California Bar Exam (July 2013) thread Forum

[a male human]

Anybody not from the Bay Area get their letter Saturday or Monday?

Me. Still nothing in my mail today, and it's Tuesday WTF? I called about it and both people I spoke to at calbar sounded really impatient and disgusted with my call, so maybe it's fairly common.

[MickyG]

What part of the state are you? My mail hasn't arrived today yet. I hope it arrives today because I'm near Sacramento and it really shouldn't take this long from SF.

[a male human]

I'm in the San Jose area. Someone else I know in Fremont got hers like Sunday or Monday at the latest.

[MickyG]

I can't believe it hasn't arrived in San Jose yet. It shouldn't take this long. I'll let you know if mine arrives today around 5pm.

[MickyG]

Mail came today and still no letter. WTF? It shouldn't take this long. Ugh!

What did they tell you when you called?

[a male human]

Mail came today and still no letter. WTF? It shouldn't take this long. Ugh!

What did they tell you when you called?

So I first called the SF main office line. After 4 minutes of navigating around, I punched the operator line because that seemed to be the only way to talk to a live entity. I said something like, "Hi, I took the July California Bar Exam, and I haven't received my mailed report yet. Is there a way to check on this, or do you have any idea what could have happened?" She sighed and said, "That's the Office of Admissions hold on" before the waiting music played.

The next guy came on, and I asked the same thing. He was brusque and impatient in telling me they were mailed on Friday and were on their way. I eventually told him I'd wait for it. He said "no problem" and immediately hung up.

I illustrate the whole situation because maybe this isn't a rare occurrence and people have been calling all week about it.

[MickyG]

Mail came today and still no letter. WTF? It shouldn't take this long. Ugh!

What did they tell you when you called?

So I first called the SF main office line. After 4 minutes of navigating around, I punched the operator line because that seemed to be the only way to talk to a live entity. I said something like, "Hi, I took the July California Bar Exam, and I haven't received my mailed report yet. Is there a way to check on this, or do you have any idea what could have happened?" She sighed and said, "That's the Office of Admissions hold on" before the waiting music played.

The next guy came on, and I asked the same thing. He was brusque and impatient in telling me they were mailed on Friday and were on their way. I eventually told him I'd wait for it. He said "no problem" and immediately hung up.

I illustrate the whole situation because maybe this isn't a rare occurrence and people have been calling all week about it.

Thank you. It just seems like San Jose and Sacramento should only take 1 day if they were really mailed out Friday. It's now 3 days.

If you don't mind me asking, are you waiting on a pass or fail letter? I'm waiting on a pass letter.

Anyone else out there pass or fail not receive their letter yet? Where do you live? Thanks.

[km23]

Got my admission letter, reg. card, etc, on Saturday. I live in the Bay Area.
I know my school puts on an admission ceremony, but does anyone know how the other admission ceremonies go/are that are listed in the admission packet? Do you just kind of show up and do it?

I'm wondering the same thing. I'm assuming we just show up with our registration cards (since you need those to swear in).

[a male human]

Mail came today and still no letter. WTF? It shouldn't take this long. Ugh!

What did they tell you when you called?

So I first called the SF main office line. After 4 minutes of navigating around, I punched the operator line because that seemed to be the only way to talk to a live entity. I said something like, "Hi, I took the July California Bar Exam, and I haven't received my mailed report yet. Is there a way to check on this, or do you have any idea what could have happened?" She sighed and said, "That's the Office of Admissions hold on" before the waiting music played.

The next guy came on, and I asked the same thing. He was brusque and impatient in telling me they were mailed on Friday and were on their way. I eventually told him I'd wait for it. He said "no problem" and immediately hung up.

I illustrate the whole situation because maybe this isn't a rare occurrence and people have been calling all week about it.

Thank you. It just seems like San Jose and Sacramento should only take 1 day if they were really mailed out Friday. It's now 3 days.

If you don't mind me asking, are you waiting on a pass or fail letter? I'm waiting on a pass letter.

Anyone else out there pass or fail not receive their letter yet? Where do you live? Thanks.

I'm waiting on a fail letter. If I never get it, it will make me wonder if they actually know I sat through the exam and uploaded everything.

[sccjnthn]

Mail came today and still no letter. WTF? It shouldn't take this long. Ugh!

What did they tell you when you called?

So I first called the SF main office line. After 4 minutes of navigating around, I punched the operator line because that seemed to be the only way to talk to a live entity. I said something like, "Hi, I took the July California Bar Exam, and I haven't received my mailed report yet. Is there a way to check on this, or do you have any idea what could have happened?" She sighed and said, "That's the Office of Admissions hold on" before the waiting music played.

The next guy came on, and I asked the same thing. He was brusque and impatient in telling me they were mailed on Friday and were on their way. I eventually told him I'd wait for it. He said "no problem" and immediately hung up.

I illustrate the whole situation because maybe this isn't a rare occurrence and people have been calling all week about it.

Thank you. It just seems like San Jose and Sacramento should only take 1 day if they were really mailed out Friday. It's now 3 days.

If you don't mind me asking, are you waiting on a pass or fail letter? I'm waiting on a pass letter.

Anyone else out there pass or fail not receive their letter yet? Where do you live? Thanks.

I received a pass letter in downtown Sacramento on Monday. Maybe you just have a lazy mailman.

[courtneylove]

got mine in the north burbs of Chicago yesterday.

[MickyG]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

[a male human]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

[MickyG]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

Good to hear. Thank you for the update. I hope mine arrives today too.

[MickyG]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

Mine finally came today! Whew! So weird that it took 4 mail days to arrive to SJ and Sacramento from SF and people across the country got theirs first.

[a male human]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

Mine finally came today! Whew! So weird that it took 4 mail days to arrive to SJ and Sacramento from SF and people across the country got theirs first.

That's good. Yeah, not sure what that was all about. Now I can't even ask faculty and bar prep mentors for retake strategizing because they're out for the holidays! They were waiting for me to send them my score reports but hadn't heard from me for days.

[shepdawg]

I havnt received my pass letter in San Diego yet. Do I need it for the swearing in ceremony?

[Emma.]

Well, crap! I sure hope mine arrives today. Doesn't sound promising though. WTF!?! My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday. I need this sh*t!

Anyone else NOT get theirs yet? Did you pass or fail? Where are you located?

Thanks.

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

Mine finally came today! Whew! So weird that it took 4 mail days to arrive to SJ and Sacramento from SF and people across the country got theirs first.

That's good. Yeah, not sure what that was all about. Now I can't even ask faculty and bar prep mentors for retake strategizing because they're out for the holidays! They were waiting for me to send them my score reports but hadn't heard from me for days.

Pretty sure TLS can help you put together a retake strategy.

[MickyG]

I havnt received my pass letter in San Diego yet. Do I need it for the swearing in ceremony?

Here's what the Cal Bar Admission Status webpage says:

"Not eligible to be sworn in until admissions packet received from the Office of Admissions and must be sworn in and Attorney's Oath must be taken within file years of the last the California Bar Examination passed"

[courtneylove]

anybody planning to take the oath in another state?

[a male human]

Yo I just got mine today. San Jose area.

Mine finally came today! Whew! So weird that it took 4 mail days to arrive to SJ and Sacramento from SF and people across the country got theirs first.

That's good. Yeah, not sure what that was all about. Now I can't even ask faculty and bar prep mentors for retake strategizing because they're out for the holidays! They were waiting for me to send them my score reports but hadn't heard from me for days.

Pretty sure TLS can help you put together a retake strategy.

True. I just didn't want to leave the people who were expecting me hanging, though.

If anyone wants to take a crack at my scores, here they are: http://imageshack.com/a/img811/4264/ddfc.jpg

Preliminary thoughts
MBE: 2 more would have put me on track for 1440. Just plug away on weak areas like con law.
Essays: Not sure if it's the way I write (format, aesthetics), I just don't know the law, or I don't know how to apply the law (how to IRAC). Scores are consistently below average. But did better in essays/areas I thought I was weak at and vice versa...
PTs: I considered these my gimme sections until July threw curve balls at me (like the July LSAT dino logic games, hence my avatar). I prepped the least for this section, and I need to solidify my skills for next time around. I'll look at the sample answers when released and hope the Feb ones are comparable to the previous years', but I'm not sure how else to practice this when the previous administrations' PTs are so easy.

Long shot: Is there anyone who passed and confident in essays who is willing to give feedback on practice essays I write? I'm considering a tutor, but funds are pretty short. Maybe at the end of it I can purchase things for you over Amazon or something since I have gift cards loaded.

[cadestevenson]

A male human. No offense, but your MBE scores strike me as quite low. I got more right answers, in my first ever practice test, which I took in May. Did you take any practice MBEs when you studied for the bar? A 150 raw, even with your 560 raw essay scores, would have put you over the top. Get the typical 3,000-4,000 practice questions, and do every one. For every wrong answer, figure out what went wrong, write them out, etc, figure out what is going on in each - why the right answer is right and the wrong wrong. I bet you studying for MBE will be more fun, and more rewarding than studying for essays. And, that nonesense- well I was taught to think like a lawyer, and have a million approaches to every problem, simply will not do; there are easy questions and there are hard questions; these are the easy questions.

Don't let your writing get too rusty either - but practice on all the released questions and move on, don't dwell too much on getting them perfect, they'll be a craps shots to some extent.

[Old Gregg]

You can't get 55s on the PT, and an average of 57 on the other essays, and expect to pass the bar unless you destroy the MBE. Essays need to move to the 65 average range, and PTs should be no lower than 65. These aren't tall orders either.

[Emma.]

You can't get 55s on the PT, and an average of 57 on the other essays, and expect to pass the bar unless you destroy the MBE. Essays need to move to the 65 average range, and PTs should be no lower than 65. These aren't tall orders either.

I agree with this. It doesn't look like you have one area that hurt you (although you should try to shore up your Crim & ConLaw for the MBE). To me, your scores seem to show that you just didn't have the material internalized as well as you needed to across the board. Your analysis and issue spotting might be great, but the bar is largely a test of memorization. What did you do to commit the material to memory? In the last 3 weeks before the test I made my own outlines of every CA essay subject, and I think that really helped me get the stuff down.

I also relied pretty heavily on the Barbri short outlines rather than the lecture outlines. I feel like the lectures were trying to hit the high points of the things the lecturer thought was most likely to be tested, but there were certainly many areas that were tested in July and were never mentioned in the lectures. If you were relying on the lectures you would have left a lot of points on the table.

[a male human]

Thanks for everyone's feedback above. Slightly ashamed but just what I was looking for, a kick in my ass for the coming months. In response to the above:

I did maybe 100-150 questions per MBE subject over the course of studying, depending on how well I was doing. I took about 3 practice MBE sessions and did OK in them, maybe 65%. Now I see that I will have to practice a lot more if 3,000 is "typical." Definitely lots of leftover questions to play with this time. At least I get immediate feedback unlike the written portion, but I still need to do well on the written since it's 2/3 of my grade.

What does this mean? Is this for MBE or essays? Or the approach to studying?

that nonesense- well I was taught to think like a lawyer, and have a million approaches to every problem, simply will not do; there are easy questions and there are hard questions; these are the easy questions.

I have made my own outlines, which are roughly 20 pages for most subjects, through the course of studying. I did not try to memorize ALL the rules, just the big ones. For all else, I got the idea rather than memorizing the rules verbatim. Kaplan also had short rule outlines, which I didn't memorize unless I needed to (multiple elements, big important ones). The prep companies don't say you need to know the rules verbatim; is this wrong? I just really hate memorizing.

As mentioned, I assumed the PTs would be easy as always. Expected at least 65 if not 70 based on the feedback I got over the summer. So I only did maybe 3-4 PTs total as practice and thought even that was overkill. Not enough?