Bar Exam Blues, Part I
May. 27th, 2008 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojThat was... interesting.
I'll say this for the Law Society of Upper Canada, AKA the Unfortunately Yet Aptly Acronymed LSUC: they could teach airports a thing or two aboutparanoia security. And the CIA, probably, and the Center For Disease Control. And Canada's now former foreign minister, Maxime Bernier. And a few nuclear power stations in former Eastern Block countries.
It was an open-book exam, and we were allowed to bring in anything we wanted, including Criminal Codes and Rules of Civil Procedures, but not anything electronic. Fair enough. Also, we had to be willing to leave everything we brought in behind. So, Criminal Code? Gone. Shredded.
OK, that part was a little weird, but I guess they didn't want people to write any of the exam questions onto their Codes and then walk out with them. Makes sense.
And we couldn't bring in any writing implements. We were provided with two HB pencils, one eraser, a highlighter, and a calculator, which we did not use.
Right.
No electronic devices of any kind. If your keys had a beeper thingy, they stayed at security, with your number (we each had a wristband with our candidate number) on a piece of masking tape so we could pick them up when we left.
No going to the potty without an escort.
No touching any of the exam papers until we were told.
So far we're OK.
No hooded sweaters.
...?
Any bag that we brought things in either had to be surrendered at the desk, or be left behind at the end of the exam. Food and other "personal items" were to be in a clear Ziploc bag and clearly presented to security before being allowed in.
No nut products. No opaque liquids. Water bottles were permitted out at lunch time, but had to be left behind at the end of the day.
No wrappers on candy bars.
Apples? Too crunchy. They were confiscated and labelled with masking tape with our numbers. They made a pretty little pile.
Sweaters (non-hooded) were "at all times not permitted to hang on the back of the chairs." When not in use, they were to be stored under our chairs.
Wrote for 3.5 hours in the morning. Being released for lunch took about twenty minutes, as they checked all our numbers, gathered all our exams, counted them, and checked us for contraband pencils on the way out. I suppose we should've been grateful cavity searches didn't enter into the affair.
Had lunch. Snack machine would not accept my toonies. Sadness. Had to buy a Kit-Kat bar at the canteen.
Came back in, unwrapped my Kit-Kat bar, surrendered my crunchy apple and my car keys, showed my nude Kit-Kat and photo ID to the security dude, wrote 3.5 hours, signed out claimed my illicit apple and keys, came home.
Oh the exam went OK, BTW. I think I did well. Unless I missed a whole bunch of the answers I guessed, which is a distinct possibility. Mostly good questions, if a little dull and niggly. There were little funny bits here and there where you could tell somebody had tried to inject a dab of levity into the soul-crushing endeavor of putting together this Terribly Serious Event. Like one of the fact situations had the plaintiff, Harry, sue for $46,000 for shoddy insulation work on a house. The defendant, Ron, cross-claimed for non-payment, to the tune of $75,000, and could the suit be settled under the Simplified Rules or not, yadda yadda. Hahaha.
Yeah. Well, it's over. Not so bad, though a little weird.
Oh! Mustn't forget! I am now about to commit a major breach in security, because I am now about to disclose something I should probably take to my grave. Here is one of the questions that was asked on the exam:
Bernard Styles and Frederick Fashion were recently called to the Bar in Ontario. They decide to go into practice together as partners and to open with two offices. One of the offices shares space with Coopers Price, an accounting firm. Which one of the following names is permitted under the Rules?
(a) Bernard Styles & Partners
(b) Styles and Fashion, Top Tier Lawyers
(c) Styles Lawyers, Barristers and Solicitors
(d) Styles, Coopers, Price and Fashion
The answer, by the way, is (c).
How can I remember this with such detail, you ask? Why am I able to share both the question and its answer?
Because it was printed in the "Guide to the Licensing Examinations" from the LSUC website. It was one of our practice questions. One of fourteen. And it wasn't the only one in the exam, either. At least one other question in there looked awfully damn familiar.
Seriously, does it make sense to make people surrender their apples and opaque drinks and denude their candy bars, and then use questions in the exam that were already posted, along with their answers, on the LSUC website?
Well, obviously it made sense to somebody. 'Cause there they were. They'll probably discount them when they realize what happened. ::sigh:: I'd got it right in practice, too :(
I'll say this for the Law Society of Upper Canada, AKA the Unfortunately Yet Aptly Acronymed LSUC: they could teach airports a thing or two about
It was an open-book exam, and we were allowed to bring in anything we wanted, including Criminal Codes and Rules of Civil Procedures, but not anything electronic. Fair enough. Also, we had to be willing to leave everything we brought in behind. So, Criminal Code? Gone. Shredded.
OK, that part was a little weird, but I guess they didn't want people to write any of the exam questions onto their Codes and then walk out with them. Makes sense.
And we couldn't bring in any writing implements. We were provided with two HB pencils, one eraser, a highlighter, and a calculator, which we did not use.
Right.
No electronic devices of any kind. If your keys had a beeper thingy, they stayed at security, with your number (we each had a wristband with our candidate number) on a piece of masking tape so we could pick them up when we left.
No going to the potty without an escort.
No touching any of the exam papers until we were told.
So far we're OK.
No hooded sweaters.
...?
Any bag that we brought things in either had to be surrendered at the desk, or be left behind at the end of the exam. Food and other "personal items" were to be in a clear Ziploc bag and clearly presented to security before being allowed in.
No nut products. No opaque liquids. Water bottles were permitted out at lunch time, but had to be left behind at the end of the day.
No wrappers on candy bars.
Apples? Too crunchy. They were confiscated and labelled with masking tape with our numbers. They made a pretty little pile.
Sweaters (non-hooded) were "at all times not permitted to hang on the back of the chairs." When not in use, they were to be stored under our chairs.
Wrote for 3.5 hours in the morning. Being released for lunch took about twenty minutes, as they checked all our numbers, gathered all our exams, counted them, and checked us for contraband pencils on the way out. I suppose we should've been grateful cavity searches didn't enter into the affair.
Had lunch. Snack machine would not accept my toonies. Sadness. Had to buy a Kit-Kat bar at the canteen.
Came back in, unwrapped my Kit-Kat bar, surrendered my crunchy apple and my car keys, showed my nude Kit-Kat and photo ID to the security dude, wrote 3.5 hours, signed out claimed my illicit apple and keys, came home.
Oh the exam went OK, BTW. I think I did well. Unless I missed a whole bunch of the answers I guessed, which is a distinct possibility. Mostly good questions, if a little dull and niggly. There were little funny bits here and there where you could tell somebody had tried to inject a dab of levity into the soul-crushing endeavor of putting together this Terribly Serious Event. Like one of the fact situations had the plaintiff, Harry, sue for $46,000 for shoddy insulation work on a house. The defendant, Ron, cross-claimed for non-payment, to the tune of $75,000, and could the suit be settled under the Simplified Rules or not, yadda yadda. Hahaha.
Yeah. Well, it's over. Not so bad, though a little weird.
Oh! Mustn't forget! I am now about to commit a major breach in security, because I am now about to disclose something I should probably take to my grave. Here is one of the questions that was asked on the exam:
Bernard Styles and Frederick Fashion were recently called to the Bar in Ontario. They decide to go into practice together as partners and to open with two offices. One of the offices shares space with Coopers Price, an accounting firm. Which one of the following names is permitted under the Rules?
(a) Bernard Styles & Partners
(b) Styles and Fashion, Top Tier Lawyers
(c) Styles Lawyers, Barristers and Solicitors
(d) Styles, Coopers, Price and Fashion
The answer, by the way, is (c).
How can I remember this with such detail, you ask? Why am I able to share both the question and its answer?
Because it was printed in the "Guide to the Licensing Examinations" from the LSUC website. It was one of our practice questions. One of fourteen. And it wasn't the only one in the exam, either. At least one other question in there looked awfully damn familiar.
Seriously, does it make sense to make people surrender their apples and opaque drinks and denude their candy bars, and then use questions in the exam that were already posted, along with their answers, on the LSUC website?
Well, obviously it made sense to somebody. 'Cause there they were. They'll probably discount them when they realize what happened. ::sigh:: I'd got it right in practice, too :(
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 01:23 am (UTC)Kudos to you!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 01:44 am (UTC)We were allowed to bring our own calculators, because some of the harder SAT II math exams needed scientific calculators, but the proctors were required to walk around the room and erase the memory from every single one before the exam started. (I was so sad; I had so many fun games on there.)
Sucks about the practice questions, dude. But who knows? Maybe they'll leave it in!
Congrats for surviving!!
Date: 2008-05-28 01:54 am (UTC)Can't remember what we did with purses or keys (I had no beeping things for my car then). No need of calculators.
We had two days of exam - 3 hours of essay first morning, then 3 hours of state multiple choice, then the next day was two 3 hour blocks of multiple choice for the country.
Then we repaired to a bar and I won a free drink for my knowledge of trivia that was not law. But one drink and I was pretty much out - my brain was fried!
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 02:22 am (UTC)Seriously though, hope it all went well. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-28 05:23 pm (UTC)I wish you sleep, uninterrupted novel-reading, pie making, hell, churn butter if it will help. Congratulations - this is a BIG DEAL.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-01 02:50 pm (UTC)umm... congratulations!! i'm sure you will pass, even thought you aren't sure, because i know you are totally made of win. which is the same thing (at least!) as made of pass, right?