TIME, TENACITY, & TORTS: A Night Student’s Reflections After the Bar Exam by Angela Hartford

For many bar takers, bar prep doesn’t begin until
after graduation, and the sudden jump into an
intense 8–10-week study schedule can feel
overwhelming. Working full-time while attending
law school at night didn’t make bar prep easy, but
it did mean that some of the challenges others
face for the first time were already familiar to me.

I started working full-time during my sophomore year of
college, adjusting my class schedule so I could accept a job
I loved—one that also gave me my first real introduction to
the legal field. After undergrad, the University of Toledo
College of Law’s evening program allowed me to keep that
job while pursuing my law degree and eventually led me to
Charles Boyk Law Offices in my 2L year.

Balancing a full-time job with evening classes quietly built the discipline, structure, and endurance
that would later carry me through bar prep. In law school, I’d leave work each day and head straight
to class, so staying organized and prioritizing my time wasn’t optional. Those habits shaped how I
approached bar prep long before I opened a single outline. When I officially started studying for the bar, I
leaned on the same systems that got me through law school, especially my practice of hand-writing
notecards to learn black-letter law. I made them for every bar-tested subject and ended up with thousands.
The only way I could keep up was by writing them while listening to lectures. This was a routine that
became second nature and proved just as useful during bar prep.

Now that I’m on the other side of the bar exam, I’ve had time to reflect on its role as the profession’s
gatekeeper. I believe there’s real value in asking future lawyers to demonstrate a general understanding
of the law before entering the practice. And beyond the material itself, the bar exam requires you to
prioritize, adapt, and perform under pressure, which are critical skills for the profession. At the same time,
the bar still leans heavily on memorization, even with recent efforts to incorporate more analytical/practical
skills. Those changes are helpful, but the exam still doesn’t fully reflect what attorneys actually do. The
upcoming shift towards a more practice-oriented format in the NextGen Bar Exam seems like a promising
step in the right direction.

Looking back, working full-time during law school wasn’t a disadvantage—it was preparation. That’s why
it wasn’t the long days or months of studying that challenged me. Ironically, the torts products liability
section gave me the hardest time. But ultimately, the bar really tests the same skills that many students
have been practicing for years: staying focused, perseverance, and endurance. I’m grateful for the
discipline and perspective the process gave me, but—like anyone who’s taken the bar—I’m perfectly
fine leaving that experience as a one-time event.