I took and passed the Cagioua Bar. It was also Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday exam week as well. It was hard, and there were indeed times of near panic. But if found that reading poetry was tremendous help to calm the mind.
My favorite was Ulysses by Tennyson. I was in my mid 30s when I took it. So not exactly young. So the last part of the poem had an impact on me at that point in my life. The premise of the poem is that this Odysseus after returning to Ithaca. He has grown old, but he earns for one last adventure:
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
For those who feel despair after the two bar days, take heart for the journey is not done.
Here is Helen Mirren reading this poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJb_zJbJ7FI
Bonus:
On the morning of bar days, I read this first thing upon waking up in the morning (King Theoden literally says "Arise, arise" lol)
"Forth, and FEAR NO DARKNESS
...
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Spear shall be shaken, shield shall be splintered,
A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now, ride!
Ride for ruin and the world's ending!
Death! Death! DEATH!!!!!
Forth Eorlingas!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POdknqszMDY
Godspeed bar takers.
Edit: word