I Think They're Calling Us Stupid

Direct quote from the application for my state's bar exam:

"Do you claim exclusive citizenship to a country other than the United States of America? (If you are a citizen of the United States of America, answer No.)"

I guess they don't think the average American bar applicant has the reading comprehension skillz to decipher that without the additional assistance?

And yes, that means I failed the bar. I didn't blog about it for a while because I wanted to sort out my feelings on the whole mess and get past the really raw emotion stage of things. It helps that I passed the state portion with no problem, scoring about the same on every essay-- so I didn't have any particular weak spots there. However, I failed the Multistate Bar Exam by a handful of points. Interestingly enough, I did respectably well in four of the subject areas-- and totally bombed the two subjects for which I had Professor Feedback. One of those subjects (Evidence) was the one that made me physically ill every time I sat down to study it this summer. There were several days that I got completely derailed by the panic induced by my recognition of my complete lack of comprehension of the subject. So you can imagine how very much I'm looking forward to spending the next several months having another go at it!

A couple of my friends told me that they thought it would be worse to fail the bar exam by just a couple of points than to totally bomb it. In the time between the day the list of passing people were posted online and the day my detailed results arrived in my mailbox, I had plenty of time to ponder the question, and I would like to say that it feels much better to have just barely failed. At least I don't feel totally overwhelmed. My weak spot(s) are glaring, and I was strong enough on the remaining part of the exam to feel pretty confident in passing the next time around. But man am I angry that I have to take the whole stupid thing over again. I passed the state part! I shouldn't have to slog through it again just because I suck enough at Evidence to fail the MBE!

I guess at least I have something to do with all of my "free time" for the next couple of months.