Sixty-Five-Year-Old Man Takes Bar Exam

I’ve been regularly using personal computers since the early 1980’s. I took a typing class at the local community college while I was in law school, although I quit attending before we got to the number keys row. So I often look at the keyboard when I am typing numbers or symbols. My wife (then my legal secretary as well) and I used a memory typewriter in my last bout as an attorney. I messed up one of my brother-in-law’s Commodore computers by inadvertently discharging static electricity on the parallel port. While working as a lab assistant at FSU’s then School of Library and Information Science, I deleted the root directory of an IBM PC XT. Fortunately, a colleague introduced me to Norton Utilities, and I managed to recover the whole directory. I managed the computing services operation at Duke Law School for about fifteen years; during that time I operated Novell Netware servers, Windows NT servers, and helped bring up the school’s first website. I know enough Linux to get into trouble. So you could justifiably call me a geek.

Surprisingly, I had never bought myself a notebook computer before last year. I’d bought a few desktop ones, including a Dell that I ordered only with FreeDOS so that I could avoid the Windows licensing fee by installing an academic licensed version on it. I’ve bought MacBook Pros for my wife and son. I bought an Acer Netbook ten years ago with office funds, when Netbooks were in vogue. Or maybe it was an Asus – talk about likelihood of confusion. But I’d never bought myself a notebook with my own money, until last December.

I’ve written earlier that I have horrible handwriting and plan to take the bar exam on a computer. In December I decided it was time to pick out the notebook computer for the bar exam, which I had committed myself to taking only a couple weeks earlier. I brought home an Acer notebook, equipped with a touchpad. Touchpads present difficulty for me, because I do not have great fine motor control with my hands. I’ve turned off the touchpad’s click function on this computer and on my desktop keyboards that include a touchpad, because otherwise I am constantly clicking unintentionally.

In January I resolved to begin regular practice with my notebook computer, so that I will be comfortable using it when I take the bar exam. I’ve followed through with that, having taken about half my essay and MPT practice sessions on the notebook, and that is paying off. I am much more comfortable and confident using the notebook now. And I recommend to anyone using a computer on the bar exam that you practice as much as possible on the particular computer you will use for the exam. The exam is stressful enough without your being a keyboard klutz.

I also avoided a potential snafu by buying the computer in advance. In my reading reviews of the model I bought, I found a few instances where users reported the computer would shut off for no good reason while in use. I experienced this myself a few times. Checking for a solution in the user forum, I found that Acer has a push switch in the memory module compartment that will shut off the computer when the compartment door is removed. This is a reasonable precaution to install, but they got the tolerance wrong on the space between the switch and the door. The solution was to place a thin piece of cardboard between the switch and the door, so the switch is always in the on position. Problem solved.