Complex sentence: After graduating from St. John's Colege in 1827, he spent the next four years reading law privately, but apparently he did not take the bar exam, choosing instead to begin working for the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad.
Split into simpler sentences: After graduating from St. John's Colege in 1827, he spent the next four years reading law privately, but apparently he did not take the bar exam. He, instead, chose to begin working for the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad.