KAPLAN BAR REVIEW hangout Forum

[a male human]

Email from kaplan at 10:00 am - your essay has been graded. Oh thanks kaplan! I'll just pop out and check that and it will will...oh wait. I know it doesn't matter but on principle it annoyed me.

If you're in CA, it might help for Thursday.

If you're not in CA (or the couple other states that have a 3-day bar), don't complain that you can't use it for the 3rd day.

A third day is good but bad?

I don't get it

I'm saying if you won't need it again (i.e., you don't have a second day of writing), then at least you can take solace in the fact that your bar is only 2 days long and it's done tomorrow instead of Thursday.

Or if you DO have a second day of writing, then it could help you there.

I was just trying to reframe it as a win-win situation.

[thebarcaneatme]

at least you see it half full brother
respect for that I guess

[spleenworship]

Fucking A. Tani saved my ass. We had fucking agency and wills.

[silky bruh]

Fucking A. Tani saved my ass. We had fucking agency and wills.

Crushed commercial paper thanks to Tani. Owe that fucker a beer or three.

[notedgarfigaro]

Whoa Themis creeper alert.

1) Yes, 2) No

came for the tanicus secured transactions summary, stayed for news of your lovelife.

[Tanicius]

Awesome guys congrats!

[bazinga!]

Email from kaplan at 10:00 am - your essay has been graded. Oh thanks kaplan! I'll just pop out and check that and it will will...oh wait. I know it doesn't matter but on principle it annoyed me.

How'd you do on it?

After you asked I went to check. The site is down until August so they wholly graded it for nothing. Ridiculous.

[bazinga!]

Is it weird I'm jealous tani didn't save me on one question those were the only topics I felt semi solid on, those jerks. Thanks anyway for the awesome recaps

[kaplanmorrel]

SPAM

[IFNB]

Well, not sure I'd recommend Kaplan after that shit.

[shock259]

Well, not sure I'd recommend Kaplan after that shit.

Yeah? Why not?

I think they did a decent job. Nothing to compare them to, obviously. But quite a few of the MBE questions were straight out of a sample question/something they taught us. The essays were more hit or miss, but from what I can tell, my BarBri friends didn't cover those things either.

Anyway, congrats everyone! (except you poor CA souls!).

[Tanicius]

I thought a lot of MBE questions out of left field, but I'm sure there's at least 20 every test that cover answers or general material not deeply delved into by most of the prep companies. That's just the way of the game. What I was more pissed off about where a bunch of questions that seemingly had no "most correct" answer. Prep companies definitely tried their best to prepare us for those shitty questions.

[crysmissmichelle]

I thought a lot of MBE questions out of left field, but I'm sure there's at least 20 every test that cover answers or general material not deeply delved into by most of the prep companies. That's just the way of the game. What I was more pissed off about where a bunch of questions that seemingly had no "most correct" answer. Prep companies definitely tried their best to prepare us for those shitty questions.

Agree 100%.

[bazinga!]

I thought a lot of MBE questions out of left field, but I'm sure there's at least 20 every test that cover answers or general material not deeply delved into by most of the prep companies. That's just the way of the game. What I was more pissed off about where a bunch of questions that seemingly had no "most correct" answer. Prep companies definitely tried their best to prepare us for those shitty questions.

Yeah I felt pretty shitty about it all, but kaplan prepared me for feeling shitty so...
I felt like a solid 60% were narrowed down to 2 and from there I felt stuck. Of the remaining 40% half were fairly straightforward and the other half were "wtf is that?! Is that a thing I'm supposed to know?!?!" So it is truly 50/50 at this point for me personally.

[shock259]

I'm ambivalent about the MBE difficulty. On every MBE test I did, I always found myself "guessing" a lot or picking between 2 answers. Some I felt a little better about and some I felt a little worse about. But I kept getting the same score on every Kaplan MBE I took (midterm, final, additional). So I'm just going to assume that this will also be true for the real MBE..!

[ahduke99]

The MBE this year was a disaster. They asked some of the most ridiculous questions I have ever seen. I am almost certain I didn't pass the bar, but I guess stranger things have happened. We'll see. This year seemed pretty brutal compared to past bar questions I used for South Carolina up to July 2013.

[Mr. Pink]

Although I don't feel like I did as well on the MBE as I was doing in practice, I am pleased with the Kaplan MBE stuff. Their essays can kiss my dick though. The "model" outlines and answers are a complete joke. Just last night I was checking out some outlines and issue spotting and had two back to back that had contradicting rule statements. I get it when it is a published answer, but these are supposed to be reviewed and written in order to help study... got to get the stuff right Kaplan. There was also at least 3 others I came across with completely incorrect rule statements or applications throughout the program.

I don't care as long as I pass; but I would definitely recommend baressays for the essay portion over the Kaplan stuff.

[lisjjen]

I will say that Kaplan's MBE questions are ridiculously difficult, and when I came across straightforward questions, I had to tell myself yes, these are actually that easy to keep myself from overthinking them. That being said, when I came across rediculously difficult questions on the real test, it didn't rattle me.

Also, Tani,you saved my ass on Commercial Paper.

[DMXdawg]

Where/how do we send our materials back to Kaplan for the refund?

[sandcastle45]

Yeah I felt pretty shitty about it all, but kaplan prepared me for feeling shitty so...
I felt like a solid 60% were narrowed down to 2 and from there I felt stuck. Of the remaining 40% half were fairly straightforward and the other half were "wtf is that?! Is that a thing I'm supposed to know?!?!" So it is truly 50/50 at this point for me personally.

I feel this way almost exactly... I felt pretty good going in. I was averaging like 65% on Kaplan stuff beforehand and the MBE was supposed to be "easier." I don't know, I felt like when I was reading Kaplan questions I had a better idea of what they were asking. Here, I would read a lot of the questions and be like the fuck? And sort of be able to narrow it down to 2, but then it was difficult picking. Yeah, about 20% were "easy." And then I recall thinking WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on several.

I don't know, everyone at mine thought it was hard though and left feeling like we failed, so I don't know what to think about all that... The only thing that's keeping me going at this point is that if I thought it was "easy," would that really be applicable to the bar exam?

I actually thought Kaplan did a good job preparing me for the essays. Like at least half of our essays I only knew how to answer/bullshit because I had read through a Kaplan essay about almost the exact same thing.

[crysmissmichelle]

I feel this way almost exactly... I felt pretty good going in. I was averaging like 65% on Kaplan stuff beforehand and the MBE was supposed to be "easier." I don't know, I felt like when I was reading Kaplan questions I had a better idea of what they were asking. Here, I would read a lot of the questions and be like the fuck? And sort of be able to narrow it down to 2, but then it was difficult picking. Yeah, about 20% were "easy." And then I recall thinking WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on several.

I don't know, everyone at mine thought it was hard though and left feeling like we failed, so I don't know what to think about all that... The only thing that's keeping me going at this point is that if I thought it was "easy," would that really be applicable to the bar exam?

I actually thought Kaplan did a good job preparing me for the essays. Like at least half of our essays I only knew how to answer/bullshit because I had read through a Kaplan essay about almost the exact same thing.

On my bar, there was one 10 point essay that was recycled (2 out of three of the parts) from a prior sample exam I'd read on Kaplan's samples, five days before the bar. I was excited, to say the least.

As for the multiple choice, there were just too many on the MBE where they were hiding the ball and/or where it felt like there were no right answers. It was like they knew we were taught basics and wanted to run cyclical thinking circles around the basic concepts. There is one question that I still cannot get out of my head I'm so angry about it. I did a search after the test and COULD NOT find the information to give the right answer. I *think* I got it right based on my post bar research, but WTF, if I can't find the answer three days later. . .HTH is a test of basic competence feeling it is a fair question to ask?!

[sidhesadie]

I feel this way almost exactly... I felt pretty good going in. I was averaging like 65% on Kaplan stuff beforehand and the MBE was supposed to be "easier." I don't know, I felt like when I was reading Kaplan questions I had a better idea of what they were asking. Here, I would read a lot of the questions and be like the fuck? And sort of be able to narrow it down to 2, but then it was difficult picking. Yeah, about 20% were "easy." And then I recall thinking WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on several.

I don't know, everyone at mine thought it was hard though and left feeling like we failed, so I don't know what to think about all that... The only thing that's keeping me going at this point is that if I thought it was "easy," would that really be applicable to the bar exam?

I actually thought Kaplan did a good job preparing me for the essays. Like at least half of our essays I only knew how to answer/bullshit because I had read through a Kaplan essay about almost the exact same thing.

On my bar, there was one 10 point essay that was recycled (2 out of three of the parts) from a prior sample exam I'd read on Kaplan's samples, five days before the bar. I was excited, to say the least.

As for the multiple choice, there were just too many on the MBE where they were hiding the ball and/or where it felt like there were no right answers. It was like they knew we were taught basics and wanted to run cyclical thinking circles around the basic concepts. There is one question that I still cannot get out of my head I'm so angry about it. I did a search after the test and COULD NOT find the information to give the right answer. I *think* I got it right based on my post bar research, but WTF, if I can't find the answer three days later. . .HTH is a test of basic competence feeling it is a fair question to ask?!

There are about 3 I wasn't sure of, that I have tried to figure out and I still don't know.
I was hitting 75-80% on the practice tests and I felt exactly like everyone else...there were a large number of questions that I legitimately either could not tell what they were asking me or where I was just like "wtf is this even...wtf". *shrug*

[bdubs]

Anyone get their book deposit back yet?

I sent my books in October 21 and still nothing.

[crysmissmichelle]

Sent mine Oct. 17; nothing. They say allow six weeks.

[objctnyrhnr]

can somebody explain or link me to book deposit return info?