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Barbri sample seems too easy. AdaptiBar Qs seem much harder.

10 Questions seem like a really small sample size.

Taking any and all speculation!

Having taken the July 2014 MBE which contained experimental civ pro questions, I think the section will probably be easier than real property MBE questions, but harder than con law MBE questions. I would say once Barbri gets them they would rank them as "medium" in difficulty level. I felt that the July 2014 MBE as a whole was significantly harder than Barbri practice questions and the drop in the national average MBE score reflects this.

The questions provided by the NCBEX seem like a cakewalk compared to the shit Themis has provided - the questions are either really difficult or really easy. As the course progress they're getting really difficult testing tiny little nuances that I swear no one knows about.

It's really frustrating and fucking up my civil procedure studying because I feel like there's no way for me to literally memorize the entire rules of civil procedure which is what I'd need to do just to do well on these practice questions. And no matter how much I study or review my notes, my scores are stagnant because the questions just keep testing more ridiculous subsets of the rules as opposed to the more general rules as with the federal rules of evidence. I CANNOT STAND IT! I literally want to punch my computer screen every time I get yet another one wrong.

I wish they released more than 10 sample questions but nevertheless I'm hoping they're generally indicative of what will show up on the exam.

Since it's never been offered on the MBE before my guess is they will be either extremely difficult or extremely easy. Either way, the curve will help balance it out.

I'm finding barbri's questions to be too easy. I've scored 78%+ on every single barbri civ pro question set.

I'm finding barbri's questions to be too easy. I've scored 78%+ on every single barbri civ pro question set.

Ditto. I was between 77-82% on Barbri before giving up. I think they wrote Civ Pro sets like AMP questions, rather than MBE problems.
When I tried AdaptiBar, I dropped down to 50% on the first try, 42% on the second, and 38% on a simulated test--all within a week. It's screwing with my averages, at this point...

Kaplan's Civ Pro questions are pretty difficult in my opinion. I just scored 140/200 on the Kaplan Final and Civ Pro was my lowest scoring subject in the low 60's and I found it a pretty easy subject in law school. The questions, even in their Q-Bank, often focus on more obscure areas and exceptions.

numbertwo88 wrote:The questions provided by the NCBEX seem like a cakewalk compared to the shit Themis has provided - the questions are either really difficult or really easy. As the course progress they're getting really difficult testing tiny little nuances that I swear no one knows about.

It's really frustrating and fucking up my civil procedure studying because I feel like there's no way for me to literally memorize the entire rules of civil procedure which is what I'd need to do just to do well on these practice questions. And no matter how much I study or review my notes, my scores are stagnant because the questions just keep testing more ridiculous subsets of the rules as opposed to the more general rules as with the federal rules of evidence. I CANNOT STAND IT! I literally want to punch my computer screen every time I get yet another one wrong.

I wish they released more than 10 sample questions but nevertheless I'm hoping they're generally indicative of what will show up on the exam.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is EXACTLY how I feel. Why do they test the sub-rule to a sub-rule? Who can possible know that shit, unless they have been practicing for like a decade. Just test the main jx shit and that's it. These effers are effing up my mbe scores and giving me soo much stress about it.

JoanSloan wrote:

I'm finding barbri's questions to be too easy. I've scored 78%+ on every single barbri civ pro question set.

Ditto. I was between 77-82% on Barbri before giving up. I think they wrote Civ Pro sets like AMP questions, rather than MBE problems.
When I tried AdaptiBar, I dropped down to 50% on the first try, 42% on the second, and 38% on a simulated test--all within a week. It's screwing with my averages, at this point...

This is exactly what is happening to me and it is so frustrating.

bb8900 wrote:

JoanSloan wrote:

I'm finding barbri's questions to be too easy. I've scored 78%+ on every single barbri civ pro question set.

Ditto. I was between 77-82% on Barbri before giving up. I think they wrote Civ Pro sets like AMP questions, rather than MBE problems.
When I tried AdaptiBar, I dropped down to 50% on the first try, 42% on the second, and 38% on a simulated test--all within a week. It's screwing with my averages, at this point...

This is exactly what is happening to me and it is so frustrating.

This is very frustrating. I'm at 68-75% in every other subject but a 48-50% on Civ Pro (after 201 Civ Pro Questions). I'm close to officially calling it a "L" on Civ Pro. It's taken so much time away from other subjects - MBE and Essays. Irritating!!

TheLegalOne wrote:

bb8900 wrote:

JoanSloan wrote:

I'm finding barbri's questions to be too easy. I've scored 78%+ on every single barbri civ pro question set.

Ditto. I was between 77-82% on Barbri before giving up. I think they wrote Civ Pro sets like AMP questions, rather than MBE problems.
When I tried AdaptiBar, I dropped down to 50% on the first try, 42% on the second, and 38% on a simulated test--all within a week. It's screwing with my averages, at this point...

This is exactly what is happening to me and it is so frustrating.

This is very frustrating. I'm at 68-75% in every other subject but a 48-50% on Civ Pro (after 201 Civ Pro Questions). I'm close to officially calling it a "L" on Civ Pro. It's taken so much time away from other subjects - MBE and Essays. Irritating!!

Exactly! Are you using Themis? That's what I am using.

^^ Yes, I'm using Themis for CA Bar.

The Themis Civ Pro questions are ridiculously difficult.

Have you guys gone back to test yourselves on the released questions? If Themis is harder, then it should be a cakewalk, right?

I've been drilling civ pro for two days, and went from 40->60%. When I tried the released questions, I scored the same. I was actually a little surprised that it was so consistent.

I did the released questions after listening to a lecture, and I got all but 2 correct. Dumb luck? I don't know. Barbri's Civ Pro questions seem really easy too. I wish I could get my grubby hands on Themis questions, but it's probably too late.

JoanSloan wrote:Have you guys gone back to test yourselves on the released questions? If Themis is harder, then it should be a cakewalk, right?

I've been drilling civ pro for two days, and went from 40->60%. When I tried the released questions, I scored the same. I was actually a little surprised that it was so consistent.

That depends. The real MBE questions might have simple prompts and tricky answer choices. Are Themis questions harder because they are longer and more convoluted ala-Barbri?

To me it's not a question of "hard" or "easy." Themis just has defaulted to testing on really absurdly specific exceptions to exceptions, time limits on motions, and other dumb stuff, so yeah it's "hard" bc no one can remember that shit.

I've been studying w/ Themis for a while now, and got up to 75-80%... but it seems not that useful.

I just saw the 10 questions on NCBEX and bombed it... there were 3 questions I never even considered. The abuse of discretion one, I realized I knew the rule for standards of review (abuse of discretion, de novo, clearly erroneous, blah blah) but had no practical understanding of how to apply the rule. A couple others I can't remember now I just had no idea about. And unsurprisingly, they didn't care that I knew that a motion for a new trial or JMOL could be made within 28 days, an appeal could be made within 30 days, a jury demand within 14, etc.

I just think no one has any clue what's going to be on it. Themis tried to guess and they have probably guessed pretty wrong, which led me to spend a bunch of unnecessary time that could have been spent on other stuff.

The point of this all being that the EV of time spent studying Civ Pro is pretty low. Once you know the basic rules (SMJ, personal J, supplemental J, basic pleading rules, pre-trial motions, jury stuff, discovery) it's probably a terrible use of time to learn the specifics and exceptions and what, since we have no idea what will even be on there. I'd rather move on to another topic where I know the stuff they're likely to test on and can work on getting that down pat. I just wish I had learned this lesson earlier than 3 days before the exam.

fslexcduck wrote:To me it's not a question of "hard" or "easy." Themis just has defaulted to testing on really absurdly specific exceptions to exceptions, time limits on motions, and other dumb stuff, so yeah it's "hard" bc no one can remember that shit.

I've been studying w/ Themis for a while now, and got up to 75-80%... but it seems not that useful.

I just saw the 10 questions on NCBEX and bombed it... there were 3 questions I never even considered. The abuse of discretion one, I realized I knew the rule for standards of review (abuse of discretion, de novo, clearly erroneous, blah blah) but had no practical understanding of how to apply the rule. A couple others I can't remember now I just had no idea about. And unsurprisingly, they didn't care that I knew that a motion for a new trial or JMOL could be made within 28 days, an appeal could be made within 30 days, a jury demand within 14, etc.

I just think no one has any clue what's going to be on it. Themis tried to guess and they have probably guessed pretty wrong, which led me to spend a bunch of unnecessary time that could have been spent on other stuff.

The point of this all being that the EV of time spent studying Civ Pro is pretty low. Once you know the basic rules (SMJ, personal J, supplemental J, basic pleading rules, pre-trial motions, jury stuff, discovery) it's probably a terrible use of time to learn the specifics and exceptions and what, since we have no idea what will even be on there. I'd rather move on to another topic where I know the stuff they're likely to test on and can work on getting that down pat. I just wish I had learned this lesson earlier than 3 days before the exam.

The abuse of discretion standard was a spin on evidence. Remember, the discretionary rule that judges have, blah blah to exclude evidence if it's unfairly prejudicial? Yep so, it was abuse of discretion. You had to know evidence to get that one.

Quite a few Kaplan questions turned on deadlines as well, so I guess it's not just Themis that's doing that :/

I just quit doing Themis's civil procedure questions. Not only are they nearly twice and long and four times as complicated as the sample questions released, I want to shoot my computer screen every single time I read one of them. Since I have to type my essays on Thursday, I've decided I needed to stop.