Saturday, November 04, 2006

MPRE -- Done. I think. I hope.

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) is a part of the BAR exam for any state and was administered this morning. 60 multiple choice questions in 2 hours and 5 minutes, which is surprisingly reasonable. I finished in about an hour and a half, though I make no representations that finishing early has any relevance on my actual performance.

The test makes you leave feeling like you're stupid for not knowing which answer is ethical , and I think everyone leaves wondering if they failed. Surprisingly, there is very little information about there about the grading curve, raw scores, and passage rates. I assume that when we get our scores 5 weeks from now, that it will simply state Pass or Fail, and won't go into any detail about the breakdown of the grades.

While I think a breakdown of your rank and performance isn't necessary (because if you pass you pass), I do think it is necessary to give us some way of showing us what questions we got wrong so that we can learn what the right answer is. Frankly, if I'm never told what questions I got wrong, I'll probably assume--even when I start working--that what I originally thought was proper under the circumstances.

But I can't complain much. I think the test was at or near the level of difficulty seen on other practice exams. The Bar/Bri practice exams were a bit harder actually, not because of the material tested, but because of the confusingly written narratives.

If any of you in the East Bay are considering taking the exam in March 2007, I would recommend the Alameda testing center, which is easy to get to and has ample parking. I've never seen a test administration run smoother.

This is in absolute contrast to taking the LSAT (the first time), where the person reading the instructions was reading at a third to fourth grade reading level and the time keeper insisted that the time kept running in between sections of the exam, such that we were getting about 25-27 actual minutes for a "35" minute section. What a debacle.

One down -- many to go.

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