gregh  2008-07-29 17:00  barexam   

The California bar exam is a three-day trial of one's patience. I just finished day one.

Today, like Thursday will be, was split into morning and afternoon sessions of essays. In the three-hour morning session of both days, we have three essays on substantive areas of law. In the three-hour afternoon session, we have the "performance test," which is hard to explain.

I thought this morning's essays were relatively straightforward, though the third, a contracts question, gave me more fits than I anticipated such a question would. I thought I had put my contracts difficulties behind me. The three questions potentially covered (and ostensibly, eliminated from possibility Thursday) three areas of law. However, I'm not sure that the second question was truly a cross-over or not.

The performance test was straightforward enough to make me worry that I did something horribly wrong. Time will tell on that one.

Finally... Sheesh. It seems like two days have passed in less than one full day. But half the hard part (the essays) is over. Bring on the MBEs.

gregh  2008-07-29 20:06  barexam   

A bar taker breaks down the mechanics.

Day One Down, Feels Like Two :

Anyway, the test. In all the stuff I read beforehand, from various sites on the web, and in everything people told me, nobody really said what the exam is actually like, down to the nitty-gritty details. So I thought it might be helpful for some people to explain how it all goes down.

Other locations may be a little different. (E.g., in Los Angeles this morning there was an earthquake—a friend sent me a text message and said chandeliers were swinging and people were screaming during the third essay question). Here’s how it went down in San Mateo, July 2008.

It's a good run-down of the process. It's pretty much how it worked for us at the Oakland Convention Center, other than our absence of a huge parking lot; most people here are staying at the Marriott or across the street (where I am with hideous Internet service) at the Courtyard.

Others were smart and scoped the place out ahead of time. I just read the instructions and figured I'd figure it out.

The person next to me on my right hurt her back last week, so she's constantly adjusting herself. I've found the chair I'm on is (surprisingly) comfortable for about 2 hours, after which time I crush the cushion under my mass and my tailbone suffers and I start shifting.

And at the rate we're going, we're going to spend almost 3 hours just listening to instructions and announcements over the three days.