MPREally?

So I took the MPRE today. You can probably imagine how psyched I was to spend my Saturday morning taking a standardized test on legal ethics. At least it's a short test - 60 multiple choice questions in about two hours. But in the grand tradition of all law-related examinations, it's almost impossible to figure out how it went. I've heard that everyone comes out of the test feeling nervous and unsure about how they did. From my experience and in talking with some of my friends, I'd say that assessment is dead on. I won't go into the nuts and bolts of it, but I'll just say that it wasn't quite like the practice tests I took while preparing. But 10 of the 60 questions are "experimental" and don't count, so I'm hoping the thornier problems fell into that category.

I also have to say that in my extensive experience with standardized tests, this one did not seem to run as smoothly as I would have expected. Usually there's a set routine, and the proctor goes through things methodically and mechanically. Maybe our proctor was just less experienced, or maybe the MPRE instructions aren't as scripted. But from the casual offering of #2 pencils to determining when to hand out the test booklets to dealing with addresses too long for the allocated space on the answer sheet, things just weren't handled in the regimented way I've come to expect from standardized tests. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just different.

So as for this whole MPRE thing... I'm not sure what else to say. I'll get my results back in about five weeks and then I'll know which states think I'm ethical enough to practice in their jurisdiction. And, well, I could always take the MPRE again in March...