This last Tuesday and Wednesday John Mark and I were in Roanoke, VA in order for me to take the Virginia Bar. I rode down there with my friend Shaunte and John Mark drove down later that evening. The ride was actually very pleasant, full of farms, beautiful estates, mountains and oh yes, a battle field for civil war reenactments. I wish I had taken my camera as I honestly can't think of why I would make that drive again (the February bar is in Norfolk).
We arrived in Roanoke and poor Shaunte stayed at the creepiest hotel, but it was the closest hotel to the testing facility. John Mark and I stayed at the Doubletree which was originally the Hotel Roanoke, a really neat historical hotel that had been redone about ten years ago.
Day 1 of the exam was miserable in that I arrived at 8am on the dot, but the test did not start until 9:40. Then for 3 hours I wrote essays on topics that I was prepared for along with topics that were promised by my very expensive bar studies class were not going to be on the exam. Honestly, I feel pretty sorry for the grader who is going to see one particular essay. There was such a remote chance of it being on the exam that many people skipped the review seminar altogether. Thankfully, I remembered bits and pieces, but that's about all I put down.
We took a break for lunch and it was quite a site to see 1,500 people walking around in suits and tennis shoes. We were pretty easy to spot, hence the random man wishing me good luck as I was walking down the street.
In the afternoon it was another gruelling 3 hours of essays, however the topics were a bit more predictable, but not necessarily easier. After a long day, John Mark took Shaunte and I out on the town....which in Roanoke terms means to the couple of restaurants open in the historical downtown. After an early dinner, we left to get some much needed rest for the next day.
Day 2 was the MBE- the Multistate Bar Exam. It consisted of 200 questions in 6 hours. The nice thing about the MBE is that the correct answer is somewhere on the page. The not so nice part is that the average score is a 125-130 out of 200 which means that law school graduates are scoring at or less than 65% which wasn't what we were used to doing in law school. Oh, the bar is humbling in so many ways!
My morning session of the MBE was awful because I messed up my timing. Thankfully, I did get through all 100 questions. Over lunch, I told JM to talk to my Mom to call in the prayer warriors! I definitely felt that prayer during the afternoon session as my timing was much better.
Last night we drove home as soon as the exam ended. We stopped close to JMU (Shaunte's alma mater) to eat dinner. It was good to call and chat with a few friends and family on the way back to DC. I will not find out the results until the middle to end of October. I would not be surprised if I had to take this exam again, but I know the Lord has John Mark and I where he wants us. In the mean time we will be praying that the bar graders have mercy upon me and that somehow all those jumbled facts miraculously made their way onto paper in a precise and well organized way of analyzing the applicable law.
