I got married in June after first year.  It isn't bad planning a wedding as long as your fiance is willing to carry more of the burden.  I worked hard during the week, never going out on weeknights.  I would finish up my work for Monday on Fridays so I could devote my weekend, if necessary, to wedding plans.  If you budget your time well, you'll be fine. 

The whole forest for the trees thing is simpler than some people make it out to be.  Remember, the general rule is the general rule.  Too many law students focus on the exceptions and forget they are just that, exceptions.  For instance, a search of something by police without a warrant.  People in my class immediately would think of all the exceptions to warrant requirements.  The first thing they should have done was run it through a Katz analysis to see if it was even a "search" under the 4th amendment.  Did they have a reasonable expectation of privacy?  The example is rudimentary and simple, but it shows there are steps to take.  This is what I mean by seeing the forest.  The law can be complicated, but most things can be broken down into a step-by-step analysis.  Remember the general rules, and know the exceptions.  But, remember to apply the general rule first then discuss the exceptions.   

But as the immediate poster above me said, you will see the forest once you start putting things together.  It will take a while.  You are just a 1L.

Tax?  I don't know a single thing about tax, besides the alternative minimum tax.  My materials say that there has never been a straight-out tax question on the VA bar.

Yeah, but tax is so easy.  I am actually not sure about that crap barbri put out during the essay advantage sessions.  They said there hadn't been a straight out tax question in years, but the essay questions from the bar had dates in the questions that were late 90s and early 2000s with tax issues.  I'm just not putting a lot of stock in their spreadsheet.  Although, I didn't study tax heavily.  Only about an hour.  I'm pretty confident there will not be a straight tax question, but I would not be surprised to see questions related to alimony, corporate or partnership tax treatment.  Stuff like that. 

But, shoot me if there is a creditor's rights question because I'm totally screwed.  Good luck to you!  Enjoy Roanoke.

I pray for no suretyship, commercial paper or secured transaction questions.

I pray the entire essay portion is nothing but criminal law, adverse possession, and federal jurisdiction. 

I pray that contracts and property magically disappears on the MBE.

I pray that I will know what the exam questions are asking, particularly the short answer section. 

I pray I pass, because I don't want to be only clerk the court house that failed.

Well, during the substantive parts of the course I was averaging 8 to 10 hour days.  Essentially, rewriting their notes from lecture and then boiling some of it down.  With only a 1.5 weeks left until the bar, I have been studying from 8am to 10pm each day.  I read my outlines until around 5 or 6, eat a short dinner and then work problems.  So far, I've been doing it for 4 days.  It sucks big time.  But, hopefully it will all payoff in the end.  But, I am clerking for a federal district judge for the next two years.  I don't have the pass to keep my job.  But, I really don't want to take this thing again.  We'll see.  Good luck all!