Talking to friends who have taken the bar exam, it excels at testing, among other things, attention to detail - a scenario that "is clearly X" at first read is

Talking to friends who have taken the bar exam, it excels at testing, among other things, attention to detail - a scenario that "is clearly X" at first read is actually nuanced and the answer is completely different. I don't personally believe that any single other skill is more important to being an effective lawyer, and do not believe that a short apprenticeship or submission of "body of work" is any sort of substitute. Will there be some people who can be effective lawyers without passing the bar? Probably - in the sense that there are some people who can be effective software engineers coming out of a coding bootcamp. That doesn't mean that 95% aren't incompetent people looking to make a quick buck.