An elf walks into a bar... - by Rug Burn Junky
Renault on 31/7/2009 at 16:32
Right, but I figured after studying for months and then actually taking one of these things, you just kind of know afterwards whether you kicked ass or not.
demagogue on 31/7/2009 at 16:58
You've never taken an 18 hour test before, have you?
Edit:
I just mean the whole thing is a massive blur. It's hard to know what to even have an opinion about after something like that, through the haze of 3 days straight of writing.
Also, these things are graded on a curve, so even if you knew exactly how you scored you still wouldn't know whether you passed because it's based on your % relative to everybody else. Usually you do have some vague notion that you knew what you were talking about most of the time; if you're a good student and you studied properly, you probably did just fine. But it's no good being over-confident and going out of your way to jinx it.
Renault on 31/7/2009 at 17:46
Quote Posted by demagogue
You've never taken an 18 hour test before, have you?
Nope, never. I can't even imagine, actually.
I'm a bit surprised The Bar, of all things, is graded on a curve. I mean, either you know the law or you don't, right? Who cares how smart (or dumb) the rest of the world around you is? How bizarre.
(I guess this is a criticism of all tests graded on a curve, I just don't get it).
Rug Burn Junky on 31/7/2009 at 17:56
It actually makes sense. When you design a test, you can't really objectively tell how hard or easy any one question, or even the test as a whole, is to the general population. If you assume that the abilities of population taking the exam doesn't change appreciably from one sitting to the next, variations in the number of people getting points on an exam can be explained by the difficulty of the questions, and the scores can be modified accordingly. This makes even more sense for a test like the bar exam, where the sample sizes are so tremendously large.
demagogue on 31/7/2009 at 18:30
There are still reasons to be suspicious. As it actually operates, it's a way to restrict the number of lawyers to a precisely controlled % of the labor market, which artificially inflates their salaries with a barrier to entry. It's about how many new lawyers are coming into the market each year, not their legal knowledge per se. Of course you need to have people that know the law, but I'm sure a good number of people just under the line would probably be ok lawyers.
I mean, I was associated with a group that was part of the debate on increasing the pass rate for the Japanese Bar exam (from like 2% to 12%, still waaay lower than the US), and most of what they actually debated was how the market changes as you increase the % of lawyers in an area, and the level of legal knowledge was almost an afterthought. To be fair, though, the number of lawyers doesn't just affect their salaries, but it has some policy implications too about how certain fields of law actually work.
I pretty much knew I passed after I took it too, just because I had an answer for every major question. But it's still a pain to wait 5 months to actually get the news.
Tonamel on 31/7/2009 at 21:31
Three days?!
And here I thought the eight hour test I took for my master's was emotionally/physically draining! Good on you for surviving, and I'll be sure to have some whisky in your honor tonight!
David on 31/7/2009 at 22:13
Well, I seem to be a bit late to the party... but anyway, hooray! :D
Ostriig on 31/7/2009 at 23:34
Quote Posted by Starrfall
Holy crap I feel like I just got out of prison and now am trying to adjust to a life where I don't spend 8 hours a day studying (or trapped in a giant concrete cave surrounded by 1500 people frantically writing answers, which is how the last three days went).
Bleh. Back-to-back exam days are bad enough, but seriously, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1890048#post1890048)
18 hours? As in, 6-hours-a-session 18 hours? That sounds just criminal. Well, enjoy the 2 months, it's really crunches like that which put the joys of doing nothing into perspective!
D'Juhn Keep on 31/7/2009 at 23:55
Quote Posted by d0om
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poor effort
