Monday 7 July 2008

Not a pleasant valley Sunday

Yay - paper didn't get nicked today.

Nay - had to be out of the house by 8 to get to an all - day mock exam.

Yay - only a mock, so still a few more weeks 'til the real thing.

Nay - realisation that I didn't even know what area of law some of the questions were about.

Yay - umm. My timing was alright? Managed the 200 multiple choice questions in plenty of time (suggested 1.8 minutes per question, I was a fair bit faster than that but then again going 'eeny meeny miny mo...' is a bit quicker than actually than actually thinking it out.

Nay - I have the answers here ready to self-grade and tot up my score. Maybe I'll leave that for the morning, easier to take bad news when the sun is shining...!

PS - Boy made me laugh when I got home. Commented that there was no food in the fridge. But I just did a big shop yesterday?! I said, and then reeled off all the things I'd bought.
'But those are just ingredients!' he retorts. Haha. Guess the healthkick starts (again) tomo. Darn having a pizzeria round the corner. That delivers...


UPDATE-

Ashamed to post this. I totted up my scores and I got...90 out of 200. Okay...89. I think anyway, I scribbled down my answers really roughly on scrap, and some may have gotten mixed up. Either way, it's 90 give or take a few. Well short of the 105 national average.

I mean it's understandable given I've done no work. Actually I was expected closer to 40. And I still have 2 Property lectures to make up so I couldn't have answered 2/3 of 33 questions with anything but guesswork. And for some reason Con law would not go in my head. There are 80 easy questions, 10 aren't marked (test questions for the next year), 20 are really hard, and the others are in between.

A passing mark in the exam is 125... so I have a fair bit of work to do. Just looking roughly, I mostly got questions wrong in Property, Constitutional law, and a few in Torts - surprisingly, cos that's an easy subject. Evidence and Crim I did ok in - which makes sense, as the lecturer in that subject was good, and they were one of the very first subjects. Whereas a week in I already wasn't paying attention I reckon.

Anyway, there's 12 hours of analysis to listen to online...better get cracking!!

7 comments:

Android said...

OMG! Reading about your all-day mocks with 200 questions :O makes me feel exhausted for you! Especially on a Sunday. Is that cruel or what?

And in general, having re-read your posts (sorry I haven't been commenting much lately), I just want to say that you're a very brave person to do these Bar exams, because personally I doubt I'd be able to cope with so much new material/countless exams etc etc! So yea... Good luck with your mocks and finals, and you're doing great! :)

Mel said...

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Honestly (and I can't really say this until I've passed) but everyone says how hard the NY Bar exam is (and it is harder than other states...NJ has only 6 subjects for example) but still...it's only hard if you're work shy. Which admittedly I am, but if you've done an LLB or blimey - managed to pass the BVC it's more than doable.

Though watch me fail having said that... but if there's one thing I can do it's cram!!

Surprisingly, the exam wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. 200 qs sounds like such a lot doesn't it?! Obviously there was none of that real exam panic, which there will be on the real day...but as long as I stay awake I should be able to handle the all day exam part.
Thanks for the good luck wishes! Need all ze help I can get...!

Android said...

You will be fine!! :)

By the way, sorry if I asked this before, but what would this qualification give you in practical terms (apart from looking amazing on your CV)?

Mel said...

Umm...not sure?! I should know that shouldn't I.

Well, it will be technically possible for me to practice in NY as an attorney, and indeed I could practice in the other states on one-off occasions if a case called for it.

In reality, I wouldn't get hired by any NY law firms as they seem to be blind to UK education, or rather blind to anything that isn't top US law school education. Maybe if I do an LLM here then I could work here.

Although I don't realllly want to...so it's all academic. But at least I have the choice. Kinda!

I don't think I get any letters from it though :( I have to fill in another bunch of paperwork to actually be admitted to the NY Bar.

So actually I guess it is very like the BVC - in that you are a barrister...but you're not really until you get pupillage. And tenacny :S:S:S:S

Minx said...

Hi Mel,
Ths is totally off topic, but I am having horrendous problems with my blog - its been hijacked by a guy called paul masterson, and for the moment I can do nothing about it; my url has therefore changed - it is no longer lawminx.blogspot.com but minx610.blogspot.com, so you'll have to ammend your link to me, Im afraid!!
(*rushes off, stressed, to tell everyone else of this catastrophe*!!!)

Mel said...

That's awful! Why would someone do that? I'll amend the link right away. Can you still access old posts etc?

Glad to hear you're still blogging though!

Minx said...

Hi Mel,

Have no idea why someone would be that spiteful/jealous, but there ya go; Google will try to restore my posts to me, but given that the blog addy has gone to this person, it is quite likely that they will restore all my posts to him!
Have no fear, I shall carry on blogging, but I really have to find ways of making it all more secure - I dont want to resort to 'invited readers only', that doesn't seem fair, but the way its all kicking off, I may have to in the short term :(