The MPRE was not good.
Last night was not good either. At 10:30pm I panicked about my lack of a passport sized photo. I printed out my firm mug shot from the summer, but then I noticed the admission ticket said: "photocopies of photographs will not be accepted." Well, what does that mean?! It's not a copy, it's color, and it's clear, but it's not glossy. I decided if I was going to drag my ass out of bed in the morning I was not going to be turned away because of my lack of a glossy picture. I googled "MPRE photo" and a post from Ms. JD came to the rescue. It pointed me to a site called www.epassportphoto.com where you upload a picture of yourself and the site creates a 4x6 picture with six 2x2 inch passport photos. You can download the image, send it to www.walgreens.com, and pick it up 1 hour later for 21 cents. So I got home from Walgreens around 11 and decided I needed to read all 150 pages of the bar/bri MPRE book. I finished that around 1:30am. Landon woke up a little after 2 and then every few hours after that. Luckily JP got up with him, but in a 2-bedroom apartment, we're all up with him in spirit. When my alarm went off this morning I don't think I've ever felt so tired. I took the el downtown, read my outline on the way, and sat down at my desk ready to consider this a practice for the March exam.
And I think it might have been. It's not that the test is hard, it's just bad. There were so many questions where I could have written in the rule of professional conduct that governed the fact pattern, but none of the choices seemed to fit. In at least 40 of the 60 questions I narrowed it down to 2 (and sometimes even 3) answers that I absolutely could not choose between- and sometimes they were very different answers. My multiple choice testing skills were useless. I actually counted up all the A's, B's, C's, and D's at the end and tried to even things out a little with the few I just couldn't pick answers for. I was so exhausted I got up twice just to walk around and run my hands under cold water. "Bleah" pretty well sums up the experience.
So we'll see. It's quite possible that I passed and it's quite possible that I didn't- it depends how many I guessed right after narrowing it down. I did laugh when I heard someone checking in to the test before me say to his friend, "Dude, you have no idea how tired I am." No, you really don't.
Fugs & Pieces: April 19th, 2024
1 hour ago
I completely agree. I honestly don't know if studying more would help given the poorly worded questions not like I studied much).
ReplyDeleteApparently we find out in 5 week.
I hear you - I keep missing the cut-off for passing by a few points. It was my third time today. I know the Rules well enough, it's just that none of them seem to fit with the fact patterns. Good luck with everything.
ReplyDeleteWhen my dad was studying for the state bar exam, he and my Mom took the practice test together. She (who had never been to law school) scored better than he did, because apparently she's just good at "reading" tests, whereas he was totally bogged down by the fact that NONE OF THE PROVIDED ANSWERS WERE CORRECT in many cases.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if my little anecdote is supposed to be encouraging or what -- I think I just meant it to show that you're not alone in your law-related test-taking frustration!
I hope you did ok. I had the same feeling you had after I took two medical boards within 2 weeks of each other...while 6 mo pregnant and with an 18 mo old at home. Exhausted. All I could do is put it behind me and hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteThe MPRE is truly bizarre and stupid. However, if you know the rules that well, you probably did fine. I flunked the August one, and after actually studying the rules for this one it felt much easier.
ReplyDeleteWe'll all see in five weeks, and no matter what, it's over. Right?
Hopefully you'll squeak by and, offer in hand, all that matters is that you pass it once. You still have at least one more opportunity to take it before you start work (right?), but hopefully you won't have to. Get some rest!!!
ReplyDeleteWell at least that is behind you now. Hopefully you won't have to take it again. Did you have a good trip to the zoo?
ReplyDeleteBravo for at least giving it a try. If it was just for practice, meh, no big deal.
ReplyDeleteThe MPRE is weird - most people feel like it could have gone either way. Here's to getting the score you need!
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed that after your October that you managed to take the test at all, let alone read the book ahead of time! Hopefully you won't have to do it again, though.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way...I figured that at least I know where the test site is for March! Those questions were ridiculous. Best wishes to you! If anyone deserves to pass...it is totally you!!! Here's hoping none of us end up back at the table in March.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you did fine. Everyone seems to be having the same response as you, and since it's graded on a curve, I'll bet that means you're all ok.
ReplyDeleteI took it and felt awful about it and barely passed. But you know what? I knew a bunch of people who passed with about 30 points to spare and I just laughed at them for studying too much.
Really, don't worry. You have better things to do with your energy.
It's pretty amazing that you managed to take it at all, after your last month. So that's a triumph in and of itself.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that used to work for us for teething was to freeze a wet washcloth (folded in quarters), and then let the kiddo chew on the frozen washcloth a little. It would numb his gums somewhat. There's also a vibrating teether (ours was star-shaped, bought at a CVS drugstore) that seemed to give him some relief.
Best of luck to you! I've only been reading for a few weeks, but you are showing such grace and good parenting under tremendous pressure.
So impressed that you made it through the test! I might have taken the test room silence as an invitation to sleep. I hope you did better than you think. At the very least you'll be in a good position in March.
ReplyDeleteI felt the exact same way about the MPRE and came out with way more points than I needed for my jurisdiction. I really wouldn't worry about it. And yes, I barely studied either. And I was almost late.
ReplyDeleteIt is not on a curve, it is scaled. The good news is there are different versions of the test with different levels of difficulty. The harder the test, the more your score is scaled up, the easier, the more scaled down, in order to keep it fair. Besides, with being on a 50-150 point scale and not every question being worth the same amount of points, all you have to pray for is 25-35 points (depending on where you are!).
ReplyDelete