What do you think about Themis' MBE-like questions for CA bar? Forum

[Poets]

I am still torn between Kaplan vs Themis and MBE questions are one of decision factors.

[iliketurtles123]

Doesn't themis use actual mbe questions?

When I was doing Themis, I absolutely hated the MBE questions. I thought they were so arbitrary and actually thought some answers were technically wrong (based on my judgment). Then I heard these were real MBE questions...

On the real thing I felt like the MBE questions were just as subjective and I was sure I failed. Somehow I passed. Since we don't get scores if we pass, I can't tell how I did with the MBE.

You might want to get confirmation on this but I think Themis uses real mbe questions.

[blueapple]

Doesn't themis use actual mbe questions?

When I was doing Themis, I absolutely hated the MBE questions. I thought they were so arbitrary and actually thought some answers were technically wrong (based on my judgment). Then I heard these were real MBE questions...

On the real thing I felt like the MBE questions were just as subjective and I was sure I failed. Somehow I passed. Since we don't get scores if we pass, I can't tell how I did with the MBE.

You might want to get confirmation on this but I think Themis uses real mbe questions.

I agree with all of the above (except I don't recall thinking some of Themis's answers were technically wrong). I'll add that Themis was good, in my opinion, at updating old questions/answers when the law or NCBE format had changed (i.e. they put a notice at the end of answers when the question changed to reflect new format or when the answer changed to reflect new law). I took MI, not CA, so my MBE was weighed 50% and I did well on the MBE part.

The civ pro questions were not real MBE questions because only 10 of those had been publicly released (those 10 are on the NCBE site I think), but I still felt like they were very close to what showed up on the actual MBE.

[Boltsfan]

I had a friend in Themis (I was in BarBri) and we swapped MBE questions a couple of times. I preferred BarBri's questions for studying and learning the material but, in retrospect, I think Themis' were maybe slightly more representative of what questions on the actual MBE looked like. So I guess it depends on what you are looking to get out of your multiple-choice practice.

People say BarBri questions are harder than the real MBE, but I don't think that's true. The practice questions that you are assigned daily are longer and different from the actual MBE questions, but I felt that the differences were because BarBri questions seemed are more designed to teach you the material and how to recognize potential traps than to be simulations of MBE questions. I also thought some of the daily sets were harder than, say, the simulated MBE or the refresher, but that was probably for pedagogical reasons (prevent you from getting cocky/keep you hungry). Answer choices on the actual MBE also felt noticeably shorter than with BarBri and I thought it was easier to get to 50/50 (or 70/30 sometimes, whatever that point is where you know its one of two) on the real MBE and with Themis than with BarBri.

FWIW, I was practice testing at about 85% on actual MBE questions and on the longer BarBri sets of practice questions the week before the bar. No clue what I got on the MBE, as I passed, but I finished each section about 45 minutes early feeling pretty good about myself and I credit BarBri's "training at altitude" approach of longer fact patterns + emphasizing how to spot the "distractors."

[aunt_pearl]

I've taken the bar exam twice (once in February, once in July). I failed in Feb, passed in July. Used Themis both times.

I got a scaled score of 1464 in February, so I guess that was ok. I felt WAYYYYY worse about the July MBE, though. In particular, I didn't think that Themis prepared me for all the real estate questions.

[TookDaBait]

Recently passed CA with Themis. I did all the MBE questions provided. I thought overall they prepared me for the MBE very well except (as above poster mentioned) the real property questions, specifically mortgages, which I thought I bombed. However, overall, I would definitely recommend Themis.

[Poets]

How does Themis' unlimited essay grading work? So there are enough essay questions? Can we submit an essay from outside (eg. from the actual bar exams) for grading?

I stumbled upon posts (back in 2012) that say that Themis' unlimited essay grading is not in fact unlimited. Not sure what that means.

[aunt_pearl]

How does Themis' unlimited essay grading work? So there are enough essay questions? Can we submit an essay from outside (eg. from the actual bar exams) for grading?

I stumbled upon posts (back in 2012) that say that Themis' unlimited essay grading is not in fact unlimited. Not sure what that means.

I did Themis twice, once for Feb and once for July. My experience is that the Themis reps, at least for California, have certain essays for which they have a grading rubric/model answer to grade from. The graders will only grade questions for which they have a grading rubric. So you could potentially submit all essays that have a grading rubric, but they won't grade essays without a rubric.
(Not a rep/official from Themis, you should probably ask them)

[Poets]

Doesn't themis use actual mbe questions?

You might want to get confirmation on this but I think Themis uses real mbe questions.

Thanks. Themis said that "some" of them are from real mbe questions but they modified/updated them.

[ndp1234]

Doesn't themis use actual mbe questions?

You might want to get confirmation on this but I think Themis uses real mbe questions.

Thanks. Themis said that "some" of them are from real mbe questions but they modified/updated them.

Took Themis for July UBE in NY. This basically means that they reuse the same general fact pattern, but will change a fact or two so that they can test another topic. They let you know in the answer explanations which ones have been modified.

You get like a deja vu feeling every time you see a fact pattern but then you learn to look at each fact more carefully, even though some of the modified questions were weird. I think they use a lot of real MBE questions because I had questions duplicated in the Emmanuels book as well so I wouldn't worry about it. I did over 2500 MBE questions over the course of my study so I guess they had to get those questions from somewhere outside of the limited licensed questions.