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MPREssions and Other Thoughts

After a long an arduous journey, I have finally passed the MPRE. For those who don't know or remember the MPRE (Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam) is national ethics test that every prospective lawyer must take and pass. I registered for it this summer, studied for it for a few days, and even took four hours on a Saturday and went to the BarBri prep course in Frisco. However, for some reason, I assumed that the test was on a Saturday (what standardized test isn't?). On the day before what I thought was supposed to be the August test, while taking a practice MPRE test, I called my buddy Kevin, who is down in San Diego and who was also taking the August test, with the intent of asking him some ethics questions. When I called him up he said, ?So what did you think of the test?? My heart sank and my mind raced, ?What do you mean how was the test, it's not until tomorrow! Tomorrow I say!? But for some reason it wasn't. It was on a Friday. And that day was Friday. And I missed it. It was and is embarrassing. Again, what kind of organization has a standardized test on a Friday? Anyway, out of sheer negligence on my part I was forced to postpone taking the test until November, which I did last month near San Francisco with about 800 other law students packed into the same old and dilapidated warehouse. It was one of those tests where you have no idea how you did and in the back of your mind you make plans to retake the test again in March.

I finally got the test results today in an e-mail. It said my score was 129. That sounds like a good score, right? At least I thought it sounded good, but it doesn't really say if it's a good score or not. All it said was that the low score is 50, the high is 150 and the median is 100. So, I did better then the median score which is nice, but it still gave no indication on whether I passed or not. Apparently, since the MPRE is a national test, every jurisdiction (state) has a different passing number. I had really no idea what California's was until, through some stunning tactical manipulation on my part, I found the appropriate California bar web page which mercifully indicated that the passing score was 79. I was feeling pretty good about myself until I asked a friend, with whom I studied for the MPRE with, how he did on the test. He said he got a 144. I gotta learn to quit while I'm a head.

And I know that I'm not the first law student to propose this, but, if you pass the MPRE before taking your legal pro exam, you should be exempt from taking a law school exam on the same subject. All in favor?

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Other Updates/Thoughts:

- Sorry I didn't blog the Youtube/CNN debates; my in-laws were in town the night and we went out to a lovely dinner at Fisherman's Wharf.

- I'm not thrilled with the idea of Mitt Romney giving ?the speech? about Mormonism. JFK already gave a similar speech about his Catholicism and you would like to think that issue has already been put to bed. But the way Huckabee is playing up his ?Christian Leader? and ?I'm one of you? slight of hands, and the way evangelicals keep falling for it, Romney probably sees that his political life may well depend on him trying to convince the America that values are more important than theology. Lets hope America can make this distinction. I think it can and it will.

- My hard drive crashed a few days ago. I thought that kind of stuff happened to other people. It's been a big pain in the neck and in the wallet. Thankfully, I didn't lose anything too important.

- I think the writers strike will ultimately show how unimportant television is in our lives. What will people do when they are no longer looking forward to new television shows? What do they do in the summer? They go outside, read books, exercise and try other things. If people really do need an tv fix, they just need to rent something on DVD. May I suggest Prison Break season 1? It was great. On a personal basis, I know a lot of people in the entertainment industry, including my man John the King, and I care about the strike in that I don't like the idea of a huge part of our state economy coming to a halt, especially when it effects people I care about. That being said, I think society is going to be a-okay without awhile...

- Two more weeks until finals are over!

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on December 03, 2007 (boomark / email).