The MPRE (Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam)...

...and other ways to kill a Saturday. Yes, it's been a few months since I last posted, but there just wasn't all that much going on in the world of law school. I did feel the need to inform you about the MPRE though. This is something you have to take eventually, but you can take it before you graduate and they actually recommend doing it before that point. It's a 60 question multiple choice test with little scenarios and you have to decide what is right and wrong--but not according to your own morals and ethics, but according the to the rules of professional conduct or something like that. Essentially, it follows logic and most morals, but deviates enough ways that you couldn't pass it easily without studying. Speaking of studying, you can take a 5 hr review course put on by BARBRI. This is worth your time. It's a crash course of the material and will give you a pretty good heads up. They give you an outline with blanks on every few pages that you fill in as you go along (they refer to it as mad libs, but I didn't think it was that fun). They also recommend you spend something like 20 hours preparing for it outside of that class. I disagree. If you have had professional responsibility, and take the review course, you'll remember a lot more than you think. I spent a total of no more than 10 hours studying for this--including the 5 hr review course. I felt like I did pretty good, but we'll see when the scores come out in a month.

You have to register for the test before hand and when you do, you select the testing center you prefer, but that doesn't mean you'll get it. If you sign up earlier you're more likely to get what you want. I took it at the Javits Center with probably a thousand other students. We actually stood in line to get checked in longer than it took me to take the exam. (You have two hours for the exam, it took me 1 1/2 hours.) Overall, it was not a bad place to test. They tell you before hand that you can't have a cell phone or mp3 player or food or anything, but everyone showed up with that stuff and they were just told to put it under their seats. So, I could have been studying for the time we were in line, but I didn't bring my book. Luckily I was standing next to people from school and I had someone to talk to and keep relaxed. Anyway, I think I've brought up the key points about the MPRE that you need to keep in mind. Don't stress about it, if you fail you can always take it next time.

As for the rest of school, I'm tired of classes. This is the first semester that we haven't had a decent break in the middle and it's starting to wear on me, but it is nearly over. Only 3 more weeks of class before finals. Crazy! I've already had one half semester class end. I've had two supposed "interviews" from OCI, but they turned out not to really be interviews because the JAG from Navy and AF don't actually interview on campus, they just give an information session, oh, and of course they don't tell you it's not a real interview until you show up for it. Oh well. I'm keeping my eyes out for job opportunities that might interest me and I'm not stressing. There are plenty of jobs out there and I have plenty of motivation (read: debt) to go find one. I think it's important to keep your cool about it. If you really want a job you can get one!