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2007-03-10 - 3:23 a.m.

WHEW !! I just printed my ADMISSION TICKET for the MPRE

I had completed the application to take this part of the BAR exam back in DEC.

My computer had great difficulty in opening the file of the addmission ticket. I gave up on multiple occassions in the past and intended on CALLING the 1-800 # to get it sent to me.

But I hadn't gotten to that yet... so struggled with the sluggish computer and finally got it!

I had put down a few options of possible testing centers. I needed the ADMISSION TICKET to not only GET INTO the test, but also to know WHERE TO GO. I had no clue which testing center I was assigned to until now.

Heading to a D. C. law school in a few short hours.

NAP TIME NOW! I dozed a bit, but was up for the most part tonight. A bit of test anxiety perhaps?? (I really didn't HAVE to clean up the hundreds of e-mails tonight! It took me hours as I haven't checked e-mail in a LONG TIME! I of course wrote back a few people and the time just flew by doing what I thought were just a FEW things before going to bed! Oh yeah... I went through my FRI cleaning frenzy of cleaning the bathrooms, picking up the girls bedrooms, and catching up on folding and putting laundry away tonight as well. The mess just got to me when I arrived home tonight after a frenzy of litigation related activity!

IT was a VERY GOOD DAY! I met a very important deadline, and I did the best thing I could do in preparation for litigation today.

Filed a total of five items at the circuit court at around 4:15 pm. Yes, I may get a late start... its my nature... but BOOM when I then enter the game I tend to be strong and just suprise all.

I am not sure why that is. Its a trend with me though. I distinctly recall during the JESSUP MOOT COURT trials I just NEVER had the time due to being responsible for my kids to ever show up at any of the mock practice rounds. I never had the time to avail myself of peer and faculty critiques of those who had offered those practice sessions. I never had time to actually WRITE an argument. I just had time to read the facts of the case. I took a few hours the night before and I critiqued four students. I wasn't prepared so I didn't get the opportunity to get their feedback. But I just watched, took it in, and paid acute attention in those two hours of preparation I did.

My other 50 to 100 competitors in that competition likely all put in WELL over two hours of prep that I did. JESSUP was a HUGE thing at UB with a really high level of participation and competition.

But it really didn't seem to be a limitation when it came time for the competition.

I cleaned up.

It was a similar scenario when I qualified for the NY STATE LINCOLN DEBATE FINALS IN HIGH SCHOOL--- (Well, not so similar. To be honest I HAD been preparing and working hard. Except I had been preparing to compete in the DRAMATIC INTERPERTATION category of the ORATORY competition with the piece "The Yellow Wallpaper", and as one of the Lincoln Douglas Debators had the FLU and didn't make it, I filled in for her in that category so that our team who had been working their butts off for weeks could compete. They wouldn't have been able to without another warm body. In that case it was a 10 minute briefing on the format of Lincoln Douglas and the facts of that case to be argued given to me by a really sharp young freshman student then, she who is now an Editor at Reuters NEWS in NY that prepared me so well for the competition. (her input and some girl who went off to YALE who was a Senior that year at SHA whom I cannot recall the name of.)

WE had a blast at the State tournament that year. I did very well! I made it through to semi finals. It all went downhill for me as the dude who had won every competition on L.I. with only ONE EXCEPTION, that being to me in the qualifying tournament that ill fated day for him when my team mate had the flu so I was filling in, was met in my fourth round. It was a really close debate. I have to say there were five judges and the critiques all said this was the one of the hardest rounds to call. He won with a 3- 2 vote. Not bad considering that Mark Brisman walked in to OBSERVE me after the round started and his presence just TOTALLY THREW MY CONCENTRATION

I can still recall that particular moment. The goosebumps and excitement and nervousness that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the debate, and EVERYTHING to do with the attraction and hormones of a teenage girl being aware of that intense interest of that incredible guy.

My competitor went on to win the NY STATE LD tournament that year, and as I heard also made a really good showing at the Nationals.

I recall that losing that round wasn't a big deal to me. But I had lost the round before and I just didn't have any clue HOW THAT DETERMINATION WAS MADE. It was a few weeks later when I was talking to my coach and got back all the critiques that I noticed how that happened. It made just NO SENSE. Then I noted the names of the JUDGES of that round. It turned out that my prime competetors MOTHER had in fact been one of the judges, along with ANOTHER judge that came from his school I was KNOWN to be his competition.

So he had some proactive assistance.

I was 2-1 going into that fourth round. Should have been 3-0. Interestingly it made no difference as I was matched dead against that same kid whose mom had been assigned my round (it turned out the dude organizing judges that year WAS FROM THAT SCHOOL MY coach had blurted that out when she noted the name on my critique. But then she immediately made light of it and tried to pretend she hadn't been disturbed by that.)

Why am I rambling on about this at 4am the night before the MPRE?

NERVES

I am bolstering my ego in preparation for the exam.

I haven't reviewed a darn thing and am not sure how long it is. It could be half day or full for all I know. All I know is that when I took it years ago I hadn't prepared then either. That method got me through every standardized test my whole life until the BAR exam. (NOT THAT I WOULD ADVOCATE THAT! I WOULDN'T I just didn't have those parents that actually knew to TEACH us to prepare for standardized tests... likely as my DAD with an actual photographic memory in a hilarious contrast to me, likely never did prepare either, and my mom hadn't gone on to the world of acadamia and grew up on a farm in hick Thompson, OHIO so just didn't know the typical game of test prep. Or perhaps test prep when I was growing up was AYTIPICAL and is only a newer social phenomena)

IN any case, I actually think that if one had to STUDY and PREPARE for a PROFESSIONAL ETHICS EXAM, one really just SHOULDN'T BE A PROFESSIONAL.

There are some things I think it OK to cram for a test for. As an example: those things that one can always look up in a book later as you don't intend to rely on them often, and those things that are completely out of the scope of the area of law you intend to work in .

However, to me it is a scary thought that anyone at this stage in their life would have to CRAM to learn ETHICS. That is an area that should at this point be SO INGRAINED in who one is, that it is impossible to not apply ethical norms on a DAILY BASIS.


If someone really didn't already have that internal compass for knowing right from wrong, studying is not going to achieve it.

To me, if one has to actually STUDY to be able to pass a professional ETHICS exam, I really think they have no business being a professional.

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