Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam Forum

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Jess3184

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Jess3184 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:46 pm

I have not received my admission ticket. I emailed my analyst today. Anyone else not receive theirs?

jpiper2

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by jpiper2 » Thu Feb 01, 2018 8:51 pm

I haven't received mine, I sent a message to my analyst as well. I looked at the February bar thread from last year and it looks like they weren't actually posted until February 13.

lawbuddy

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by lawbuddy » Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:37 pm

I received my admission ticket today.

ryantw

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by ryantw » Fri Feb 02, 2018 11:11 pm

Has anybody else not received theirs yet? My processor said that they will start to be sent out today, and it apparently seems like at least one person has received theirs, but I haven't received anything yet.

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:23 pm

No, haven't received an admission ticket either.

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texasbarprep

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by texasbarprep » Sun Feb 04, 2018 2:11 pm

Hello. Just registered here. I am doing Barbri as a first time taker for February 2018 exam Texas exam. I did fairly well on the barbri midterm but I am curious if everyone is following barbri to the T for essay prep. I looked ahead in the schedule and they barely assign any essays. Will doing the essays barbri assigns be enough along with the lecture handouts. I didn't take a lot of the essay subjects in law school and I am extremely worried about the prep for day 3. I feel like barbri doesn't assign enough for essay memorization either. Maybe I should stop following barbri for the rest of the time and do my own thing because I struggled a lot on essays in law school. Any suggestions?

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by dtjustice » Sun Feb 04, 2018 5:05 pm

BTW, how does the Whatsapp study group work?[/quote][/quote]

I created the WhatsApp for last year and this year...We're starting to get more and more chatty and it is soooooo helpful to bounce ideas/theories/questions etc.. off of each other. I'm at (325) 267-1160, text me with your first name and download the app...I can add you to the group. No pressure, if you don't like it, you can just leave the group. A lot of people just watch but there's a growing bond between the members now and we are all very supportive of each other!! Everyone has completely different study styles/schedules that we discuss and get ideas from as well. My study plan is crazy but I blame it on my ADD :-)

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Sun Feb 04, 2018 5:14 pm

texasbarprep wrote:Hello. Just registered here. I am doing Barbri as a first time taker for February 2018 exam Texas exam. I did fairly well on the barbri midterm but I am curious if everyone is following barbri to the T for essay prep. I looked ahead in the schedule and they barely assign any essays. Will doing the essays barbri assigns be enough along with the lecture handouts. I didn't take a lot of the essay subjects in law school and I am extremely worried about the prep for day 3. I feel like barbri doesn't assign enough for essay memorization either. Maybe I should stop following barbri for the rest of the time and do my own thing because I struggled a lot on essays in law school. Any suggestions?
I'd definitely be on the side of getting through the last three main topic essay lectures today or tomorrow and focusing more on essays. To be honest I've ignored much of the Barbri tools outside the MBE sets and the lecture notes + Mini Conviser. The midterm nonetheless went well for me and I've benefited from learning the essays using my own methods earlier on (not following Barbri to the letter). Looking at the schedule there are three major lectures left (commercial papers, secured transactions and trusts) and two less important tie-in essay lectures (Bankruptcy and Income Tax). Barbri doesn't really leave you a lot of time to learn the former three topics (which are guaranteed to be tested on) and these subjects can be tricky.

So yeah, my inclination would be to tackle the essays and trust your intuition.

texasbarprep

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by texasbarprep » Sun Feb 04, 2018 5:36 pm

MBernard wrote:
texasbarprep wrote:Hello. Just registered here. I am doing Barbri as a first time taker for February 2018 exam Texas exam. I did fairly well on the barbri midterm but I am curious if everyone is following barbri to the T for essay prep. I looked ahead in the schedule and they barely assign any essays. Will doing the essays barbri assigns be enough along with the lecture handouts. I didn't take a lot of the essay subjects in law school and I am extremely worried about the prep for day 3. I feel like barbri doesn't assign enough for essay memorization either. Maybe I should stop following barbri for the rest of the time and do my own thing because I struggled a lot on essays in law school. Any suggestions?
I'd definitely be on the side of getting through the last three main topic essay lectures today or tomorrow and focusing more on essays. To be honest I've ignored much of the Barbri tools outside the MBE sets and the lecture notes + Mini Conviser. The midterm nonetheless went well for me and I've benefited from learning the essays using my own methods earlier on (not following Barbri to the letter). Looking at the schedule there are three major lectures left (commercial papers, secured transactions and trusts) and two less important tie-in essay lectures (Bankruptcy and Income Tax). Barbri doesn't really leave you a lot of time to learn the former three topics (which are guaranteed to be tested on) and these subjects can be tricky.

So yeah, my inclination would be to tackle the essays and trust your intuition.

Thanks. Ya. I think I am just weary about deviating from the barbri schedule. Besides listening to the lectures and a few of the problems that were assigned in the PSP I haven't really done that much for the essay material. However, the MBE is only 40% in Texas so I feel like I should be definitely be allocating more time to other topics. Do you think the lecture notes should be sufficient for the essay material or have you found that the conviser lays out the material better.

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Sun Feb 04, 2018 6:08 pm

texasbarprep wrote:
MBernard wrote:
texasbarprep wrote:Hello. Just registered here. I am doing Barbri as a first time taker for February 2018 exam Texas exam. I did fairly well on the barbri midterm but I am curious if everyone is following barbri to the T for essay prep. I looked ahead in the schedule and they barely assign any essays. Will doing the essays barbri assigns be enough along with the lecture handouts. I didn't take a lot of the essay subjects in law school and I am extremely worried about the prep for day 3. I feel like barbri doesn't assign enough for essay memorization either. Maybe I should stop following barbri for the rest of the time and do my own thing because I struggled a lot on essays in law school. Any suggestions?
I'd definitely be on the side of getting through the last three main topic essay lectures today or tomorrow and focusing more on essays. To be honest I've ignored much of the Barbri tools outside the MBE sets and the lecture notes + Mini Conviser. The midterm nonetheless went well for me and I've benefited from learning the essays using my own methods earlier on (not following Barbri to the letter). Looking at the schedule there are three major lectures left (commercial papers, secured transactions and trusts) and two less important tie-in essay lectures (Bankruptcy and Income Tax). Barbri doesn't really leave you a lot of time to learn the former three topics (which are guaranteed to be tested on) and these subjects can be tricky.

So yeah, my inclination would be to tackle the essays and trust your intuition.

Thanks. Ya. I think I am just weary about deviating from the barbri schedule. Besides listening to the lectures and a few of the problems that were assigned in the PSP I haven't really done that much for the essay material. However, the MBE is only 40% in Texas so I feel like I should be definitely be allocating more time to other topics. Do you think the lecture notes should be sufficient for the essay material or have you found that the conviser lays out the material better.
I've gone through around 8-10 essay exams (in their entirety) that the bar examiners have posted on the TBLE site and the answers to whatever the question were could always be found using the lecture notes.

That being said, if you're feeling down to the wire and rather skip the lectures I'm sure you could rely wholly on the mini as your foundation. There's always the possibility that the lecture speakers have prescient knowledge concerning the sub-topics to be tested, but I'm not sure how true that is to be frank.

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Sun Feb 04, 2018 6:12 pm

If you feel you learn better via listening and the active engagement of the fill-in the blank exercises then probably you should stick with the lectures. Otherwise, the mini really has everything you need.

texasbarprep

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by texasbarprep » Sun Feb 04, 2018 8:42 pm

MBernard wrote:
texasbarprep wrote:
MBernard wrote:
texasbarprep wrote:Hello. Just registered here. I am doing Barbri as a first time taker for February 2018 exam Texas exam. I did fairly well on the barbri midterm but I am curious if everyone is following barbri to the T for essay prep. I looked ahead in the schedule and they barely assign any essays. Will doing the essays barbri assigns be enough along with the lecture handouts. I didn't take a lot of the essay subjects in law school and I am extremely worried about the prep for day 3. I feel like barbri doesn't assign enough for essay memorization either. Maybe I should stop following barbri for the rest of the time and do my own thing because I struggled a lot on essays in law school. Any suggestions?
I'd definitely be on the side of getting through the last three main topic essay lectures today or tomorrow and focusing more on essays. To be honest I've ignored much of the Barbri tools outside the MBE sets and the lecture notes + Mini Conviser. The midterm nonetheless went well for me and I've benefited from learning the essays using my own methods earlier on (not following Barbri to the letter). Looking at the schedule there are three major lectures left (commercial papers, secured transactions and trusts) and two less important tie-in essay lectures (Bankruptcy and Income Tax). Barbri doesn't really leave you a lot of time to learn the former three topics (which are guaranteed to be tested on) and these subjects can be tricky.

So yeah, my inclination would be to tackle the essays and trust your intuition.

Thanks. Ya. I think I am just weary about deviating from the barbri schedule. Besides listening to the lectures and a few of the problems that were assigned in the PSP I haven't really done that much for the essay material. However, the MBE is only 40% in Texas so I feel like I should be definitely be allocating more time to other topics. Do you think the lecture notes should be sufficient for the essay material or have you found that the conviser lays out the material better.
I've gone through around 8-10 essay exams (in their entirety) that the bar examiners have posted on the TBLE site and the answers to whatever the question were could always be found using the lecture notes.

That being said, if you're feeling down to the wire and rather skip the lectures I'm sure you could rely wholly on the mini as your foundation. There's always the possibility that the lecture speakers have prescient knowledge concerning the sub-topics to be tested, but I'm not sure how true that is to be frank.
Holy crap. How did you find the time to get through that many essays haha. Are you writing them out or just issue spotting? I really need some strategy to get the black letter law down and learn how to apply it within the next 3 weeks. I think I am going to ditch the PSP.

Also, speaking of the essays, is Barbri's Texas Testing missing the last 4 years from the BLE website. I was trying to find barbri's model answer for one of the more recent exams and it seems like it only goes up to 2015.

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by sherwoodforr » Mon Feb 05, 2018 12:39 pm

Just a couple of things:
1. I checked online on Saturday. Admissions tickets started going out Friday and will continue to go out until Wednesday. The site also indicates that you should contact your analyst if you do not have a ticket by then. Still awaiting my ticket.
2. Barbri may only go until 2015 for the essays, but Kaplan goes until Feb. 2017 and has a very large selection of P&E exams as well.
3. I have not stuck strictly to Kaplan's schedule and am a few days behind. However, my husband works 6 days a week (and 10+ hours a day), is out of town for work for the 3rd time since bar prep started, and we have kids. We have a 2 year old and a kindergarten student and only put the 2 year old in daycare Jan 11 when school started back up. That coupled with some light volunteer work, church on Sundays, and leading a church group on Wednesday nights. Plus, since prep has started, we have had multiple optometrist appointments (both children have vision troubles), flu, strep, ear infections, pink eye, and other specialists medical appointments for the 6 year old (plus Christmas was out-of-state with extended family). Basically, you do what you can! Study hard, study smart- you know your strengths and weaknesses better than a bar review program. This is my second exam, so I speak with experience! I took one a few years ago and was within the top 20% of bar exam takers on the MBE and had a higher MPT score. My husband was transferred, so I get to take the Texas bar exam again. The first time I took one, I had a toddler having surgery, we moved in the middle of bar prep, there was a death in my family, and I was taking a 20-hour a week clinic course representing a client in a divorce (to finish my undergraduate degree- it was a four-hour summer credit course). Still passed- again, I studied based off of my weaknesses (focused on the lectures, taking notes, and learning the law. Only did a handful of essays and maybe 2 MPTS). The biggest thing is having faith in yourself and remembering that, even if you do fail, you can regroup and try again. However, that being said, I am finding it less stressful this time since I've done it before.
4. The best thing I did was not study the day before other than my one-page mini outlines (and only read through them once). I was told I was insane, but I spent the night with a friend's family and their 9 children ages 2-18 on a camping cot because having fun with children made me relax. (Now that I have 2 kids, I plan on getting a massage the day before!).
5. I would encourage anyone who has not to make hotel reservations. I made mine over a month ago and prices went up again when I checked last week. I will be checking again as I can cancel my reservation up to 48 hours ahead of time. Even though I'm only an hour and a half away, I plan on staying nearby and not dealing with traffic. I don't particularly like driving and do not want the added stress!
6. I'm in Montgomery. If anyone would like to get together for a P&E review and MBE review, we could plan a weekday potluck. Does anyone know if the Woodland's library will allow in outside food? We may be able to reserve a meeting room. I have a low-stress group study game (sounds weird- but I chose a topic each semester and got together with friends using this method).

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Tue Feb 06, 2018 11:02 pm

texasbarprep wrote: Holy crap. How did you find the time to get through that many essays haha. Are you writing them out or just issue spotting? I really need some strategy to get the black letter law down and learn how to apply it within the next 3 weeks. I think I am going to ditch the PSP.

Also, speaking of the essays, is Barbri's Texas Testing missing the last 4 years from the BLE website. I was trying to find barbri's model answer for one of the more recent exams and it seems like it only goes up to 2015.
Yeah, was rough but I've had plenty of time to get through them (I deferred from July). I've written out at least 6 of the essay exams, the remainder I'm just issue spotting and then checking the answers. I'm just trying to get through as many years as possible.

As for strategy, what helped me was rewriting the lecture notes (omitting hypos and extraneous items) in my own words. A buddy of mine did the same for the Ca bar and it is helping him tremendously. Ultimately, you just have to figure out your learning style (everyone differs). I'm not great at listening to lectures nor do the AMP assessment really help me; I learn more from writing and reading so that's my study method. Also as Sherwood said, you definitely have to have faith in yourself.

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by eastwardway » Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:03 pm

Hope you're all hanging in there. Anyone know anything of storage outside the Secure Area? The BLE General Instructions discuss the Secure Area and the permitted and prohibited items, but nothing is said of storage of prohibited items - i.e., laptop cases, wallets/purses, etc. I imagine the BLE will have some space designated for this, but anyone have any info? It'd be nice to have notice of the setup beforehand.

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Fri Feb 09, 2018 10:28 pm

eastwardway wrote:Hope you're all hanging in there. Anyone know anything of storage outside the Secure Area? The BLE General Instructions discuss the Secure Area and the permitted and prohibited items, but nothing is said of storage of prohibited items - i.e., laptop cases, wallets/purses, etc. I imagine the BLE will have some space designated for this, but anyone have any info? It'd be nice to have notice of the setup beforehand.
I was curious about that as well. I called up a rep. from the Convention Center to see if there were rent-able lockers or a staff member I could leave off prohibited items with but the answer was no... Kind of sucks as I'd hope to use uber and then leave off my phone (it's a 20 minute walk for me).

Only alternative that I can think of is to scope out the neighboring area the day before the exam and see if a local business wouldn't mind watching your phone (I had to do that for the MPRE). If anyone knows otherwise, that'd be awesome.

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Reine8888 » Sun Feb 11, 2018 10:45 am

The criminal procedure 20 questions of last year ‘s exam seems very different than the previous years.... any advice?

Additionally, any advice on what might be predicted on anything else? I’m not in the chat group any advice would help,

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hijklmno

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by hijklmno » Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:34 pm

I am reviewing sample essay answers provided by Themis. Does anyone know where I can find some middling, but good enough essays as examples? I'm getting beat down by the perfect answers.

texasbarprep

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by texasbarprep » Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:49 pm

Anyone know if there is a place to buy lunch at the convention center in Houston or something or are we expected to bring are own lunch?

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by beep.boop.lawyering » Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:17 am

Best thing you can do is try to find a hotel within walking distance. The Hilton Americas has a skybridge you can just walk on over.

I wanted to split with some people but ended up just getting a room on my own. It's worth the money, rather than having to stress/deal with getting to the convention center without a phone etc., the day of the exam - plus if you have never been to Houston (like me), this option may make more sense to you too.

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by SuperPollito » Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:51 pm

texasbarprep wrote:Anyone know if there is a place to buy lunch at the convention center in Houston or something or are we expected to bring are own lunch?
Two years ago, Chick-Fil-A and some other restaurants set up booths in the convention center for lunch. I purposely finished the exam early so I could line up for some chicken sammiches. :D

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Jess3184 » Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:54 pm

MBernard wrote:
eastwardway wrote:Hope you're all hanging in there. Anyone know anything of storage outside the Secure Area? The BLE General Instructions discuss the Secure Area and the permitted and prohibited items, but nothing is said of storage of prohibited items - i.e., laptop cases, wallets/purses, etc. I imagine the BLE will have some space designated for this, but anyone have any info? It'd be nice to have notice of the setup beforehand.
I was curious about that as well. I called up a rep. from the Convention Center to see if there were rent-able lockers or a staff member I could leave off prohibited items with but the answer was no... Kind of sucks as I'd hope to use uber and then leave off my phone (it's a 20 minute walk for me).

Only alternative that I can think of is to scope out the neighboring area the day before the exam and see if a local business wouldn't mind watching your phone (I had to do that for the MPRE). If anyone knows otherwise, that'd be awesome.
At the July bar in Austin, there was an area at the entrance that was cordoned off for people's bags and lunches. Maybe reach out to the BLE and see if they will be providing a similar area for the bar in Houston?

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by hijklmno » Mon Feb 26, 2018 3:14 am

Anyone else still awake and cramming? It's not the smartest thing, but I got through law school with a lot of last hour hail mary-ing and it worked generally well for my last bar exam.

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MBernard

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by MBernard » Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:12 am

hijklmno wrote:Anyone else still awake and cramming? It's not the smartest thing, but I got through law school with a lot of last hour hail mary-ing and it worked generally well for my last bar exam.
Yep, just for the Crim/Civ part. Seem to get 3 wrong per section, not sure what a good average for that part of the test would be. Definitely a weak spot for me.

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Re: Feb 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by hijklmno » Mon Feb 26, 2018 4:33 am

MBernard wrote:
hijklmno wrote:Anyone else still awake and cramming? It's not the smartest thing, but I got through law school with a lot of last hour hail mary-ing and it worked generally well for my last bar exam.
Yep, just for the Crim/Civ part. Seem to get 3 wrong per section, not sure what a good average for that part of the test would be. Definitely a weak spot for me.
Are you using the BLE's model answers? Or a bar prep's answers? Three's not bad. From my stalking of prior bar threads, it looks like people are happy to get 5 wrong.

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