Help on bar exam essays Forum

[Slickrick90]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

[trebekismyhero]

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[SFSpartan]

You should really hire a private tutor/essay writing coach. They will be able to tell you where specifically you can improve your essays better than your Bar prep course.

Also your MBE score, while better than your essays, is still a bit behind the curve. I believe in CA you need a 144 scaled to be on track to pass.

[rcharter1978]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

Writing essays for the bar exam is different than law school. My tutor was able to help me shorten and cut down my analysis section. In law school you can get points for a really thorough analysis. On the bar you just gotta get to the point. Not a single paragraph of analysis I had on a bar exam essay was over 5 sentences. And that would be for a really meaty issue.

So yeah, a writing tutor would help. As would the red PT book.

But if you're good with mbes maybe you should wait until July 2017.

[LockBox]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

If you want to retake in February and improve your scores, here is what I would recommend in no particular order:

1. Hire a tutor to solely grade your practice exams, give feedback and advice as to how you can write better.

2. After writing any of the past bar exams, look at the released answers and compare them to yours.

3. Get a subscription to baressays.com. My school provided us with a free one (otherwise, I likely wouldn't have purchased either - big mistake). After writing each practice exam and reading the released answers I would look at what the bar graders thought was a 55, 65 and/or 75 answer. Typically, I would glance at the 55 to see if they missed issues, didn't format well etc. but then spend the majority reading the 65, 70 or 75 answers to see what they were supposed to look like. If you do this for a high number of essays (whatever that number needs to be for your particular skill set) then you will be ready to tackle the exam.

I generally followed these three steps. Essays were my weakest section initially, but I am convinced that it was my essay scores that put me over the top to pass.

[AspiringCALawyer]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

Writing essays for the bar exam is different than law school. My tutor was able to help me shorten and cut down my analysis section. In law school you can get points for a really thorough analysis. On the bar you just gotta get to the point. Not a single paragraph of analysis I had on a bar exam essay was over 5 sentences. And that would be for a really meaty issue.

So yeah, a writing tutor would help. As would the red PT book.

But if you're good with mbes maybe you should wait until July 2017.

What is the red PT book?

[rcharter1978]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

Writing essays for the bar exam is different than law school. My tutor was able to help me shorten and cut down my analysis section. In law school you can get points for a really thorough analysis. On the bar you just gotta get to the point. Not a single paragraph of analysis I had on a bar exam essay was over 5 sentences. And that would be for a really meaty issue.

So yeah, a writing tutor would help. As would the red PT book.

But if you're good with mbes maybe you should wait until July 2017.

What is the red PT book?

Its supposed to be for the MPT, but the methods/information can be used for the California PT.

[AspiringCALawyer]

Hey guys,

I did extremely poor on essays on the CA bar exam. I was getting 55-60s on the performance tests. I'm not sure where I am going wrong. My essays were also extremely poor. My MBE wasn't really a problem, I ended up with a 142 scaled on the MBE. This is the second bar that I took. Even on my first bar exam, my essays sucked ass and my MBE bailed me out.

The funny part is that I was top 15% at a T14. I can take law school essay exams but for some reason, I sucked on the bar exam.

Maybe this is due to the fact that I am a transactional attorney and I write a memo once a year (if that).

Does anyone have any big picture pieces of advice that you could give me?

Thanks

Writing essays for the bar exam is different than law school. My tutor was able to help me shorten and cut down my analysis section. In law school you can get points for a really thorough analysis. On the bar you just gotta get to the point. Not a single paragraph of analysis I had on a bar exam essay was over 5 sentences. And that would be for a really meaty issue.

So yeah, a writing tutor would help. As would the red PT book.

But if you're good with mbes maybe you should wait until July 2017.

What is the red PT book?

Its supposed to be for the MPT, but the methods/information can be used for the California PT.

Thanks.