THE MORNING CONSTITUTIONAL HITS THE BAR

The bar exam is the Bridge of Death for law students, a final test at the end of a long and likely costly journey that is seemingly pointless but incredibly high stakes. If you fail, you spent three years of time and money for nothing. (Obviously you can take the bar exam again, but still.) If you pass, you just pass. There's only relief, not any particular pride, because the best that can be said is you don't have to remember every fucking fact about commercial paper anymore.

It's an incredibly stressful environment, likely multiplied by the presence of hundreds of other freaked out recent graduates. Now throw in a major and widespread error with the software used to upload your answers. Is it fixable? Probably. Will it lead to increased failure rates? Maybe, but less so than you think. Should test-takers remain calm? Yes, but that doesn't matter because you know these people are freaking the hell out.

Oh, right, we need some sort of lesson to take away from this. Let's go with the following: Go to law school if you want, but be aware that you are far more likely to wind up screaming at a piece of proprietary software at one in the morning instead of arguing in front of a Circuit Court of Appeals. (And the software will never miraculously lose your student debt balance.)