Today is the day. All around the country those who have graduated law school are filing into buildings with their belongings in plastic bags, laptops and cords in arm. They have spent the last 3 years and especially the past two months studying for the one test which gives them legal permission to be called a lawyer.
They all have different stories, but together they have come together for 12 hours of grueling testing to determine if they should be given a pass. They don’t need to pass with a score, they need to be in the top 60% of those taking the bar.
There will be young men and women all around the country taking the test on the same two days. The test is only offered twice a year, and there is no shame in not passing the first time. JFK and Michelle Obama are two examples of people who did not pass on their first try.
Sarah has studied hard, and I am proud of her dedication. She, unlike many of those she tests with today, has a job already lined up with the city of Chicago, so she really would like this to be her last attempt.
We did a test run yesterday, driving down discussing lunch and how we would meet up since there are no cell phones allowed in the testing center. Imagine a whole room full of 20somethings with no cell phones!
Today will be all of the essays, chosen from over 26 different subjects. Tomorrow will be the questions with multiple choice answers, but certainly not easy ones.
I think it would be more practical to put these future lawyers in a room with all of the materials they need and have them defend someone. Like in the movie My Cousin Vinny, he was able to prove the case, which is what makes a good lawyer, not memorizing facts and data. I do not think any practicing lawyer uses their memory to do their work. They use common sense and the ability to find answers when needed. This antiquated way of determining who shall pass should be given a facelift and a more practical way of determining future lawyer’s ability should be found.
However people like long standing traditions and balk at those who think outside of the box. I don’t mind being different and hope those standing in line today, will not all conform, but some will be those who make things better, whether they pass this test or not.

It’s a good thing I wrote a little yesterday morning, because the rest of the day involved working on the projects I have due. I am trying so hard to get them done so I can do some of the other things I have to get done.

I did get a call, from a place in Nashville. One of the many places I filled out the forms online for employment, which you almost never hear back from, called me, wanting to hire me. The message said they loved my resume and when could I start. I had to call them back and explain how I am no longer going to be in Nashville, as planned, but instead will be in St. Charles, MO.

I have been less than impressed with the new way people are hired these days. It’s not just me, my kids and friends have all gone through the same thing. You fill out extremely long, very detailed applications and then never hear back from the company. My least favorite part of the experience is when they ask you to attache your resume, but then on the application they have you fill out every detail of your resume, including names of supervisors and phone numbers. Some of my previous employers do not even exist!

In the educational field they also tend to want you to supply references, with letters. Who am I supposed to ask to send out many, (not 1-2, but many!) letters of recommendation? Not only do they want the references to be work references, but a couple of them wanted only direct supervisors! I have one, and that poor man has already responded to multiple requests on my behalf. Do these places think we are only applying at one place? And do they not realize that until we are one of the final people in consideration, they do not need a reference? Many state that without all of the required information you will not even be considered for the position, so you must include the references, your transcripts, a completed application (some have been 10 pages long!) a cover letter written specifically for the position, and your resume, tailored to the position you are applying for.

With all of this for one single position, you can imagine how much time and effort it takes to apply to many places, and how frustrating it is when you don’t hear back from one of these places after all the hoops you jump through.

My frustration with this has started once again since I will be heading to St. Charles, MO, and I would like to be a substitute teacher, but the process includes all of the things I mentioned above, plus fingerprinting and background check. I can’t even start on that until I finish my projects for the summer semester, which are due Sunday!

I do not think there is an alternative to this new way of hiring, and sometimes when I see the requirements, I think it is the company’s way of eliminating the people who are not serious about the position. However, those of us with the need for employment really have no choice and will continue to fill out ridiculously long applications hoping to receive a call like the one I did, only hopefully in the same city I will be living in. Many times, the positions listed, already have someone, many times on the inside, already in mind, and are only fulfilling their legal duties by listing the jobs. This means that the hoops so many people are jumping through are completely pointless, and you never even have a chance for that job. This seems the most ridiculous part of all. However, it’s their job and they can hire whoever they want, so we have to play their game in hopes of getting that one call.

Ironically, I would have been set up in Nashville, with a job, my gym, my scooter, in a place close to downtown. Instead, I will head to St. Charles, with no job, no gym, no scooter, and living in a tiny town, near St. Louis. Despite all of this, I am excited about St. Charles and optimistic I will work out all of the details and have a great time there. Most importantly, I will get the chance to attend my graduation in December. I did not go to my Bachelor’s Degree graduation, but this one, for some reason, I want to attend.

Now, back to the projects, which I only have parts of two to complete, and turn in. I am exhausted today, but like a runner nearing the end of the marathon, I feel that second wind coming on, so I am off to get this work done and the summer semester completed!

Have a great day!

Wrigley, tired of my schoolwork

Evergreen Park, IL

I took 3 classes this summer in hopes of getting my Master’s Degree by December. I was not aware of the summer 8 week classes which are really 16 week classes crammed into 8 weeks. I did not anticipate the time it would take to complete the tasks required to maintain my 4.0 (shameless plug) GPA.

My days consist of taking Wrigley for a walk, checking my email, Facebook, etc., working on my schoolwork, studying for the GRE, getting to the gym, then dinner, Wrigley walk #2, TV time (while simultaneously doing GRE flashcards or some other study materials), bed. This is a typical day the past couple of weeks, and says a lot about all the work involved in my classes. One of the classes consisted of only four projects, which were agreed upon, and are due the last day of class, July 28th. In trying to keep up with the daily work of the other two, I let this get put on the back burner, meaning I am now doing all of the other work, and 16 weeks worth of projects, in about 3 weeks!!

I have always been a procrastinator, but I do always get the work done. There is something about a deadline which makes me get things done. Maybe its the adrenaline? I am not sure, but I have always been like this. My favorite memory of this, is from my Community College Days, when a big paper was due, but it had to be typed, with no mistakes. I did not own a typewriter at the time, so I went to the school library to use theirs. Unfortunately the typing class I took in High School was a waste of time, and I made more errors than I had planned. I kept starting over, because the teacher made it clear no white out, no tape, no errors on any pages! I was there for a few hours typing from the handwritten paper I had written out, when I realized I was not going to be done by 7pm when the class started.

I was sweating and, of course, the faster I tried to type, the more errors popped up. I finally conceded that I was not going to make it, and slowed down and carefully finished typing the paper. I pulled out the last page, put it all into the folder and ran to the class. I showed up ten minutes late, but I had the perfect paper in hand, and somehow managed to pull it off.  It was when I sat down, I noticed I had been sweating so much from the stress, my shirt looked like I had been working out in the gym. I am sure I would not have won a prize for my appearance, but I did get a good grade in the class!

That was the one and only time I was late due to my procrastination. In fact, I was proud of the 125 page script I was required to write for a class in my undergrad studies. There were about 15 students in the class, and I was the only one who came to the final class with a finished script!! The others either didn’t show up or had asked for an extension. So, even though this week will be tough, I have finished four of the seven initial projects I started last week needing to complete.

I want them done now to finish out the semester, and to give me some time to get some other things done before I head down to St. Charles. It is a busy time, but I have always preferred to be busy, so I am not complaining!

Deciding to try for the gold, means actually taking the chance at being rejected. I don’t usually even put myself in those types of situations, but it seems my back is up against the wall.

On my really big list of things I want to do, teaching Communications classes at the University level has been there for many, many years. I tried getting to the goal a different way, but realized, if I really want this one, I am going to have to put my nose to the grindstone and make it happen, while I still have a chance.

All this really comes down to the following. My GPA was high enough to keep from from having to take the GRE to get into my Master’s program, however, Doctorate Programs are not as kind and although they will accept you with a lower score if your GPA is high, they still want you to take it. In order for me to teach Communications I need to have a PhD, and in order to get my Phd I need to be accepted into a reputable program which offers me some kind of living money while I am attending. So, even if I can maintain my 4.0 GPA (which this summer is really going to be hard) I need a great score on this test to get me into a great program, with some type of fellowship. That is not easy, and I don’t like playing against the odds, especially when I am up against young students who still remember half the stuff on this test.

The GRE, for those, (like myself until a short time ago, who have no idea) who are wondering, it’s a test for those going into Higher Education programs, similar to the SATs and ACTs which students took in their younger days. In fact, it is so similar it makes me kind of angry. I was proud of the pretty impressive score I got on the ACT, back a zillion years ago. However, more than ten years, and they won’t even consider it. Now, can I ask why? If you are somehow measuring someone’s intelligence, or ability to learn in your program, are you saying that their intelligence can decline? Or that those tests are not an indicator of learning ability, but rather things which have been stored temporarily in one’s brain?

If you want to know who will succeed in a college class, or program, why not take their GPA only? And if that student went to school 20 years ago, don’t you think their ability to do schoolwork would not have declined so mush that their grades would become irrelevant? I don’t know about you, but I know few students whose study/work habits decline as they age. I do know of students whose schoolwork improved as they aged, but rarely, if ever does a straight A student drop that much. And as for the tests themselves, well, that seems to be the real interesting part of this puzzle. After years and years of testing, the best all those people could come up with is a modified version of the same tests we took as kids every year in grammar school, back in the 1970s? Now I haven’t gotten all of the information yet, but it appears to be the case. I sure hope I learn more real soon, otherwise I may change my major just so I can help someone come up with a better way to determine who will succeed in the advanced degree programs.

I was sitting on an airplane watching a young lady go through a deck of flashcards, over and over she ran through them, testing herself. I thought how cool it was to have them made up for the students, to test whatever she was trying to pass. It was more than a year ago, and before I knew what the GRE was, but I filed it in the back of my head, and when I saw they had them with the books for study, I knew I wanted to get them, since they made perfect sense to me. I was looking at the materials to buy online, when I saw the flashcards and immediately put them in my “basket” to purchase. Then I thought, “well wouldn’t there be an app for that?” and low and behold there were several!! I quickly downloaded the free one which looked like it would be a good one to start with.

Research has told me I have several chances in Chicago to take the GRE, but the rules are you have to take it 30 days after your last testing. Since I will need the results for my enrollment into the programs I am looking at. It all has to be in by January, so I am pretty sure I need to take the GRE at the end of September. This means whenever I am not doing actual work for my classes, I will be studying for the GRE. I am not sure how I will “catch up”on all of the stuff I have forgotten, but I am going to give it my all out effort, and hope my once stellar memory returns, at least long enough to take the needed evaluation, which somehow lets the University know I am “worthy” of their time and space.

Seriously, I find this ridiculous. I know I can succeed n any program, if I want to, but I need for them to know it, and they have decided this test is part of the deal. So, excited to start, I began with the GRE App, playing the flashcard game on my phone and after each word, giving it a color evaluation, so the game knows which words I know and which ones will be repeated. Not only do you have to give the definition of the word, but also identify the word by it’s definition. My memory has been scarred with a couple of concussions, which seem to make it a whole lot harder than when I was a teen remembering words for the ACT test, but even then it seems my mind remembers a general idea of what the word means, but not an exact definition, so I have been playing this game during commercials, at the gym, and even just before bed, in hopes of actually remembering the definitions for this very important test.

Now, the part that irks me the most is this: the words are not everyday words. Well some of them are, b ut the majority are words I have never heard anyone use, like picayune…who uses that word?  And believe me that is not the only useless word in the group. When they use 5 synonyms for the word to help you know it’s meaning, and all of those words are normal everyday words, I can’t help but say, aloud, “So why do I need this word when I have 5 others to use instead?”

Now I am all for learning the meaning of words and using them correctly, but in real life, if some says the word “controvert” and I d not know the meaning, I will take my phone out and look it up on dictionary.com. I do not need to to memorize a bunch of definitions to prove I am worthy of a University program. Does memorizing the words’ meaning translate that you will attend classes, take notes, work hard on projects and learn as much as you can about your subject matter?  I wish I could say I believe it was so, but I am having a hard time. I plan to go out to the bookstore and get a copy of a good study book for the GRE. I am afraid I already know what kinds of questions they will ask, from the information I have read online. I will be forced to perform well on a math section, despite the fact that in all my years of Media experience, never once have I needed algebra to be successful in my work. Nor do I expect Algebra to help me teach Communications classes to others on any level. But they insist I perform certain equations in order to get a good grade. This seems at the very least, ridiculous. How has this become the accepted means for determining a student’s worth?

If I were more cynical I might cite the costs of classes for these tests which guarantee a certain grade, and cost more than $700 to attend. They make it sound like they give you the answers ahead of time, so if you don’t earn a certain score, they refund your money. Maybe they somehow payoff the Universities to require these tests? I am not sure, all I know is there has to be some really good explanation for this. In the meantime I am forced to take a test in various core subjects, in hopes of getting into a program to teach students about public speaking, audio editing and the history of media in America. I am guessing not one question on this test would be actual knowledge needed for that.

That my friend was a rant, or maybe I should refer to it as a tirade, which is one of the words I have known the meaning to for years, but now I must be able to recite the exact meaning of, if I have hopes of passing this test. So, I will be spending my time learning the meanings of useless words and other information I don’t expect to ever use, in an attempt to get accepted into the fellowship I aspire to be in. I hope my sardonic (another one of the words) view of this will not hinder my ability to work hard and succeed. It never has before.