CA Bar Exam – Day 3 July 31, 2008
Posted by atharkhan in : CA Bar Prep, Personal , add a commentThe essays were “okay” again. Nothing too horribly bad. I was feeling fairly good about the whole bar exam until about lunchtime. However, the second performance test really got me. I am fairly certain that the exam was probably not any more difficult than usual. It was probably that I was exhausted by this time and once I fell a little behind, I was chasing the finish line the whole time. I definitely didn’t finish it. The exam called for a lot of factual comparison and analysis and I spent a bit too much time “collecting” the law. Hopefully the fact that all the law is in my answer will get me sufficient credit to keep me in the running for a passing grade.
When they called “time,” the whole place erupted with applause and celebration — including the proctors! I am sure the proctors were happy to get away from a few thousand stressed out exam takers.
I am happy that the process is over for now. I still have to take the Illinois Bar in February 2009 — and hopefully I won’t need to take the California Bar ever again 
CA Bar Exam – Day 2 July 30, 2008
Posted by atharkhan in : CA Bar Prep, Personal , add a commentToday we had the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) which is a total of 200 multiple choice questions tested in two 3-hour sessions with 100 questions each.
I was hoping to do well enough on this portion to be able to apply it towards the Illinois Bar Exam that I have to take in February 2009. I think I walked away feeling fairly okay about it so hopefully, I wont have to do this section again in February.
MBEs are the most difficult part of the bar exam for me because they are so mercilessly digital — an answer is either right or not. There is simply no partial credit for a second-best answer or a half-right answer. I also find it difficult because I always have to write something down to absorb it — even if it is line between the opposing parties or a timeline of events and that takes up a lot of time. Trust me, I have tried doing these questions without any scratchwork and I spend the same amount of time re-reading the question. So, it really doesn’t cost me that much more time to do it.
As if keeping pace wasn’t enough, one also has to remain calm and focused. There are some questions where I fell behind the 1.8 Minutes/Question average and had to catch up elsewhere. My solution to this was that when I got to the long (one and a half column Property questions) I made an immediate best guess based on just the question and the reasoning within the answers rather than reading the entire fact pattern. That helped gain a lot of time and I managed to finish the morning session. The afternoon session was harder and I had about 20 questions to go with about 12 to 15 minutes left. Luckily, two long Property questions showed up and the same stop-loss technique worked okay. I finished just as I was answering the last one and I couldn’t go back to fix a few questions (by actually reading them). That’s really irritating me right now. Oh well — I guess if a few MBEs were going to keep me from passing, I probably never did deserve to pass anyway. Can’t really bank on a margin-of-error to bring me up to a passing score.
Although time management was an issue, I am happy that I wasn’t stressed and remained calm. Can’t really ask for much more than that I suppose.
Tomorrow is the last day of the exam. Will be back in Irvine tomorrow night and will be sure to catch up on emails, voice messages, etc.
CA Bar Exam – Day 1: Earthquake! July 29, 2008
Posted by atharkhan in : CA Bar Prep, Personal , add a commentYes, we had an earthquake during the bar but fortunately no one was hurt or injured. It happened some time during the third hour. I was running behind on the essay when it started. At first I thought I was just feeling stressed — I was surprised and remember thinking to myself “Am I about to get sick?? I don’t ever get that stressed. This is new.” Then the ceiling lights started shaking and the whole conventional hall started creaking and shaking. I looked up and saw that a large beam and an air conditioning duct were rattling together. It still didn’t really sink in because it was so unreal and I had never been in an earthquake until today. Then I saw a lot of people in front of me dive under the tables. That’s when it finally sunk in — “oh… this is an earthquake!” I dove under that table so fast that I was giggling about it under the table. The guy next to me under the table was not amused.
I don’t remember how long we were under there — probably no longer than 20 seconds. Some people just kept on typing. When we came up, and sat back in our seats, it finally sunk in — we had just been in an earthquake. I hate to admit it but I was pretty rattled by the experience and took quite a bit of time for me to ease up. A proctor announced that we would get an extra couple of minutes and everyone applauded. I don’t really know if we ended up getting extra time but I am fairly sure we did. I considered writing something in my exam (e.g. “Pardon my incoherence henceforth because we just had an earthquake”) but then thought that it would serve no purpose other than calling more attention to any flaws in my exam. Besides, if I were reading something like that in an exam, I would think of it as complaining and not accepting responsibility for a hastily written answer. So, I decided not to. I will say however, that although I am not someone who expects any special treatment, just this once if the State Bar decided to be slightly forgiving of whatever I wrote in the last few minutes, I wouldn’t exactly demand that they grade me without any kind of handicap.
Overall, the exam was “okay.” The essay portion was “okay” — I don’t think I did horribly bad but I certainly don’t feel as if I am in the clear passing zone. I guess I will take “okay” over doing “horribly bad.” The performance exam was barely okay. I always walk away from those things thinking if I had 10 more minutes I could have done better. So, I can’t estimate how I did.
In any case, I am glad that it’s 1/3rd over. And, if we experience an aftershock tomorrow, I am taking the MBE booklet with me under the table!
