COVID-19 and the Bar Exam

As if the bar exam isn’t enough to worry about, now there’s COVID-19. This article contains a few thoughts of mine about that situation.

But, before I get to those thoughts, let me express my hope that you and your families are all safe from this new virus. Knock on wood, my family and I are doing fine so far.

Bar Exam Postponements

Many of you reading this will live in states that have postponed the bar exam or are making contingency plans to postpone it should that become necessary. If you don’t know what’s happening with your state’s bar exam, you can obviously check your state bar’s website or this handy compilation of all deadlines from the NCBEX.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical doctor, a psychologist, a virologist, an epidemiologist, a public health official, or a fortune teller. These are all just thoughts that I’m having as of late May 2020.

Mental health

As someone who has taken the bar exam twice, I know firsthand that it is mentally stressful for just about everyone who takes it. Clearly, in any jurisdiction that has postponed the bar exam, the date change adds additional layers of mental stress.

One level is that the traditional schedule of graduating law school in May and then studying until the middle of July is upended. If you live in jurisdiction and has postponed the bar exam until September, it seems to me that it might be a good idea not to start studying until July to avoid burnout. (Unless, of course, your bar prep program is still being offered May-June.)

Although I am sure some of you out there will choose to study from May through September, such a schedule seems to me to be excessive. On the other hand, if one wanted to do low-intensity studying, such as casually reading outlines or reading sample essays without doing anything else, that could potentially be a good use of one’s time I suppose.

To me it seems the biggest stressor would be the uncertainty of the possibility that the bar exam might be postponed yet again. I would suspect that if virus infection rates spike after states “reopen” during the next months, an additional postponement could become a real possibility.

Physical health

I have been watching several evidence-based YouTube channels regarding the COVID-19 virus, and it does appear that there are several ways one can increase the likelihood you will avoid the worst symptoms of the virus.

As you may know, it does appear that the majority of people who die from this virus have underlying conditions while only a small percentage do not. (New York study; Chinese study; Video re New York study.) Therefore, if you have any of the notable underlying conditions (hypertension, obesity, and diabetes being the most common), it would be ideal to do as much as you can to get them under control and managed well. Obviously, you need to speak with your doctor about that.

In addition, there is evidence that a majority of people who suffer the most severe effects of COVID-19 are deficient in vitamin D. Below are two videos created by a British registered nurse in which he reviews the literature indicating that vitamin D is a helpful prophylactic measure.

If this is of interest to you, you should talk to your doctor about this and perhaps even get your vitamin D levels tested. Although I live in a sunny part of the country and spend a decent amount of minutes outside every day, I’ve been supplementing my vitamin D just be on the safe side.

Taking the exam

This section is going to be mainly speculative as I do not have any insight into how the bar examination testing areas are going to be arranged for exams given during this pandemic. Moreover, I have no professional experience in virology or biosecurity.

However, based on the information that’s been coming out from various governmental sources and medical studies (California; CDC; WHO), it would seem to me that a bar exam might be able to be administered relatively safely if it was given in a well-ventilated room with non-recycled air, with everyone wearing face coverings, and each seating location was adequately spaced and sanitized thoroughly.

I’m not sure how the bar exam authorities will handle this, but it would seem to me that each test taker should be permitted to bring in hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes in order to wipe down his or her area thoroughly before placing testing supplies (such as a computer, timer, pencils, pens, etc.) on top of the table. Assuming the materials you bring in had been previously sanitized and the area was sanitized, the main risk during the exam would be airborne transmission which should be reduced significantly by the proper use of face coverings and adequate ventilation.

In addition, the seating would have to be spaced out at least six feet per current CDC guidelines, but perhaps ten feet would be even better. As long as ventilation in the room was good to allow fresh air to continually enter the room, it seems like there would probably be limited risk of particle transmission. On the other hand, most guidelines prohibit gathering in large groups, so this could be an issue for the bar exam unless there were multiple, smaller testing locations.

But, like I said, I’m not a virologist or an epidemiologist or public health official, so my thoughts on this could be incorrect.

Where to stay during the exam?

If I were taking the bar exam under these conditions, I would do all that I could to be able to come home to my house at the end of the day and sleep there knowing that it was a safe zone. If I had to get a hotel room or other accommodation, I would make sure it was either (1) an extended-stay type hotel room with kitchen and refrigerator or (2) an AirBNB apartment near the testing site.

I would also likely rent the accommodation for an extra day and arrive early to sanitize it thoroughly. If it were a hotel room, I would direct the management and staff not to enter my room during the entire time I was staying there. I would make my own bed and clean anything I needed to clean. This way, I would not have to worry about any sort of risk of transmission while I was inside my sanitized rental space.

In addition, I would bring enough food with me from home so that I wouldn’t have to go grocery shopping or out to a restaurant. I would prepare and eat all my meals in the rented room. If the room was too distant from the testing site to return for lunch, I would bring lunch with me and find a place to eat alone.

Face coverings

Assuming face coverings would be required at the exam site, I would be sure to practice for the exam wearing one so that I would know how it would feel to wear it for hours at a time. (See my how to practice blog post here.)

For the exam itself, I would bring one face covering for each session of the exam. What I mean is, if the exam were two days long and had a morning and afternoon session each day, I would bring four masks individually packaged in plastic bags. I would wear one for the morning session and then return to my accommodation where I would remove my mask before eating lunch and relaxing. Then I would use a new mask to return for the afternoon session. Once that session was over and I returned to my accommodation at the end of the testing day, I would remove the mask. Repeat for day two. I think this is safer than reusing masks that may have been contaminated during a prior wearing session.

Conclusions

I really feel for anyone who has to take the bar exam under these conditions. Although it likely can be done with a high level of safety, it still yet another thing to worry about while studying for such an important test.

I wish you all good luck and good health.