One Bar Exam Story

The bar is, obviously, stressful. Most exam takers study long hours for the weeks leading up to the exam and many are unable to sleep the night before the exam. I am told that countless examinees have trouble sleeping for days, or even weeks, in preparation for big day. On the first day of the exam, we were told to arrive rather early in the morning. After a morning session of grueling testing, we all had to wait for about an hour and a half for the afternoon session to begin. One gentleman was understandably extremely tired. After returning from lunch, he sat down at his desk to wait for the session to begin. As he sat in silence, realizing that nothing would happen for about half an hour, the gentleman fell asleep at his desk. The test was handed out - a proctor put his test next to the gentleman's head. A proctor read instructions over the loud speaker (a very, very loud speaker). The man continued to doze. The announcement was made that we could begin the exam. The fellow never woke up. Several test takers around him felt horrible, but knew that if they woke him up, they risked immediate disqualification for communicating with another examinee. Even when time was called after the entire afternoon session was completed, the gentleman never stirred. When the six thousand test takers were released and made their mad dash to the exit, the gentleman was finally jolted into consiousness. Hopefully, he will be more well-rested before the February '09 Bar Exam.