All Things Profane and Sacred

Ralph Warner & Toni Ihara have this to say about the bar exam (dollar amounts have been updated for the current year):

"Imagine spending three years: memorizing the contents of 26 feet, 7 inches of books (approximately 911 lbs), listening to 1,800 hours of lectures, taking 30 examinations, spending upwards of $100,000, only to be told that all your reading, all your listening, all your money, and all your sucess on the examinations qualify you for absolutely nothing except the right to take one more exam-the Bar Examination.

"Imagine now being told that the Bar Exam tests not so much what you learned in the 1,800 lecture hours or the 26 feet, 7 inches of books, but on your ability to completely memorize the content of another eight-inch thick outline.

"Imagine next being told that in order to get this 'magic' outline, you must pay an additional $2,000 and spend a couple of months at another school.

"Imagine going to this new school with the knowledge that even if you read the magic outline 18 hours a day, evict your teddy bear and sleep with the bar outline clutched to your breast, your chances of flunking the examination are one in two.

"Imagine sitting in the Bar Examination for 2 days, surrounded by grey-faced classmates trying desperately to make it into the top 5o percent.

"Imagine how you will feel if you succeed.

"Imagine how you will feel if you fail.

"Imagine how you will feel if you do something else entirely with your life.

Warner & Ihara, 29 Reasons Not to Go to Law School, 65-66 (Nolo Press, 1982).