Roughly 26 hours to go....

Things I've realized in the last few days, with the bar exam less than 27 hours away:

1. I have no more room in my brain for anything else except (a) more review and (b) stress. I can't even remember the simplest things that I just heard. On the other hand, I remember feeling this way in 1987, when I was one day away from the California bar. On the other other hand, though, I hated this effect then, too.

2. If there were a Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of bar review, it would go something like this:

Hubris: "There's not that much to learn, really. I can do it and still have a life."
Frustration: "Why on earth did the law change so much in [insert field] since 1987?" Some subjects also experience self-frustration: "Why didn't I start memorizing MONTHS ago?"
Lucas v. Hamm-ism: "If I promise to practice only in those areas in which I am actually competent, will you please just use some essay questions that I can actually answer?"
Chagrin: "Why did I tell so many people that I was taking the bar?"
Resignation: "Well, at least there's nothing else I can do until I get the results."

I am clearly in stage 3, with a bit of self-frustration stage 2 lingering on: If I'd only studied 8 hours/day, 5 months straight....

The sad thing is that I actually don't mind taking tests. I like the mental challenge. But this one's going to be a whopper, and I'm just as likely at this point not to pass as to pass. If I don't pass, then I'll take it again and I will force myself to memorize stuff earlier. If I do pass, I will be very lucky and very grateful.

More to come, and here's wishing good luck to all of my colleagues across the nation who are in the same boat this week.