Taking TX bar - strategies for out of stater who is admitted elsewhere? Forum

[austinmom]

So I am no stranger to the bar exam....Took me three attempts to pass NY (thank God for Pieper), passed MS the first time. It's been 8 years since my last exam. Any tips? I know fed civ pro is now on MBE. I'm signed up for Themis too. I've printed out P&E questions and have yet to get to state essays. Are they really difficult?

I think my biggest hurdle is not being from Texas and being generally unfamiliar with state law. I practiced in NY, but not long enough to waive in.

The last time I took MBE (July 2008) I got a 140.1 scaled.

Thanks in advance.

[ExcelBaller]

Just took it in July. Do all of the PE questions on the BLEs website, it becomes some repetitive you can answer in your sleep. MBE is what it is. Essays, again, do ALL on the BLE website. There are 12 essays and you'll know what to expect. Topics: http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Rules/NewRules/appendixA.pdf

I noticed after about 6 full essay exams they were testing the same 4-5 topics for each area of law. Then they throw a curveball on a few questions about details in the law that were not explicitly covered in Bar review - this will and did happen on the exam, for me it was a property Q about retainage or something. Use the sample answers on their website to compare and see what the graders are looking for. There's no telling how I did but I feel like I crushed the essays because I did so many essay questions from their website that I knew exactly how to write my answer just from the call of the question. As for the MBE I'm in the same boat as everyone
else.

[BVest]

I also just took it in July. Can't say how I did yet, so take with a grain of salt.

For the P&E, do 4-5 years' worth of old exams (so 8-10 old exams) and you'll have learned 38 out of the 40 questions that they'll test on. They ask the same core questions over and over again, but will throw in an average of one from left field on both the civ and the crim side.

For the essays here are my notes:

• Business associations, including agency, corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and professional associations
2 questions

It seems from old exams one of these is generally a formation type question ("Here's what your clients want to do; what should they form/should they have formed and why?") and a shit's gone to hell question ("These guys formed their business this way and then one guy did this crazy shit, while your client did this other crazy shit, and now they're in litigation; what result?"). The former question will want you to compare and contrast the types of entities they could form and give pros and cons. Duties come up a lot in the latter; often the formalities of formation will also come up where they wanted to form X type entity but accidentally formed Y type.

• Trusts and guardianships
1 question; appears to alternate each bar exam.

I actually don't remember what our question was, but Feb will likely be the other subject.

• Wills and administration
2 questions

Intestate succession is a frequent topic; holographic wills/codicils/revocations/lost wills come up a lot; also pretermitted children or intestate children outside the marriage. As far as administration goes, I don't think they have too many pure administration questions, but more often it's a subpart to a question about a will or intestate succession.

• Family law
2 questions

Community property analysis is frequently tested. Also parental rights (divorce or challenge to a surviving parent). And child support amounts.

• Uniform Commercial Code
2 questions from 3 possible subjects: Art. 2, Art. 3, or Art. 9.

I did a spreadsheet to decide whether I needed to study Art 3 and learned that of the past 7 or 10 years, only two exams had some combination of questions other than Art 3 and Art 9. Lesson: Questions will probably be Art 3 and 9.

• Consumer rights, including DTPA and insurance
1 question

DTPA will be large part of it. Barbri prof said it's going to be one of: pure DTPA, DTPA + Insurance, or DTPA + Debt Collection. Ours was the DTPA/Debt Collection question so Feb will likely be one of the other two.

• Real property, including oil and gas
2 questions

One question is always* oil and gas, and is often pure oil and gas. The other question moves around: Landlord tenant, future interest, easement, etc. This summer the second question was construction law, but that's a rarity and that probably guarantees that Feb will not have construction law. (*Never say "always," but I think this is true for 19 out of 20 exams).

[austinmom]

Thank you both for your replies. Looks like I need to prepare to just memorize the BLE website. I think my only strength is trial practice as I worked in litigation before taking a break to have kids.

[unlicensedpotato]

Start early on the state specific material, especially wills/community property, family law, and oil and gas. They are detailed, convoluted, and not necessarily logical. I was a C/O 2015 grad who had recently taken law school classes in almost all of the TX specific areas and still had a hard time learning it all. This was also a complaint I heard often from out-of-state examinees.