Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ten rules for surviving the bar exam...as a proctor

 1. Wear comfortable shoes. The proctor over all the other proctors wears a pedometer. At the end of Tuesday it read 11.2 miles. That was all inside the Sacramento Convention Center. On cement. Extremely hard cement.

 2. Be nice. Being nice should be on every list in life, but especially for the California bar exam, a test that has so much riding on it.

 3. Bring lots to eat. All that walking - albeit at a snail's pace - works up quite the appetite.

 4. Consume large amounts of caffeine. It starts early, ends late and involves staying awake through hours of silence.

 5. Bring your inside voice. Whispering is mandatory. Think monks in monastery turned down a notch.

 6. Wear quiet shoes. Don't wear shoes that make a squeaking noise with each step of your right foot. Right feet are needed for walking. Hopping is not allowed.

 7. Bring chocolate. See rules one and three.

 8. Be able to carry heavy boxes full of testing materials with a smile on your face. Don't trip. Don't drop the box. If you lose the box, just go ahead and walk right out with your comfortable shoes and your caffeine filled body, because the box is the reason you are there. Do not think outside the box. Become one with the box.

 9. Proctor with your friends. All that whispering and eating and walking slowly and lugging heavy boxes and limping and coffee and chocolate is much better enjoyed with people you know in the regular loud-talking world.

10. Did I mention the importance of comfortable shoes?