Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam Turns Out to be Total Bullshit
And this is where I decide how to deal with the fact that I totally bombed the MPRE today.
I could deny that I ever took it, but I think I've already complained enough about studying for it so it's a little late for that. Or, I could blame myself for not taking the exam seriously. Excuse me? Blame myself? Why would I do that?
No. I will just lash out at the exam itself. The MPRE will hereinafter be referred to as the Multi-State Professional Bullshit Exam. It was total crap. First, let me re-cap some of the advice I'd been given about the damn test:
(1) Just look over the study guide the night before;
(2) It's sort of the bastard child of exams;
(3) Anyone with any sort of moral compass could pass it; and (My favorite)
(4) No shame in failing it, just take it again, who cares?
The one that gets to me is the moral compass thing. I have a damn moral compass. I'm a good person. That doesn't mean I know the persnickity little rules about fee-splitting with non-lawyers and the finer points of when and how one can give a bottle of wine to a judge who is actually a friend and who was only recently appointed a judge and who brought a bottle of wine to your house the last time he visited. This is what we call bullshit, people. And it cost me $110 to partake in that bullshit today. AND I had to drive all the way down to Eden Prairie to do it even though there are several fine exam-taking facilities right here in Minneapolis and St. Paul where the law schools are.
I don't want to say I failed the ethics portion of the bar exam. That's lame. My self-esteem is plummeting. The scores arrive in 5 weeks. I have very low expectations. Does passing a bullshit multiple-choice exam really make you an ethical lawyer?
So...Matt and I were in one room, and Elissa and Teddy were in the other. As far as I know, they are the only other classmates who took the exam. Why we were so gung-ho about taking it right now when everyone else is waiting until next year, I can't say. Anyway, we all met each other in the hallway after the exam and gave each other big wide eyes like "What the hell was that all about?" We consulted quickly about which bar we should go to, and got margaritas into our bellies as soon as possible.
posted by Ugly Juice @ 8:34 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
It is a stupid test and I know lots of people that failed it the first time. I only passed by 2 points. So don't freak out until you get your score, you'll do better than you think you did. And save your receipts, because KICK ASS LAW FIRM will reimburse you for every penny (of both tests, should you fail the first time).
Someone recently brought up the fact that the correct answer on the MPRE is, "What would Jesus do minus one"? I.e., you're not supposed to pick the MOST morally correct answer, but one less than that. Your score is NOT a reflection of your personal moral compass.
Thank you, Sarah. That makes me feel better. The "WWJD - 1" rule seems about right. Every answer seemed to boil down to two possibilities, and it was always what seemed right and what seemed a little more right. So you never really felt good about the answer you ended up with. Thanks for telling me about the receipts, I didn't know that.
I've often thought about the ethical code and the industry around it (including the MPRE test) as the way in which we lawyers keep the state off our backs in regulating us. We like to be self-regulated, and we build up systems that say to the public, "see, we are regulating ourselves and we won't let anything bad happen to you." Thus, the creation of a test that apparently weeds out the bad, unethical lawyers, leaving us good shiny people out there practicing. Thing is, the test has little to do with any personal moral compass or assuring that we are only allowing through the good ethical people who care for their pets, love their children, and don't know about greed. We're just passing on people who remember the rules long enough to answer a bunch of questions. And that apparently assures the public enough that we don't get regulated by anyone other than ourselves. Once let out into the world to practice, it's a whole 'nother story, and there's plenty of attorneys who passed the MPRE who don't have a clue about what the Rules actually mean, or what it means to be an upright and ethical person.
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