ABA Journal's Question of the Week was "What Was the Strangest Thing You Saw at the Bar Exam?," prompting old war stories featuring examtakers in pajamas, bunny slippers and Where's Waldo costumes, and medical crises up to and including labor, but not death. The most dramatic tale from the latest bar exam comes from our southern neighbor:
Things went bat-crazy here in Indiana for the July 2012 bar exam. Several bar-takers reported a live BAT the morning of the first day of the Indiana bar exam at the Indiana Convention Center. There were also reports of proctors trying to catch the bat – one tried to throw a cardboard box on top of it during the exam and no none of this was distracting at all (yeah right!) Several bar-takers reported severe chiroptophobia (fear of bats) and were praying it was a bird in the examination room. Now that the bar exam is over I think Indiana bar-takers would have preferred a visit from Christian Bale than from his mammal stand-in.
From Michigan we get this tale of an even more bizarre visitation:
While we were working on the Con Law essay in 1973 at the Michigan Law School, a man in sweat clothes and tennis shoes ran down the steps to the front of the room and asked for everyone’s attention. In a 2-minute speech he identified himself by name and said he wrote the question we were answering and wanted to give some advice about it. He said it was a straight-forward question, nothing exotic about it, and if we considered it that way we would have no trouble with it. Then he left, and we resumed writing. I thought there was something wrong with him, continued to write what I had started, and wondered what he thought he added to justify the disruption. I passed.
