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Monday, July 28, 2008

A stressful time for future members of the Minnesota bar


The Minnesota Lawyer blog would like to extend its best wishes to the hundreds of law school grads who will gather at the Minneapolis Convention Center tomorrow for the first day of the two-day Minnesota Bar exam.

Typically, the bar exam is administered at the RiverCenter in St. Paul, but the facility is currently in the process of being retrofitted for the Republican National Convention. The good news is that change of venue allows exam- takers who fail to blame the GOP. ("I coulda' done better in the RiverCenter!")

Exam-takers on the first day need to bring in a driver's license, a white admissions card and a black pen. I found more interesting the list of things they can't bring in, which includes: highlighters, digital clocks, beeping watches, cell phones and pagers (do people outside the medical profession still own pagers?). On the second day, exam-takers must bring in a No. Two lead pencil. With all the advances in technology, it's good to know somethings never change -- at least for those who did not opt to take the test on laptop in the specially set up computer room. (Worried about the clickety-clack of the keyboard? The scratch of pencil hitting paper? The screams of those who put in inadequate preparation time? No sweat! Ear plugs will be made available to any exam-taker who requests them.

Results of the exam will be mailed on Oct. 7 and posted on Oct. 8. May the force be with all of you taking the bar exam -- and may the rest of your summer be a little more enjoyable than the last few weeks have been!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One thing from the banned list that you failed to point out is ear plugs- you cannot bring your own into the exam now (which is why the BLE will have them on hand (only one pair per day though, so don't drop one in the bathroom!). I had a pair of "lucky ear plugs" that I used all through law school (for final exams only). Everyone needs every piece of "lucky" gear they can use for this exam.

I think they must be paranoid about a 007 earplug that has a radio receiver in it...although Bond had some pretty sweet analog watches with lasers and the like- maybe there are analogs out there with cameras...

I don't know why anyone would need their own digital clock. The BLE crew had tons of digital clocks (synchronized) around the room in the RiverCentre. I found it easier to look at that instead of my own watch since they had the "official" time.

Mark Cohen, editor said...

Thanks for the added tips, anon-12:13. Yes, I should have mentioned that the only headphones you can use are the ones they provide (up to one pair for each day).

They also recommend that you bring a brown bag lunch -- there aren't a lot of food choices right next to the convention center and the area nearby fills up pretty quickly at lunchtime.

As for humans' fixations with digital watches/ clocks, I'd suggest checking out Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" for more on that ...