New Lesson: Read Directions

I learned a valuable lesson this morning that I admit I should have learned long ago -- read the directions, CAREFULLY! 

This morning I took my first official becoming-a-lawyer test, the MPRE.  For those of you who have no idea what that is, it's the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Examination.  For those of you who still have no idea what that is, it's the ethics portion of the bar exam, or at least an ethics exam that you have to pass in addition to the bar exam in order to practice law. 

The exam started at 9:00 am, which isn't that bad except that I'm used to getting up around 11:00 am.  I already knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep since I'm used to staying up late, but I was still awake at 3:00 am.  Not a good sign.  I finally drifted off to sleep somewhere around 3:30 am, just to be awoken by a blaring alarm about 10 minutes later, or at least that's what it felt like.  I crawled out of bed at 7:30, took a quick shower, ate breakfast, grabbed my exam admission ticket, and headed out the door.  Since the exam was being held in the Convention Center, which is two blocks from my school, I decided to park at the school so I could avoid looking (and paying) for parking.  I got to the school at 8:35 and started towards the Convention Center.

As I got closer and closer to the Convention Center, I noticed that a lot of people were heading in that direction, but none of them seemed to be other students.  There were a lot of families, a lot of people in church clothes, a lot of older people.  I looked at the admission ticket again (which has the location address) and noticed that it said to enter on Houston St.  I walked around to Houston St., but it still didn't look right.  I took a closer look at the admission ticket and finally noticed that the location is not the Convention Center, it's the CONFERENCE CENTER. 

The Conference Center is also on Houston St., but it's about 10 city blocks away, and I have just under 20 minutes to get there.  After a mini-panic attack, I started heading in that direction.  I made it there with 5 minutes to spare, grabbed a glass of water, and found my assigned room.  Lucky break #1 -- as long as you're in the door by 9:00, you get to take the test.  Lucky break #2 -- the instructions take about 15 - 20 minutes, just enough time for me to relax and get into test mode.

So all-in-all, I ended up walking just short of a mile each way.  And the kicker is that the Conference Center is less than 1/2 mile from my house.  It would have been so much easier if I would have just walked straight there; I would have been more relaxed and less sweaty when I got to the exam, I would have walked half the distance, and I wouldn't have felt like an idiot.  I guess that's what I get for not reading the directions carefully before walking out the door.