Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now Forum

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gladiator0flaw11

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Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by gladiator0flaw11 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:52 am

I'm considering sitting for the Florida Bar Exam in July regardless of my ability to practice in the NY/NJ area due to quality of life reasons and real estate seems more affordable down there. I only had a few opportunities to work down there, one being the Miami State Attorney Office (although they pay very low). What were your experiences sitting for these two different bar exams? Was the UBE that much more difficult than the Florida Bar Exam? Wish Florida would just adopt the UBE already. Thanks in advance for sharing.

byag

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Re: Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by byag » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:23 am

I am in the same boat as you (just retook NY in February and looking to move/take FL in July) and this is what I have gleaned thus far: (1) Florida accepts MBE transfer scores so long as you scored above 136 on the MBE (which is problematic considering the mean for the 2018 Feb. iteration was a 132); (2) there was a higher pass rate in FL for Feb (59%) as compared to the UBE states (49%); (3) the FL exam, when averaged with the MBE to get FL's total score, often drags down the total score. Other than that, the best advice I have gotten is to use the essays on FL's Board of Bar Examiners website to study for the FL portion and that I should book my hotel by Tampa's convention center (where the entire state takes the exam on the same day) ASAP. What have you heard??

Sidenote: the wait for the scores from NY is absolutely maddening. Called BOLE yesterday and they didn't have a score release date to offer which is problematic because FL's early deadline for registering is May 1. Historically, NY results for Feb exams have been released on April 26th... so lets hope for that date or something sooner. Either way, longest week of waiting ever.

redsox550

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Re: Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by redsox550 » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:24 pm

byag wrote:I am in the same boat as you (just retook NY in February and looking to move/take FL in July) and this is what I have gleaned thus far: (1) Florida accepts MBE transfer scores so long as you scored above 136 on the MBE (which is problematic considering the mean for the 2018 Feb. iteration was a 132); (2) there was a higher pass rate in FL for Feb (59%) as compared to the UBE states (49%); (3) the FL exam, when averaged with the MBE to get FL's total score, often drags down the total score. Other than that, the best advice I have gotten is to use the essays on FL's Board of Bar Examiners website to study for the FL portion and that I should book my hotel by Tampa's convention center (where the entire state takes the exam on the same day) ASAP. What have you heard??

Sidenote: the wait for the scores from NY is absolutely maddening. Called BOLE yesterday and they didn't have a score release date to offer which is problematic because FL's early deadline for registering is May 1. Historically, NY results for Feb exams have been released on April 26th... so lets hope for that date or something sooner. Either way, longest week of waiting ever.
Don't think FL accepts MBE transfer scores, of if they do I think it is VERY new. I would double check that.

byag

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Re: Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by byag » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:52 pm

"Effective November 30, 2017, the Supreme Court of Florida has approved a change to the Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admissions to the Bar that will allow applicants for admission to The Florida Bar to transfer Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) scores attained in other jurisdictions to Florida provided that the score meets the minimum passing score for Florida under rule 4-26.2 (currently a scaled score of 136) and the score was attained within 25 months of passing both Part A of the General Bar Examination and the MPRE as required under rule 4-18.1."

SOURCE: https://www.floridabarexam.org/web/webs ... EF00608534

DrainTheNCBEswamp

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Re: Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by DrainTheNCBEswamp » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:57 pm

redsox550 wrote:
byag wrote:I am in the same boat as you (just retook NY in February and looking to move/take FL in July) and this is what I have gleaned thus far: (1) Florida accepts MBE transfer scores so long as you scored above 136 on the MBE (which is problematic considering the mean for the 2018 Feb. iteration was a 132); (2) there was a higher pass rate in FL for Feb (59%) as compared to the UBE states (49%); (3) the FL exam, when averaged with the MBE to get FL's total score, often drags down the total score. Other than that, the best advice I have gotten is to use the essays on FL's Board of Bar Examiners website to study for the FL portion and that I should book my hotel by Tampa's convention center (where the entire state takes the exam on the same day) ASAP. What have you heard??

Sidenote: the wait for the scores from NY is absolutely maddening. Called BOLE yesterday and they didn't have a score release date to offer which is problematic because FL's early deadline for registering is May 1. Historically, NY results for Feb exams have been released on April 26th... so lets hope for that date or something sooner. Either way, longest week of waiting ever.
Don't think FL accepts MBE transfer scores, of if they do I think it is VERY new. I would double check that.

They JUST started to for the February 2018 exam.

gladiator0flaw11

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Re: Those that passed the UBE and the Florida Bar Exam, where are you practicing now

Post by gladiator0flaw11 » Wed Apr 18, 2018 8:18 am

The average MBE was a 132 for February 2018 UBE exam takers which isn't even high enough (136 for Florida to transfer MBE score) unless you scored above average. If I scored close to the MBE requirement to transfer, I'll sit for Florida in July, if not I'll re-evaluate my situation and see what I'll do next.

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