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Some thoughts on Day 1 of the Oklahoma Bar Exam: it could have been worse, but why did it have to be this bad? A thread:
As anticipated, there were about ~300 of us taking the exam @coxconvcenter in Oklahoma City. We were all in one huge room. We each had an individual desk, and they were spaced out (I don’t know if 6ft or not). No phones allowed, so couldn’t take pictures.
We were asked to arrive to said room in three groups by last name, at 7am, 7:15, and 7:30. I arrived at 7:15 for my time and there was a huge, winding line of students waiting to get their temperatures checked so we could enter. We were not 6ft apart.
Our temperatures were checked, one at a time, by a machine that looked like it was taking a picture of us. We then were asked for our ID and to remove our masks so they could look at the inside.
The room we were in was gigantic, and I while we were all seated and taking the exam I felt like I could focus and not think about the people around me or COVID (except for when a couple of the hypos tried to be cute about COVID or a COVID-like illness!).
Directly on either side of the airplane-hangar sized room we were all in were two additional ones of similar size. These rooms were empty, and we were able to walk to/through them to get to the restrooms at the ends of each. Why didn’t they space us out more, across all 3?
In Oklahoma, the first day of the exam was 16 essay questions in 8hrs, administered in four 2hr blocks. We had 15 minute breaks after the first and third blocks, and a 1hr lunch break after the second.
Pretty much everyone used laptops (didn’t see anyone hand writing essays). At the end of each 2hr block, we “submitted” our answers through Exam Soft. But we are responsible for finding a reliable internet connection to upload all of the essays by 9pm tomorrow night.
If something happens to the software, or our hardware, we are SOL. I spent 30 minutes in my hotel room tonight trying to get the wifi to work, wondering where I could go to find WiFi if it didn’t. I was eventually able to get it to work. My laptop is ~6yrs old.
We had to pay $120 to use Exam Soft if we wanted the privilege of typing our answers instead of hand writing them. This is on top of the ~$1,000 to register for the Bar Exam & Bar admission & $350(?) to @NCBEX to check our backgrounds.
I spoke with a couple of other test takers who do not have jobs yet. One of them was dealing with the death of their mother in April. I can’t imagine studying for this for months, in the midst of a global pandemic, after that.
What is this all for? There is an impossible amount of material to cover. Luck of the draw what shows up.
1 of today’s essays asked for the particulars of an OK law, hypo is a client comes in worried about it. IRL there is no way I would advise a client from memory like that
1 of today’s essays asked for the particulars of an OK law, hypo is a client comes in worried about it. IRL there is no way I would advise a client from memory like that
I feel better about my prospects of passing now than I did yesterday. It was tough, I don’t know if I did well enough, & there are 6 more hrs of testing tomorrow.
But the dread, anxiety, & fear for my safety was absolutely horrible & unnecessary. We have to stop this hazing.
But the dread, anxiety, & fear for my safety was absolutely horrible & unnecessary. We have to stop this hazing.
