Bar Exams, Screw-Ups, Technology

Bar Exam Open Thread: So, How Was It -- Or How's It Going?

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For those of you who are done with the July 2010 bar exam, congratulations! For those of you who still have another day left, our condolences — and good luck.

No administration of the bar is complete without some sort of mishap. The latest tale of woe comes from California. The state that some have called “ungovernable” also seems to have difficulty administering the bar exam.

Find out about goings-on in the Not-So-Golden State, and compare notes on the bar exam experience in different states around the country, after the jump.

A West Coast reader reports:

Just letting you know what a clusterf**k the California Bar Exam this year is. They are using ExamSoft with no absolutely on-site technical support.

After day 1, we were told to attempt to upload our exams from our hotels; the unlucky ones were unable to upload either automatically or manually. The unlucky ones (my program now asks me to re-register as if I never used ExamSoft before) were totally hung out to dry.

The State Bar people reiterated that they “provide no technical support” and that I was supposed to call ExamSoft. Apparently I’m not the only one having issues because I was on hold from 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM yesterday, and have been on hold since 5:30AM today. All this during the time when we’re supposed to be preparing for our MBEs.

Alas, the California bar takers still have one more day to endure. Those of you here in New York are done. From Scott Greenfield over at Simple Justice:

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Whether you chalk it up to a rite of passage or a demonstration of the minimal degree of knowledge for the right to be responsible for other people’s lives, the bar exam must still be passed before you get to call yourself a lawyer. I believe it will be administered on July 27-28th in New York. Suddenly, all those smart-mouthed know-it-all kids who were busy telling lawyers all about their vision of the law are lying in their beds in the fetal position, praying that they don’t screw it up and reveal to the world, and their mothers, that they are are total, complete failures.

So, New Yorkers, how do you feel about your performance? Did you ace it — or are you a “total, complete failure[]”?

But we don’t mean to focus entirely on Californians and New Yorkers. We welcome bar exam anecdotes and reports from the field from all of our readers, regardless of the state or jurisdiction.

Did you also experience technological troubles during the bar exam? Did the person next to you lose his or her mind in the middle of the test? Did someone’s cell phone go off? Was there an earthquake?

Tell us about your bar exam experience in the comments. But a word of WARNING: Please do NOT discuss specific questions or topics from today’s bar exam in this thread. To learn why it’s a bad idea, see here. If we see such comments, we will delete them (and may ban the responsible commenter from future commenting).

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Thank you. And to those of you who have to go back for another day tomorrow, best of luck!

Another Bar Exam [Simple Justice via Infamy or Praise]

Earlier: Bar Exam Day 2 Open Thread
Breaking: Earthquake Hits California on Day 1 of the Bar Exam!

Cartoon: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. To see a full-size version and discuss it, click here.

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