last night, while studying, i got really really scared. scared about the bar exam. b/c i was finding the MPRE so hard, and the questions were soooo tricky (I was doing the practice tests in the barbri book), and that if this is what the bar exam is like, i'm toast. absolute toast.

i have not been a good student in professional responsibility. i have not gone to every class. i have not paid attention while there. i have im'd with my mother, i have played sudoku, i have written back and forth with my sister, i have written papers for other classes. i rarely am focused.

but i went to the barbri review, and i studied for 2 full days. and the practice exams were horrid. i was getting worse instead of better, and went to bed thinking that i was going to fail today.

but when i woke up, i felt better. i went through the mini-review, and i felt "huh, i do know this stuff." i went to the exam (HORRID TESTING SITE!) and didn't really feel so bad. One thing I did that helped was I marked on the exam booklet the questions that I thought I was sure of, and then i went back and counted them up, and it was well over 30, so if I think that it is the ones I don't know jack shit about that are the "pre-test" questions, and that I was not going to get ALL the ones I wasn't sure of wrong, I convinced myself that I passed.

But the numbers, of course, could go against me. It could be 10 of the Q's I was "sure of" that were pre-tests, and I could, in fact, have gotten all the others wrong.

I read the testing center instructings before I went, and saw that I was allowed to have nothing but the air I inhaled on the way in with me, and left everything home except my handwritten notes, and I reviewed those in the hallway before i went into the test room, and then threw them away in a trash can. I ahd thought of bringing my barbri review book, and throwing that away - but then i realized .....

it's entirely likely that I'll need this thing come March.

Shit!!

posted by Zuska @ 11:27 PM

3 Comments:

At Sunday, November 05, 2006 11:48:00 AM, She says said…

I walked out of the MPRE feeling the same way -- that everyone had pulled a fast one telling me not to worry about it when in fact I thought it was HARD. There were too too many questions where I was able to eliminate all but two answers but the two remaining answers were diametrically opposed.

UGH.

But, but, despite crappy study habits (mine), I did pass with an 87 or something which is high enough to use in any state but Utah. Oh well, guess I'm shut out of Utah. Won't lose any sleep over that one.

Which is to say that you shouldn't buy into the hype that the MPRE is a breeze. Everyone I know found it surprisingly difficult. And everyone I know also got a 75 or better.

And don't throw away the prep book. Not because you'll need it again but because you can sell it on ebay!
At Sunday, November 05, 2006 11:59:00 AM, Zuska said…

I am in one of the harder states - a 75 won't do it for me. I need an 85.

But it's possible I got it.
At Sunday, November 05, 2006 9:22:00 PM, She says said…

Yeah, that makes it tougher, but still don't sweat it. I would have bet money that I didn't score even a 75 -- in fact, I didn't have my scores reported to any jurisdiction just in case (I was that convinced that I had bombed)... and it worked out.

Fingers crossed for ya'!