As Ray Driver was taking The Florida Bar exam in 1994, he felt the odds were on his side.
Because about 80 percent pass the test, a professor told Driver to check out nine people around him and find two with issues.
On one side was a man taking the test for the fourth time. There was the first one Driver needed.
Another man was so nervous, he kept flipping an hourglass over and over. And there was the second.
“I was good to go,” Driver said.
Taking the test and waiting months for the results can be equal parts stress, angst and fear.
RELATED STORY: Attorneys recount the fear, angst and celebration of taking The Florida Bar exam.
Law school graduates who sat for the exam in July can find out if they were one of the eight-in-10 like Driver or one of the two. The results are on the Florida Supreme Court website.
For Troy K. Smith, trouble began the night before the test. In a cost-cutting move, he roomed with Eric Ragatz.
“That was a huge mistake,” said Smith, president of The Jacksonville Bar Association.
Ragatz was so nervous, Smith said, he was “doing backflips in his bed all night,” which in turn kept Smith awake.
“So,” Smith suggested, “room alone.”
Another bit of advice from Smith: Avoid eating too much spicy food the night before the test.
Studying for the test could be tough on your health, as well, according to Tad Delegal. His study diet was a mix of ice cream eaten directly out of half-gallon cartons and shots “because we were too anxious to get to sleep without liquor,” he said.
When Curtis Fallgatter took the exam in Oklahoma in 1973, the names of those who passed were published in the newspaper. As Fallgatter recalls, “the list was very long and the print was very small.”
As he quickly skimmed the list, he didn’t see his name. “But I slowed down and then spotted my name, and, of course, breathed a sigh of relief,” said Fallgatter, who passed the exam in Florida three years later.
Gary Flower got a little help opening the envelope that contained his test score. The Duval County Court judge was trying to use a hunting knife as a letter opener, but his hands were shaking so badly a friend took the knife and opened the envelope, which showed Flower passed.
Jennifer Kifer received news that she passed a couple of days before she and her mother were scheduled to go on a cruise (Kifer’s graduation present).
For Kifer’s mom, the ship was a perfect place to share her daughter’s achievement.
“I don’t think there was a person on the ship who didn’t know that I passed the Bar exam before we got off of the ship,” Kifer said.
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