18-year-old passes California bar exam

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...nes-california
Young law school grad skips the bars and tries to pass the bar instead
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 19, 2007

....

'Other students at Cal State L.A., where she enrolled in an early
entrance program, figured she was older than she really was. They had
no clue that she only spent three weeks in first grade before skipping
to second grade, or that she'd planned since age 8 to start college as
early as she could.

By age 10, Holtz had by-passed fifth grade and was ready to trade
middle school for part-time studies at Cal State L.A. She enrolled
full time at age 11.

Holtz said she doesn't regret skipping high school.

"I was bored in school. I don't feel like I missed out on anything by
not going to high school. I wasn't going to be bored eight more years
in order to go to a high school prom," she said.

She graduated from Cal State L.A. magna cum laude with a degree in
philosophy. At UCLA's law school, she was a Law Review editor and Moot
Court participant.'

....

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/11/19/...alifornia-bar/

In other threads some people have asked what the point is of greatly
accelerating a highly gifted student, even if it is feasible. The
answer is that she can get on with her life. Maybe Ms. Holtz won't
like practicing law, but it is better for her to find out at age 23
than 35 -- I read that 30 is the average age of people passing the
California bar exam.

Beliavsky wrote:

In other threads some people have asked what the point is of greatly
accelerating a highly gifted student, even if it is feasible. The
answer is that she can get on with her life. Maybe Ms. Holtz won't
like practicing law, but it is better for her to find out at age 23
than 35 -- I read that 30 is the average age of people passing the
California bar exam.

As I recall, people in the various threads were not dealing
with this issue of these very rare, profoundly gifted kids (whom
none of us are likely to have to deal with). In fact, I think
several people acknowledged that all bets were off when it comes
to that sort of situation, and there really aren't any great options,
so you just do whatever you can. This sort of rare situation has
nothing to do with what schools could, or should, plan for, as it
makes utterly no sense to structure a program around an
incredibly rare situation that few schools will experience.

Best wishes,
Ericka

On 2007-11-21, Beliavsky wrote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...nes-california
Young law school grad skips the bars and tries to pass the bar instead
By Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 19, 2007

...

'Other students at Cal State L.A., where she enrolled in an early
entrance program, figured she was older than she really was. They had
no clue that she only spent three weeks in first grade before skipping
to second grade, or that she'd planned since age 8 to start college as
early as she could.

By age 10, Holtz had by-passed fifth grade and was ready to trade
middle school for part-time studies at Cal State L.A. She enrolled
full time at age 11.

Holtz said she doesn't regret skipping high school.

"I was bored in school. I don't feel like I missed out on anything by
not going to high school. I wasn't going to be bored eight more years
in order to go to a high school prom," she said.

She graduated from Cal State L.A. magna cum laude with a degree in
philosophy. At UCLA's law school, she was a Law Review editor and Moot
Court participant.'

...

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/11/19/...alifornia-bar/

In other threads some people have asked what the point is of greatly
accelerating a highly gifted student, even if it is feasible. The
answer is that she can get on with her life. Maybe Ms. Holtz won't
like practicing law, but it is better for her to find out at age 23
than 35 -- I read that 30 is the average age of people passing the
California bar exam.

She will probably retire at the age when most people pass a bar
exam...

i
well past that age and tired, but not retired

As I recall, people in the various threads were not dealing
with this issue of these very rare, profoundly gifted kids (whom
none of us are likely to have to deal with). In fact, I think
several people acknowledged that all bets were off when it comes
to that sort of situation, and there really aren't any great options,
so you just do whatever you can. This sort of rare situation has
nothing to do with what schools could, or should, plan for, as it
makes utterly no sense to structure a program around an
incredibly rare situation that few schools will experience.

absolutely, but then consider how many prodigies in other fields, sport,
music, for example, appear to be dealing with their success well early
on, then "fall of the rails", to the extent that many sports have
introduced regulations to prevent even the rare prodigies progressing at
such a fast rate.

Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:

As I recall, people in the various threads were not dealing
with this issue of these very rare, profoundly gifted kids (whom
none of us are likely to have to deal with). In fact, I think
several people acknowledged that all bets were off when it comes
to that sort of situation, and there really aren't any great options,
so you just do whatever you can. This sort of rare situation has
nothing to do with what schools could, or should, plan for, as it
makes utterly no sense to structure a program around an
incredibly rare situation that few schools will experience.

absolutely, but then consider how many prodigies in other fields, sport,
music, for example, appear to be dealing with their success well early
on, then "fall of the rails", to the extent that many sports have
introduced regulations to prevent even the rare prodigies progressing at
such a fast rate.

Absolutely. I certainly wouldn't claim that it is necessarily
the case that this sort of radical acceleration works great for
profoundly gifted kids. It's just that it's the best option going
for many of them. Most gifted kids, however, are going to fall into
the moderately or highly gifted area, and face a very different set
of pros and cons.

Best wishes,
Ericka