Studying for the MPRE (Ethics Bar) Makes Me Want to Stab Myself

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So. Boring. Brain. Melting.

Any other law students taking it saturday? (or sunday for you sabbath observers out there?) Misery loves company!

In a related gripe, I selected my law school as my test site, even though it is not the closest testing site to my house, because I had heard that you would sit for the exam in regular classrooms, while at the closest testing site there’s just a big crappy auditorium.

A couple weeks ago I got an email informing me that my testing room had been moved… to a big crappy auditorium. :mad:

2

Don’t sweat it too much. I took the MPRE after I took the bar (I didn’t take it before and had to wait on my license until I took it :smack:) and was surprised at how easy it seemed, especially compared to the bar. I didn’t really even study for it a whole lot, just reviewed some of my professional responsibility stuff for a few nights before.

3

A professor of mine once told me that the secret to passing the MPRE without studying was to carefully read each set of multiple choice answers and then pick the second most ethical response. Sure enough, he was right.

4

Yeah, I’m taking it, too. I think it’ll be OK. I’ve been taking the Barbri practice stuff, and most of the ones I’ve gotten wrong have been because I wasn’t really paying attention or I thought the question was too vague. Like, may an attorney withdraw merely because he believes the client’s objective to be imprudent? Turns out, yes, because imprudent is a synonym for “repugnant or fundamentally against the lawyer’s beliefs.” That lawyer is an asshole.

Most of the actual rules are pretty straightforward, though (it seems like).

5

Don’t sweat it too much. I took it November and passed pretty easily, even without doing any formal BarBri or Kaplan review. My advice would be to do a few practice tests and take a gander or two at the actual model rules.

I remember there being more questions about judges than I expected, so I’d pay attention to the judicial canons. There were definitely a few “what the…” questions I just took a stab at and moved on. If they seem really out there, they’re probably test questions that won’t make it into future versions of the MPRE.

Now, I won’t be so lackadaisical studying for the bar this summer. I hope.

6

This was my approach in November, and I failed by approximately one question (New York requires a scaled 85; I got a scaled 83.) It is a cold comfort that I’m ethical enough for New Jersey! :smiley:

I know people who do WAY worse than me in school who passed it easily though. Being a champion overthinker has its downsides.

7

Chiming in with the “don’t sweat it” brigade - I took a couple prep tests, went to a (free) two-hour review lecture at my school, and did fine. You’ve probably already taken Professional Responsibility, right? You know this stuff.

Get some sleep tonight, eat a good breakfast tomorrow, and good luck!

8

I came out of it having no idea whether or not I had done well, and I passed. So you shouldn’t necessarily worry if you come out of it feeling confused.

9

Oh my MPRE was a comedy of errors.

I registered at the last minute and was consigned to taking it in Chicago with the rest of the late registers, which meant a pretty long drive. I think it was 2 to 3 hours???

I promptly forgot about it.

Went out partying the night before (fortunately I didn’t get drunk but I came home around 2).

Was awakened at 5 by my friend, who I promised I’d give a ride to as we both realised we’d registered to late to take it at our school.

Frantically drove over to pick her up.

Drove up.

To discover that I never opened the letter with my ticket.

Which was sitting on my dining room table in my apartment in Central Illinois.

Frantically searched through glove compartment for a photograph.

Cut up one of me at our school’s infamous halloween party…

Somehow managed to get the cigarettes and booze out of proximity of my face

Wrote the rest of the ticket in red crayon (why??? Why didn’t anyone want to lend me a freaking pencil???) because my friend forgot her pencil case in Champaign and that’s what I dug out of the trunk of my car.

Thank god they were allowing you to “make your own ticket” (i.e. you needed certain info, a photograph, that’s it).

Anyway, the most interesting part of the story is that I sat around in the lobby before the test observing our surroundings

…I realised they’d scheduled the exam in a flophouse

True story, people!!!

PS: I passed but that’s only because I was dating the world’s least ethical attorney at the time and every time I got to a question I just thought “Hey, what would Kunal do? The answer must be the opposite.” I think the fact that I was taking Ethics that semester probably helped, too.

10

Oh, that hurts. The good news is that the MPRE isn’t that traumatic of a test so taking it multiple times isn’t the end of life as we know it. If I have to take the California bar more than once…well, let’s not contemplate that.

If it makes you feel better, an 83 makes you ethical enough to be a lawyer in well over half the states (and territories) of this great Union of ours.

11

When in doubt, pick the answer that makes you the least money.

That’s how I passed.

12

I remember absolutely nothing about the MPRE except getting lost on the way there and having to jog four or five blocks from the parking lot to the old D.C. Convention Center while having half an asthma attack. (That Convention Center is now – surprise! – a parking lot. Man, if only they tore that place down five years earlier, I would have been in like Flynn.)

–Cliffy

13

In case anyone was lying awake nights wondering about how my MPRE turned out, scores came out yesterday and I got a…

93!

I’m ethical, baby!

14

Thank God! Now I can sleep…