent, be able to express your
reasoning, and have self-control so you can react under pressure but remain
confident. That goes for any lawyer.”
“The recipe for not freaking out about the exam is to be
methodical,” Justice Hood said. “Don’t leave the studying until the end, and
treat it like it’s your job.”
Justice Márquez suggests seeking help and tutoring if you
are struggling. “Take advantage of help that is available to you. Ask your
local bar association if they provide any tutoring. The Colorado Hispanic Bar
tutors law students.”
According to Justice Boatright,
the key to making it through the whole thing is “first, you can’t listen to
what other people are doing, because some will exaggerate as to how much they
study; and second, when you’re studying, study. When you’re playing, be one
hundred percent into the playing. Don’t let the worry and stress affect other
parts of your life.”
Finally, as Justice Márquez said: “It’s a rite of passage.
Hang in there!”
My best wishes to all of you as you prepare for the bar
exam. It’ll be over… soon.
Marie
Nakagawa is a Staff Attorney with the Office of Attorney Regulation
Counsel. Marie took, survived, and
passed the July 2010 bar exam.