Bar Prep - How are you guys doing on multiple choice? Forum

[Big Shrimpin]

Oh okay yeah mine is Monday, but I took it by myself yesterday. Taking NY and hoping I'm in a comfortable spot. Might just have a friend submit my scantron for me then.

[Lawl Shcool]

Oh okay yeah mine is Monday, but I took it by myself yesterday. Taking NY and hoping I'm in a comfortable spot. Might just have a friend submit my scantron for me then.

Ya it took like 4-5 days but it comes up on the barbri website. I would highly recommend having your scantron turned in as the breakdown they give you for questions is really enlightening and helpful.

[Big Shrimpin]

Oh okay yeah mine is Monday, but I took it by myself yesterday. Taking NY and hoping I'm in a comfortable spot. Might just have a friend submit my scantron for me then.

Ya it took like 4-5 days but it comes up on the barbri website. I would highly recommend having your scantron turned in as the breakdown they give you for questions is really enlightening and helpful.

Yeah I went through the whole thing. 119/200 but got like 66% of evidence and 50% of Ks wrong. Got any suggestions for learning evidence? Haha fuck. I'm also out of town all weekend which blows. Gotta hit it HARD this week.

[Lawl Shcool]

Oh okay yeah mine is Monday, but I took it by myself yesterday. Taking NY and hoping I'm in a comfortable spot. Might just have a friend submit my scantron for me then.

Ya it took like 4-5 days but it comes up on the barbri website. I would highly recommend having your scantron turned in as the breakdown they give you for questions is really enlightening and helpful.

Yeah I went through the whole thing. 119/200 but got like 66% of evidence and 50% of Ks wrong. Got any suggestions for learning evidence? Haha fuck. I'm also out of town all weekend which blows. Gotta hit it HARD this week.

Shit bro-sef, evidence was my 2nd worst topic. My plan is to just review the material and make flashcards for a few of the major topics, like hearsay exceptions and such.

[Big Shrimpin]

Yeah evidence fucks me. Thankfully I rocked everything else. Booking my February hotel now.

[Garinold]

Evidence was one of my best topics in law school and so far its been on second best studying for the bar exam. The best way to study it in my opinion is to just read the rules through and then outline them by rewriting them into your own words. For things like confrontation and attorney-client privilege rely on the outline.

[Mick Haller]

I'm doing like 75%+ on evidence. Surprisingly Torts and K's are my worst subjects.

[prezidentv8]

Apparently Contracts, Conlaw & Crim = good, Property = meh, and CrimPro & Evidence = shit for me.

[hiima3L]

Oh okay yeah mine is Monday, but I took it by myself yesterday. Taking NY and hoping I'm in a comfortable spot. Might just have a friend submit my scantron for me then.

Ya it took like 4-5 days but it comes up on the barbri website. I would highly recommend having your scantron turned in as the breakdown they give you for questions is really enlightening and helpful.

Yeah I went through the whole thing. 119/200 but got like 66% of evidence and 50% of Ks wrong. Got any suggestions for learning evidence? Haha fuck. I'm also out of town all weekend which blows. Gotta hit it HARD this week.

I'm doing well in evidence because of the 2 trial classes I took 3L year. The only way to learn it IMO is to memorize the rules and their elements. This is especially true for hearsay. I'd suggest flashcards and just going over and over the rules and doing MPQs.

[hiima3L]

I'm doing like 75%+ on evidence. Surprisingly Torts and K's are my worst subjects.

Same. I thank Keane and Park!

[Mick Haller]

I'm doing like 75%+ on evidence. Surprisingly Torts and K's are my worst subjects.

Same. I thank Keane and Park!

I did shitty on Keane's exam, but he teaches the subject well. I felt like the exam was vague, the issues didn't jump out at me like they usually do. Maybe the 3 hours of sleep had something to do with it.

Jung was a crappy torts prof. I had Lieb for K's, and while he is a good professor, he teaches from a theoretical and academic approach rather than meat and potatoes bar rules.

[Julio_El_Chavo]

I'm not really sure how anyone could score below 60% on the conlaw questions unless you had a shitpoor conlaw prof during 1L.

[ImTheLaw]

Do yourself a favor and only practice on real previous MBE questions. Students who do poorly on the MBE portion do so because they practiced on questions that were in no way representative of the questions they would see on the actual bar exam.

When you studied for the LSAT, did you practice on made-up LSAT questions or the real thing?

You can get real MBE questions from the NCBE. They have 300 questions available for only $125:

[MOD EDIT]

The NCBE questions are available online only.

If you prefer mobile convenience, one option is BarMax MBE, currently on sale for only $199.99 and includes 1,471 officially licensed real previous MBE questions:


[MOD EDIT]
Good luck!

[Garinold]

I feel like I might as well not even take the bar at this point. Kaplan had a practice essay exam yesterday and my answers don't look anything like the model ones they released today. I mean I've been studying this shit for 2 months now, I feel like I know it when I'm reading over the outlines, but when it came to these bullshit essays yesterday everything went out the window. I feel like the biggest asshole on the planet because in a comparative sense I probably have one of the easiest bar exams in the country and I'm not making any progress studying for it.

[Sauer Grapes]

I feel like I might as well not even take the bar at this point. Kaplan had a practice essay exam yesterday and my answers don't look anything like the model ones they released today. I mean I've been studying this shit for 2 months now, I feel like I know it when I'm reading over the outlines, but when it came to these bullshit essays yesterday everything went out the window. I feel like the biggest asshole on the planet because in a comparative sense I probably have one of the easiest bar exams in the country and I'm not making any progress studying for it.

People speak of how easy a bar exam is based on pass rate...

The fact your essays didn't look like the model answer, doesn't mean you wouldn't have passed.

Relax and work your butt off to get better before the exam.

[Garinold]

I feel like I might as well not even take the bar at this point. Kaplan had a practice essay exam yesterday and my answers don't look anything like the model ones they released today. I mean I've been studying this shit for 2 months now, I feel like I know it when I'm reading over the outlines, but when it came to these bullshit essays yesterday everything went out the window. I feel like the biggest asshole on the planet because in a comparative sense I probably have one of the easiest bar exams in the country and I'm not making any progress studying for it.

People speak of how easy a bar exam is based on pass rate...

The fact your essays didn't look like the model answer, doesn't mean you wouldn't have passed.

Relax and work your butt off to get better before the exam.

Well this is what I've been concerned about. In terms of Kaplan grading and advice on essays, it seems that the more your essay answer ends up looking like the model answer the better your grade is. The concern is that do the bar examiners grade the same way? For example, on an evidence question there was an report that a party wanted to admit into evidence. I argued that it should be excluded under 403 because it could potentially confuse the jurors and waste time. Kaplan argued that the report should be admitted under some sort of public reports rule. I know the grader is probably gonna mark me wrong and say that the question didn't call for that. The fact is I feel like while the better answer may have been the reports rule, the relevance argument is still colorable and could apply.

There are a whole host of other instances where questions have raised different legal arguments, but Kaplan seems to have a set one that is the "best". Do bar examiners the grade the same way? You must argue XYZ and only XYZ in order to get credit? Or are they open to anything that is credible?

[joobacca]

first, i agree with grapes that it's probably all going to be fine and the focus should be to improve. i'm sure lots of people who have passed the bar felt very similarly to the way you do.

second, i think there is a "right" answer. law school essay exams have "right" answers. all my professors made a rubric to determine how to give out points. sure a professor might award points for a plausible argument you make (doubtful IMO). but i can't imagine that a bar grader, who spends mere minutes for each essay, would consider thoughtfully about your colorable argument. he's probably looking for issues A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and he's probably looking for those things in a particular order.

but look man, i don't know anyone who is hitting the model answers (all my friends are using barbri). maybe i came close to a couple. with that said, i'm not sure if these answers are meant to cover every single issue that the fact pattern raises. So there might be issues A - G and the answer covers A - F while you cover B - G.

very few people are hitting all those issues on the essays. a fuckload more people will pass than those few people. this shit isn't curved. i think the "minimum competency" standard is true.

[Garinold]

I just got a 109 out of 200 on an MBE practice exam......down from the 127 I got on the midterm. I really don't know wtf I'm doing wrong. Maybe I just don't have the discipline to do this shit.

[Garinold]

Going through them now

[motownsaint]

Anyone know how the scaled scores work for Texas?

I'm scoring between 80%-85% on every MBE multiple choice topic. According to barbri, a 128 raw historically comes out to a scaled 135, which on the TX bar is 270 points (you need a combined 675 to pass). But what about a 160+ raw? Will that be an even larger scaled score?

However, I've barely touched the essay topics. If I pull out a massive victory on multiple choice, can I basically bomb the essays in TX?

[joobacca]

i don't see why not. is TX just MBE and essay with points allocated equally? and do your MBE points that exceed the threshold pass line "carry over" to your overall score? if so, then i'd think that a non-meltdown performance will get you where you need to be. you probably know a lot of the law and will be able to spit that shit out. but since you're crushing the MBE, i think you should just focus on essay and do some MBE on the side and maybe do a big MBE bash a day or two before the exam. anyway, i think you're in great shape even if my assumptions are wrong.

[attractive_NUisance]

The only people I know who failed the bar chalked it up 100% to freaking out on the exam days with the stress making it hard to recall anything. As long as you stay calm and prepare reasonably you should be fine.

[Julio_El_Chavo]

Anyone know how the scaled scores work for Texas?

I'm scoring between 80%-85% on every MBE multiple choice topic. According to barbri, a 128 raw historically comes out to a scaled 135, which on the TX bar is 270 points (you need a combined 675 to pass). But what about a 160+ raw? Will that be an even larger scaled score?

However, I've barely touched the essay topics. If I pull out a massive victory on multiple choice, can I basically bomb the essays in TX?

If you're already getting 80% on MBE question, you've been focusing waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much on the MBE and not enough on state topics.

[ruski]

anyone doing the barbri practice MBE questions with their studysmart software from their website? i feel like i know the material fairly well but can't score above like 50%. some of those multiple choice q's seem to be ridiculously tricky

[timbs4339]

Anyone who's done both Barbri and the NCBE questions want to weigh in on the differences? I'm doing my first half-day practice on the NCBE questions tomorrow.