Bar Exams, California, Cellphones, Disasters / Emergencies, Rudeness, Screw-Ups

Bar Exam Open Thread: Have At It

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Here’s an open thread for discussing the July 2011 bar exam. We hope you attack it with all the gusto of Los Angeles lawyers at a deposition.

If you’ve just finished the bar exam, congratulations. We hope you’re taking a well-deserved vacation, perhaps involving some exotic travel (e.g., the traditional bar trip).

If you’re still in the middle of the big test, good luck. At least you’re done with the MBE, which some believe to be the hardest part of the bar.

Some of you may need all the luck you can get. This morning we told you about bar exam mishaps from this week. Unfortunately, since then we’ve heard about even more bar-related problems.

Let’s hear about the latest difficulties from around the country — and give you a place to talk about the test….

Let’s start here in Above the Law’s home city of New York. A tipster tells us:

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So yesterday, the Javits Center was hosting a Diamond Show along with the Bar Exam. Well today, on MBE day, they were breaking down the booths from the Diamond Show — right above us. We heard, at least in my section, every bang and crash of … whatever the hell they were doing. My proctor complained up the line but as far as I know nothing happened. While it was at times only a little distracting, there were some very loud crashes from right above.

Diamonds are not a bar taker’s best friend. But wait, there’s more:

Also, three cell phones apparently went off. They seem to be ones belonging to proctors. One actually answered his phone inside the exam room.

Learning to ignore people who are talking loudly on their cellphones at inappropriate times is a valuable skill for a lawyer to possess. Consider this part of your professional training.

We feel for the Javits Center test-takers who had to put up with these distractions. But we think that some Californians had it worse. Here’s one West Coast report:

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My significant other is taking the CA bar exam at the Santa Clara test site, and apparently they had some sort of emergency evacuation/fire drill/something where there was a man on the loudspeaker telling everyone to get out about 20-25 minutes before the end of this morning’s multiple-choice section.

A second source, who was actually at the scene, corroborates this claim:

The fire alarm went off at the Santa Clara Convention Center (for CA test takers) with about 30 or 40 minutes to go in today’s morning session. Just as we were about to be evacuated, a hotel employee ran in waving his arms saying it was a false alarm. So we were allowed to stay and finish.

Quite maddening. Santa Clara test takers, we hope you were able to solider through.

Of course, we don’t want to focus exclusively on Californians and New Yorkers. We welcome bar exam anecdotes and reports from around the country, from all states and jurisdictions. Tell us your tales of technological troubles. Share with us stories of natural disasters.

Tell us about your bar exam experiences 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).

Thanks for sharing. And good luck to those of you who are still in the trenches.

P.S. We hope you’ve been enjoying the Bar Review Diaries, a series sponsored by our friends at Themis Bar Review. Next week we’ll hear from our three test takers and learn how they felt the bar exam went for them.

Earlier: Bar Exam Disasters, And It’s Only Been One Day
Bar Review Diaries: Best of Luck on the Bar Exam!
Prior ATL coverage of the bar exam

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