It is Written

Last night, we saw Slumdog Millionaire.  I generally do not like going to the movie theater, but this was a movie I had wanted to see even before it received all of the Oscar-generated buzz.

I was impressed.  I thought it was a great movie and the message I took from it last night was no doubt Bar exam induced...

(spoiler alert if you haven't seen it)

Jamal got the right answers because he had experience with the questions that he was asked.  In other words, he won because he was asked the right questions.  And, on the last question, he guessed, and it was the right answer.  It would not matter how much he had prepared for that game show if he was only asked questions about things he did not know.  

(end spoiler)

The Bar Exam is similar.  If the Evidence essay were about the admissibility of remedial measures, I would have aced it.  However, it was about the exclusion of witnesses.  Unlike in the real world, or on a game show, I could not consult the audience or call co-counsel.  I had no lifelines.  Likewise, last bar exam, the Corporations question was about piercing the corporate veil.  I knew it and did well on that essay.  This time, it was about judicial dissolution, which I knew just enough to get by on (I hope).

Slumdog made me feel better knowing that winning the game isn't always about knowing all of the answers.  Rather, it is more about being asked the questions to which you know the answer.  I did my best to prepare for any question I could have been asked, but sometimes I just didn't know the answer.

All I can hope was that the majority of my "final answers" were right.