2018 February CA Bar Forum

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Bla Bla Bla Blah

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by Bla Bla Bla Blah » Mon May 21, 2018 10:23 am

UmaThurman wrote:Thanks for your post! I'm very interested in your materials!
Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:Quoted bow is what I did to pass. I'll go ahead and put the steps into a one page guide for anyone who wants my materials. Also willing to discuss my approach if I can hand you my materials. Anyone who is interested in these materials let me know. Can also give the $35 Adaptibar discount to anyone who needs it too. Willing to personally hand them off to anyone in the San Diego, Riverside, or Orange County/LA area.

All the best.

I need to figure out exactly how to get you everything (the fact that they removed private messaging from TLS really sucks), but how about we figure this out over email? I am at goodbutterz @ gmail dot com.

CDNKimberley

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by CDNKimberley » Mon May 21, 2018 10:45 am

For all of those that passed congratulations! For those that didn't my heart truly aches for you.

I am one of the lucky ones, passed on the first try and quite honestly still in shock! I keep looking like I have imagined the entire thing.

As I previously posted, I took the British Columbia Bar exam in 1998 after attending the University of Alberta, Canada. Ironic that my 20 year reunion is coming up. I have not practiced since 2001. The last week in August (after returning from my wedding) I decided (or more accurately my husband decided for me) to take the LL.M course that Barbri offers. As soon as the bar review materials came out I did the early study. December 26th I started the full bar prep course. I did 100% of the course including all the simulated exams. I stopped drinking for the month of February in hopes that it would help with retention. I also used the California lead sheets, did over 3000 adaptibar questions and used the critical pass flashcards extensively. My neighbor just retired as a DA and she told me she turned to hypnosis so I gave that a try as well. Hypnosis is aimed not only at relaxation techniques but also helps with retention. I did everything I could. Despite my computer having a catastrophic hard drive failure the morning I was leaving for Pasadena it somehow all came together. There are a lot of materials out there on visualization and hypnosis particularly aimed at taking the bar. It might be helpful especially with the pressure of having to take this exam so quickly after getting such devastating results.

If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. If this Canadian educated lawyer can do it, so can you. Good luck to all!

krispymenudo

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by krispymenudo » Mon May 21, 2018 12:27 pm

I passed Feb '18. It was my second try. I got a total 1412 last July, with an MBE of 1449 (can't remember essay score but it was along the lines of 1380ish?). I used Kaplan my first go-around and they were grading my submitted essays at 65-70, and I ended up bombing them because Kaplan was reinforcing my poor structure by scoring me higher than I really deserved. I was not IRAC'ing correctly. This is what I did to pass:

I worked 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. I studied from 2:30pm to midnight, with two 30 minute breaks and one 1-hour break. I studied about 6 hours a day over the weekend.

Bargraders.com I got a refund from Kaplan (don't let them tell you you didn't do enough to qualify for the refund. They tried to not refund me by saying I didn't complete the necessary work. I followed up asking for a report on what I did and did not finish, and they responded by saying they made a mistake and that I qualified for a refund) and sunk it into bargraders.com's retaker review. I know the essays are going to come in the mail a little late in the game for July takers, but even that late, I highly suggest you have them looked at, whether by bargraders or someone else who knows IRAC. You may think you know IRAC, but seriously, you may not. I thought I was IRAC'ing in July, even once I got my essays back in the mail. I knew most of what I needed to know in July, but my structure killed me. My assigned mentor through Bargraders showed me very specifically what I was doing wrong, and the difference was blaringly obvious.

Writing for the CA Bar Exam by Mary Basick I worked through this book on subject at a time. I would cross-check my essays, and the included essays, with the essays on Baressays.com. I would look at as many passing essays on Baressays.com as I could for each essay, and would look at non-passing essays. I would open them in separate windows and compare them side-by-side. The differences were pretty clear in most instances.

Baressays.com

Adaptibar My total questions completed on Adaptibar was absurd, somewhere in the 4,000s. I hit repeat questions for sure. I would do questions in increments of 25 everyday. Every. Day. Even my days off (I took a few since the holidays were in there) I made it a point to do at least 10 questions, because I knew I could find even 20 minutes in a day to keep my mind going. When I got questions right, I wrote the rule down by hand. When I got the questions wrong, I wrote the rule down by hand. Everyday, I would monitor my subject performance, and would review the corresponding Emmauel's Strategies and Tactics chapter. I started out at 43% and ended up in the 70%s by the middle of February. Once I started to hit repeats, I "cross-trained" with BarBri's MBE book, which I got for about $200 on eBay.

Emmanuel's Strategies and Tactics

My biggest piece of advice is breaking everything down. For the essays, I spoon-fed my readers. I made headings out of every damn element, which I also did in practice to help me learn the rules. For MBE, break the answers down into rules. I read the call of the question and the answers first, and broke the answers down (where possible) into what they were saying the rule was. I was able to eliminate some answers by simply doing that, because the rules they relayed just weren't correct.

If you have any questions or anything on what I did, I'd be more than happy to discuss. My heart breaks for everyone who didn't pass. This test is a beast. Your worth is not defined by how you do on one test.

Pema

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by Pema » Mon May 21, 2018 1:08 pm

maxmartin wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:
FinallyPassedTheBar wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:So I failed the July 2017 bar by 9 points. I had a high MBE score but bombed the essays. This time around, I hired a tutor that was a former bar grander, did Adaptibar like the first time, and I felt like I had to have passed this time. I didn't. I feel so depressed and worthless right now.
You already received your scores in the mail? What was your MBE score if you don;t mind me asking?
No I was short by 9 points in July. I haven't received my scores from February yet. In July My scaled MBE score was
1539.
Take the July exam. I didn't even bother Feb exam. If you score 6o, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam.
"If you score 60, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam"

Can you clarify? People who have studied the exam for many years state if you scored 62.5 on all essays (and PT's) and get 62.5% of the MBE's correct you pass. From what I've been told this 62.5% average doesn't move more than a half a point either direction for any administration. Is this incorrect? Thanks.

UmaThurman

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by UmaThurman » Mon May 21, 2018 1:22 pm

Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:
UmaThurman wrote:Thanks for your post! I'm very interested in your materials!
Bla Bla Bla Blah wrote:Quoted bow is what I did to pass. I'll go ahead and put the steps into a one page guide for anyone who wants my materials. Also willing to discuss my approach if I can hand you my materials. Anyone who is interested in these materials let me know. Can also give the $35 Adaptibar discount to anyone who needs it too. Willing to personally hand them off to anyone in the San Diego, Riverside, or Orange County/LA area.

All the best.

I need to figure out exactly how to get you everything (the fact that they removed private messaging from TLS really sucks), but how about we figure this out over email? I am at goodbutterz @ gmail dot com.
Thank you! Awesome! I've just sent a message to your gmail.

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KT33

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by KT33 » Mon May 21, 2018 1:37 pm

Yes, the Governor failed the CA Bar the first time, Kamala Harris failed the CA Bar the first time and is quoted as saying (to console another law grad who didn't pass) "it's not a measure of your capacity", former Dean of Stanford Law (Kathleen Sullivan) failed the first time, and the former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa failed 4 times and never ended up passing.

Those are just a few I'm aware of, but I'm sure the list goes on. For non-CA Barred attorneys, some notable people include Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, John F. Kennedy Jr., President Roosevelt, etc...

Definitely agree, the talks of suicide are not constructive although completely understandable to feel at your breaking point like this. I took the Bar 2 years ago now and had to wait until February this year to have time and money to take it again (I live on the East coast so there are multiple challenges to retaking) and by some miracle I did pass this time. It's painful because you aren't treated like a real attorney and it's hard to get any jobs related to what you want to do and it puts a huge burden on your family and your physical and mental health every time you have to retake it. I really get it, I cried and drank more after finding out I passed than when I failed and even a few days later I still cry about once a day. The exam really did emotionally damage me and you deserve to feel what you're feeling! But trust me you can and will pass this silly exam and it's amazing how different you will feel on the other side.

Also I agree that advocating for change is another really constructive outlet and if scores keep dropping every year like this something has to give! I would definitely be willing to sign the petition mentioned below and I'm sure there's at least a couple notable people on the list above who would consider it as well, which might get some attention. 1/4 pass rate is just too far and absolutely absurd.
catechumen wrote:Looks like we are not the only ones to be upset over the close to 3/4 failure rate. We need to lobby the our state reps to fix this and get the media to report on this. The Governor failed the exam too.. The CA Supreme Court is in on this protectionism, so we won't get any help there. Anyone want to start a change.org petetion?

https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2018/ ... 626730002/

Oh and guys suicide is not an option. The way to get back at these monsters is to shame them with truth in the public eye, and to beat this test!

estefanchanning

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by estefanchanning » Mon May 21, 2018 2:02 pm

Serious question:

I agree with everyone that the CA bar exam is insane. But:

I think we can all agree that the test is not getting harder year after year. If that's the case, can we really blame the State Bar for such a low passing score? Perhaps the feb test was a bit harder than previous examinations, but idk if it was the cause of such a drastic drop in passing rate.

All that to say, perhaps the issue is with the actual law schools and their predatory admission practices? Perhaps their standards have sunk so low that they're the true cause of this decline?

To be clear, I don't think the bar exam is proper measure of who will be a good lawyer. But at the same time, I do think that law schools are more to blame than the State bar? This is a classic res ipsa situation, in that there is a harm that wouldn't have otherwise occurred without the negligence of someone, we just don't know who's fault it is exactly.

lawschoolgradz1

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by lawschoolgradz1 » Mon May 21, 2018 2:06 pm

Hey everyone, this will be my third time taking it in July 2018. I know how it feels to be let down like this, but we have to remember to keep our heads up and in the game! Positive mental health is half the struggle.

With that, if anyone has any tips and tricks on how to pass this time around, I'd love to hear it. I have all the extras including Emmanuel, CriticalPass, etc etc, which makes it that much more upsetting I haven't passed yet. So, I would love to hear suggestions!

Otherwise, if anyone needs $30 off Adaptibar, PM me and I'll send over my code. I'm terrible at MBEs and Adaptibar is truly the only thing that helped me learn and improve (and actually mirrored the real exam!!)

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a male human

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by a male human » Mon May 21, 2018 2:12 pm

estefanchanning wrote:Serious question:

I agree with everyone that the CA bar exam is insane. But:

I think we can all agree that the test is not getting harder year after year. If that's the case, can we really blame the State Bar for such a low passing score? Perhaps the feb test was a bit harder than previous examinations, but idk if it was the cause of such a drastic drop in passing rate.

All that to say, perhaps the issue is with the actual law schools and their predatory admission practices? Perhaps their standards have sunk so low that they're the true cause of this decline?

To be clear, I don't think the bar exam is proper measure of who will be a good lawyer. But at the same time, I do think that law schools are more to blame than the State bar? This is a classic res ipsa situation, in that there is a harm that wouldn't have otherwise occurred without the negligence of someone, we just don't know who's fault it is exactly.
It's a tough question for me personally.

I think the exams themselves are getting harder with more complicated questions, crossovers, longer MBE questions, testing of obscure law, etc. And sure, law schools may be to blame for not catching up and adequately preparing students. It may also be a lack of interest in the law in general, leading to a drop in quality of students applying in the first place. Law schools do want to compete for rankings and enroll the best they can.

Ultimately, it's easiest for people to blame the State Bar as the least-attenuated cause of damages as it were.

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maxmartin

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by maxmartin » Mon May 21, 2018 2:23 pm

Pema wrote:
maxmartin wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:
FinallyPassedTheBar wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:So I failed the July 2017 bar by 9 points. I had a high MBE score but bombed the essays. This time around, I hired a tutor that was a former bar grander, did Adaptibar like the first time, and I felt like I had to have passed this time. I didn't. I feel so depressed and worthless right now.
You already received your scores in the mail? What was your MBE score if you don;t mind me asking?
No I was short by 9 points in July. I haven't received my scores from February yet. In July My scaled MBE score was
1539.
Take the July exam. I didn't even bother Feb exam. If you score 6o, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam.
"If you score 60, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam"

Can you clarify? People who have studied the exam for many years state if you scored 62.5 on all essays (and PT's) and get 62.5% of the MBE's correct you pass. From what I've been told this 62.5% average doesn't move more than a half a point either direction for any administration. Is this incorrect? Thanks.

Written scaled score = (Raw written score x 4.6947) – 601.6471.

For comparison, July was (Raw written score x 4.3038) - 420.5653

FinallyPassedTheBar

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by FinallyPassedTheBar » Mon May 21, 2018 2:34 pm

From the limited knowledge we have of the essay graders, I think it is reasonable to be at least somewhat suspicious of the process, because it is not transparent. There is zero explanation for the grades they give. They are not forced to even give a minimal defense for their grades. And there is no appeal process for their grades.

Now, given that there are 10,000+ applicants for the summer exam administrations, it could be too difficult to make the current essay grading process more transparent. I've always thought that having a 2nd set of graders review the essay would be a good idea. For example, once the bar grades all the essays, have a group of academics (law school profs) grade those same essays. Then average out the scores.

LawQueen777

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by LawQueen777 » Mon May 21, 2018 2:42 pm

maxmartin wrote:
Pema wrote:
maxmartin wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:
FinallyPassedTheBar wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:So I failed the July 2017 bar by 9 points. I had a high MBE score but bombed the essays. This time around, I hired a tutor that was a former bar grander, did Adaptibar like the first time, and I felt like I had to have passed this time. I didn't. I feel so depressed and worthless right now.
You already received your scores in the mail? What was your MBE score if you don;t mind me asking?
No I was short by 9 points in July. I haven't received my scores from February yet. In July My scaled MBE score was
1539.
Take the July exam. I didn't even bother Feb exam. If you score 6o, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam.
"If you score 60, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam"

Can you clarify? People who have studied the exam for many years state if you scored 62.5 on all essays (and PT's) and get 62.5% of the MBE's correct you pass. From what I've been told this 62.5% average doesn't move more than a half a point either direction for any administration. Is this incorrect? Thanks.

Written scaled score = (Raw written score x 4.6947) – 601.6471.

For comparison, July was (Raw written score x 4.3038) - 420.5653
Is this score discrepancy due to the fact that more Feb takers are repeaters, and perhaps already low-scoring?

KT33

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by KT33 » Mon May 21, 2018 3:16 pm

Even as someone who passed this time around in an exam with the lowest pass rate in CA history, I 100% think it's getting harder and not related strictly to the applicant pool. The first and only other time I took it was one of the last 3 day Bars in July 2016, and, for obvious reasons, I saw dramatic differences from that test to this one. Despite format change, I thought this Bar was magnitudes harder than than that one and, from practicing problems of past tests, it does appear that it's been significantly harder (at least essay-wise) each time since. First of all, there were almost no cross-over issues in the 2016 exam I took and the essay questions were very straight forward. Secondly, the only thing I felt was particularly hard about the MBE in July 2016 is that I was not prepared for how logically tricky the questions were, but there were very few questions on areas of law I was unfamiliar with.

This time around we had half the time to do the PTs and may as well have had 1/2 of the time to do the essays given that I felt there were sooo many more issues and multiple cross-overs. Of the 5 essays at least 3 of them were major cross-overs of multiple types of law (not just a standard two part cross-over) within a single question. Also, I felt the MBE included a ridiculous amount of questions on topics that were either barely talked about in preparation materials or that I had literally never seen at all, on top of being logically tricky and the typical MBE horror. I looked at the July 2017 exam in preparation for this one anticipating that cutting out a day would mean intense cross-overs, but, from what I remember, there was not one cross-over issue in that exam or at least if there were, they were very very minimal. Luckily I assumed that was only because it was the first administration of the 2 day exam and that they might turn up the heat this time and that over-preparation boded in my favor, but it still supports the argument that the exams are changing significantly and getting harder each time.

I do think that the lowering LSAT score trends do partially attribute to the lowering MBE trends since I find the two exams very, very similar, but I don't think that's the whole story either for the MBE trends alone or the Bar exam as a whole. I personally thought just from 3 cycles past the MBE I took this time around was a completely different exam that I had no way to fully prepare for and probably barely passed based on luck.
estefanchanning wrote:Serious question:

I agree with everyone that the CA bar exam is insane. But:

I think we can all agree that the test is not getting harder year after year. If that's the case, can we really blame the State Bar for such a low passing score? Perhaps the feb test was a bit harder than previous examinations, but idk if it was the cause of such a drastic drop in passing rate.

All that to say, perhaps the issue is with the actual law schools and their predatory admission practices? Perhaps their standards have sunk so low that they're the true cause of this decline?

To be clear, I don't think the bar exam is proper measure of who will be a good lawyer. But at the same time, I do think that law schools are more to blame than the State bar? This is a classic res ipsa situation, in that there is a harm that wouldn't have otherwise occurred without the negligence of someone, we just don't know who's fault it is exactly.

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maxmartin

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by maxmartin » Mon May 21, 2018 3:23 pm

LawQueen777 wrote:
maxmartin wrote:
Pema wrote:
maxmartin wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:
FinallyPassedTheBar wrote:
LawQueen777 wrote:So I failed the July 2017 bar by 9 points. I had a high MBE score but bombed the essays. This time around, I hired a tutor that was a former bar grander, did Adaptibar like the first time, and I felt like I had to have passed this time. I didn't. I feel so depressed and worthless right now.
You already received your scores in the mail? What was your MBE score if you don;t mind me asking?
No I was short by 9 points in July. I haven't received my scores from February yet. In July My scaled MBE score was
1539.
Take the July exam. I didn't even bother Feb exam. If you score 6o, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam.
"If you score 60, under the nasty Feb raw score formula, your raw score is already 15 points down compared with July exam"

Can you clarify? People who have studied the exam for many years state if you scored 62.5 on all essays (and PT's) and get 62.5% of the MBE's correct you pass. From what I've been told this 62.5% average doesn't move more than a half a point either direction for any administration. Is this incorrect? Thanks.

Written scaled score = (Raw written score x 4.6947) – 601.6471.

For comparison, July was (Raw written score x 4.3038) - 420.5653
Is this score discrepancy due to the fact that more Feb takers are repeaters, and perhaps already low-scoring?
The main reason for the scaled score conversion is to adjust for the difficulty of the different exams. However, scale for an essay question itself might be deeply flawed. CA bar doesn't need to change the cut score. CA bar needs to do some reforms on how the essays were graded and how the scaled scores were calculated.

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by stella2016 » Mon May 21, 2018 3:37 pm

I'm also interested in your materials. Thanks

KT33

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by KT33 » Mon May 21, 2018 3:50 pm

Also, I should clarify that I do agree with you that a lot of the issues pointed out are not the whole story and I realize that's actually the point of what you're saying. On the one hand, examinees want to blame the Bar committees for having unrealistic requirements, and on the other hand the Bar committees want to blame examinees for low LSAT scores. Neither is the full picture. I do think that law schools have a lot to do with it as well. I don't think there was one thing in law school that prepared me for the MBE. Since the MBE is only on first year courses, it would be nice to at least have optional MBE preparatory courses that you can take as soon as your first year. The earlier exposure to that type of testing the better. Also part of the 1L legal writing course should be successfully completing a PT.
estefanchanning wrote:Serious question:

I agree with everyone that the CA bar exam is insane. But:

I think we can all agree that the test is not getting harder year after year. If that's the case, can we really blame the State Bar for such a low passing score? Perhaps the feb test was a bit harder than previous examinations, but idk if it was the cause of such a drastic drop in passing rate.

All that to say, perhaps the issue is with the actual law schools and their predatory admission practices? Perhaps their standards have sunk so low that they're the true cause of this decline?

To be clear, I don't think the bar exam is proper measure of who will be a good lawyer. But at the same time, I do think that law schools are more to blame than the State bar? This is a classic res ipsa situation, in that there is a harm that wouldn't have otherwise occurred without the negligence of someone, we just don't know who's fault it is exactly.

scard

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by scard » Mon May 21, 2018 4:11 pm

got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17

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Britbrit

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by Britbrit » Mon May 21, 2018 5:02 pm

To all the repeaters who passed CONGRATULATIONS!!!! what did you do differently this last time that you think contributed to you passing?

I have taken the bar a few times, every time i have used adaptibar, this last time studying I noticed I recognized/knew the answers to the questions without reading the questions. I own the Emmanuel books as well. Does anyone have suggestions on how to attack the mbes this time around?

Nightcrawler

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by Nightcrawler » Mon May 21, 2018 5:11 pm

scard wrote:got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17
Still waiting on my letter. Can I ask you which area you are located in? Congrats on the MBE btw, this was a tough one.

LockBox

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by LockBox » Mon May 21, 2018 5:14 pm

I didn't pass my first time. For those of you going on to take July after failing again, this is for you.

I'll preface this with the fact that this message board is here for discussion and if you want to come her to go on about how unfair the bar is etc. then by all means have at it.

However, if you've failed and want to pass the bar, here is my advice: drink the kool-aid, don't fill your head with disparaging remarks about the bar and set a goal for yourself of passing it the next time around. Don't sit around complaining that it's getting harder or the bar is intent on just making more money by having more people fail etc. You can make this your life's work after you pass. Until then, it is what it is, and your job is to pass.

How to pass is more of an interesting question. It really does take some introspection to figure out where you are at, what you need to do to pass, and how to do it. You have to look at your weaknesses and work on those while maintaining your strengths. All of this only puts you in a position to do well on the exam - not necessarily pass.

I know it sucks - i've been there. But the goal is still the same: become a licensed attorney. Use the resources here (i'm looking at AMALEHUMAN, in particular) to help guide you along the way, and get busy of doing the work you need to do to put yourself in the best possible place to pass this thing.

Also, don't underestimate the emotional task you have ahead of yourself of keeping at bay doubts and negative feelings on this process. This was one of the most challenging aspects of retaking and passing. Good luck.

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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by hope2018 » Mon May 21, 2018 5:27 pm

scard wrote:got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17

Thank you for sharing, scard. I am sorry to hear that you did not pass. What is your total score?
It appears that you are scoring above average in MBE. That is great! You probably want to also work on essays. Do you use baressays.com? My scores in writing were not so great in previous exams. what helped me pass this time was MBE (I don't know my score but It was usually high in past administrations), and using baressays.com model answers. I printed model answer templates and studied every model answer posted by baressays.

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chicoalto0649

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Posts: 1186
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Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by chicoalto0649 » Mon May 21, 2018 6:23 pm

Nightcrawler wrote:
scard wrote:got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17
Still waiting on my letter. Can I ask you which area you are located in? Congrats on the MBE btw, this was a tough one.
That's a tough one. Based on the current scale you prob needed to have a 1550+ to give yourself a chance of passing. How many MBEs did you do this time around and how did you prepare? I feel it's the one part of the exam that's more within your control than essays. As far as essays are concerned I think I failed before because of a misguided preoccupation with memorizing the perfect rule statement and in turn relying on outlines as opposed to actual practice essays. I think on the most recent exam, straight 60s + a 1515 would have been enough to snag a P.

Snowflake1

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Posts: 41
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2017 2:12 pm

Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by Snowflake1 » Mon May 21, 2018 6:48 pm

chicoalto0649 wrote:
Nightcrawler wrote:
scard wrote:got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17
Still waiting on my letter. Can I ask you which area you are located in? Congrats on the MBE btw, this was a tough one.
That's a tough one. Based on the current scale you prob needed to have a 1550+ to give yourself a chance of passing. How many MBEs did you do this time around and how did you prepare? I feel it's the one part of the exam that's more within your control than essays. As far as essays are concerned I think I failed before because of a misguided preoccupation with memorizing the perfect rule statement and in turn relying on outlines as opposed to actual practice essays. I think on the most recent exam, straight 60s + a 1515 would have been enough to snag a P.
I had a 1611 MBE and failed last July 2017. Do not gamble on the essays or bet the MBE will take you over the edge. Practice essays every day. The advice above on comparing your essays to real graded ones that scored 55, 65, 75 (and then figuring out what you did right and wrong) on BarEssays is very good. That's basically what I did too.

justanotheruser

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Posts: 181
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:57 pm

Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by justanotheruser » Mon May 21, 2018 7:01 pm

Snowflake1 wrote:
chicoalto0649 wrote:
Nightcrawler wrote:
scard wrote:got my scores..

1st read/second/op

essay 1: 55/50/52.5
essay 2: 60/60/60
essay 3: 55/55/55
essay 4: 60/55/57.5
essay 5: 50/50/50
PT: 65/65/65

Raw Written: 405.0
Scaled written: 1299.7064
Scaled MBE: 1476.0000

my MBE improved a few points, my PT improved, but my essays dropped slightly form July 17
Still waiting on my letter. Can I ask you which area you are located in? Congrats on the MBE btw, this was a tough one.
That's a tough one. Based on the current scale you prob needed to have a 1550+ to give yourself a chance of passing. How many MBEs did you do this time around and how did you prepare? I feel it's the one part of the exam that's more within your control than essays. As far as essays are concerned I think I failed before because of a misguided preoccupation with memorizing the perfect rule statement and in turn relying on outlines as opposed to actual practice essays. I think on the most recent exam, straight 60s + a 1515 would have been enough to snag a P.
I had a 1611 MBE and failed last July 2017. Do not gamble on the essays or bet the MBE will take you over the edge. Practice essays every day. The advice above on comparing your essays to real graded ones that scored 55, 65, 75 (and then figuring out what you did right and wrong) on BarEssays is very good. That's basically what I did too.
I had a 1500 MBE and failed last July 2017 as well. Finally passed last week thanks in large part to improving on the PT as well as putting in the requisite work/practice on essays. I would second the BarEssays recommendation along with the Mary Basick Essays Study Guide (big blue book). Continually betting on just my MBE performance got me nowhere, so I really changed things up and decided to grind through essays and the PT this time.

YMMV, but I did not do any rote memorization of rule statements. I did write full essays (open book and a 2-hour limit) for my very first 2-3 essays on every subject. Then I outlined the next 7-8 essays for each subject. In the last 2 weeks leading up to the exam, I basically did issue spotting which allowed me to get through 7-8 essays a day.

Probably the biggest thing was referring to real essays on BarEssays. It showed me things I was frequently missing, it reminded me there's only a finite number of issues passing essays actually cover, and it revealed how even the better scoring essays still had tons of mistakes, etc.

FinallyPassedTheBar

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Posts: 485
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 5:27 am

Re: 2018 February CA Bar

Post by FinallyPassedTheBar » Mon May 21, 2018 7:02 pm

I agree with using Baressays.com for your essay review. Go with the upgraded membership plan to access the "essay templates". I think that helped me with the essay portion of the test.

But I am going to be honest here, I think I just got "lucky" with my essay grades for July 2017. I never received a 65 on any of my previous graded essays. And I highly doubt any of my essays for July 2017 were significantly better than any of my previous essays.

That makes me conclude that the reason I passed July 2017 was for a combination these two reasons:
1. MBE weighted 50% instead of the older 35%, and I killed the MBE to compensate for my lower essay scores.
2. Easier essay grading for July 2017 (since that test was the first 2-day test, perhaps the bar was still "calibrating" their grading formulas?)

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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