just a quiz

bar review class was painful last night.

only four of us showed up. we were to do a practice run-through of three essay questions.

"it doesn't matter if you don't remember the black letter law at this point," said richard. "what matters is that you're getting your feet wet. it's best you start practicing our essay writing now so that we can see what it is you need to change or improve on. don't worry."

pretty much, the whole point appears to be to see how each of us are stickin' to the IRAC formula. and not necessarily how much we remember of the law.

which is fine by me.

so we spent three hours doing essay writing. and wouldn't you know -- i had brought my laptop. but forgot the power-cord. so i had to hand-write.

for someone so used to doing everything on computer and being able to cut and paste things, writing it all out was just absolutely horrible. i think i turned in some really shitty essays yesterday.

today, i'll remember my power-cord. we are doing three more essays today and for each day for the rest of the week, except friday, when we'll only have two.

this will be good for me. because when it comes to the essays, all i did before was just rotely try to remember the black-letter law. i didn't try to actually practice writing out answers until maybe the last month before the exam. i don't think i'm TOO terrible at structuring essay answers . . . .

but we'll see. we're to receive constructive criticism on EVERY essay exam we do. and our reviewer will cut to the chase and tell us what we're doing wrong.

'cause obviously i am doing SOMETHING wrong.

hoo, boy. this will be an intense two months.

richard is not the guy who teaches the bar review course. he just owns the premises.

he is so cool! i can't get over how genuine and affable he is. and he just cares about all of us. i can't imagine how many students have come in through the doors. but he makes all of us feel at home, he does not let us get our spirits down, and he always has such great words for us.

like, yesterday, before class started, only i and this other black girl were there. and we just started jawin'. i admitted to feeling down about the whole thing, and both of them were all, "what? don't be!" the black girl said laughingly, "i've always been told that you can never be a lawyer until you take the bar five times!" she's already taken it four times.

and richard said, "i'm in this business because i love lawyers. they are a real special breed of people." and he gave an example of a stellar attorney he knows who thinks so much like a lawyer that it astounds him. "whether you feel like it or not, you guys are attorneys. you have been taught to think like attorneys. now, you just have to write in the way the examiners want. don't psyche yourself out!ba you have to remember it's just a test."

the other girl chipped in: "it's just a quiz!"

i gave her an "are you fuckin' kidding me??" look. but her enthusiasm and light-heartedness got to me, so i started laughing.

it's just a fucking quiz. :)

i'm off to class now.