Recently, one of my favorite athletes died.
If you are a baseball fan, you know him. Tony Gwynn.
He never won a world series, but he was probably the most liked and most respected baseball player of his generation.
He has over 3,000 hits in his career [if you don’t know anything about baseball, this feat has been achieved by only 28 players in history] and he is in the Hall of Fame.
The San Diego Padres — the only team he played for during his career — have erected a statue to Gwynn outside their home field of PetCo Park.
For Tony Gwynn, it was about getting base hits. He didn’t try to hit home runs (in fact, he hit only 135 in 20 years). He would just beat you with singles and virtually never strike out.
He showed up everyday, practiced hitting the ball, and when it was game time, he hit the ball. He didn’t have to hit it harder than anyone else, he just had to hit it.
So, what does this have to do with the bar exam?
I often hear from people studying for the bar exam who are worried that they cannot write a perfect essay or that they cannot seem to understand a particular sub-area of law as well as others.
But, if you understand most of the law and can write a good essay, then it is enough. You don’t need to hit a grand slam home run every time you step up to bat. (Not on the bar exam, anyway.)
The important thing is to practice enough to make the odds more likely than not that you will get a hit than strike out.
The best way to get to that point is through consistent, focused practice.
Remember, the bar exam is a pass/fail test.
As long as you get a few more base hits than average, you pass.
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For more about Gwynn as a player and a person, read his Wikipedia entry and this moving tribute by a Padres’ bat boy.
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