The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

[I10attorney]

Good morning, Joe. First off, thanks for all you do to keep countless folks semi-sane in the months following the exam. The wait is far worse than the preparation. A few states are releasing scores today. I (and surely hoards of others) am waiting with baited breath for your opinion regarding this administration's mean. Hopefully, your magic machine tells us the scale was more favorable than Feb 2018 .

In looking at the Feb 2017 and Feb 2018 Illinois MBE percentiles, I interpolated a national scaled MBE mean of 133.4 for Feb 2019. Although I think I am pretty close, please keep in mind that THIS IS JUST A GUESS. If I am correct, then the MBE mean went up from the Feb 2018 national MBE mean of 132.8 but it would still be the 2nd lowest Feb MBE mean since the MBE was introduced in 1972 (with F18 being the lowest).

Thanks for taking a look, Joe. The released pass/fail statistics from a handful of states had given me some hope until I saw Indiana's - yikes

[I10attorney]

Been 14 years since I past the bar, almost 5 years since I practiced. I'm looking for best advice to get the MBE subjects back in my brain. Any suggestions for relearning (basically from scratch) the material?

Yes, I was out of the law for 30 years. It's easy to get back to this if you know where to begin. If you want a program, I'd recommend JoeSeparac. If you are going it on your own, start with the four OPE Online Exams published by the NCBE. They should reflect the material in the subject matter outline. After that, I'd use a combination of Adaptibar and Barbri questions.

When using Adaptibar, I made four Word documents and cut and paste any rules or tips I derived from reading the answers. Read the answers. If you read all of them, they will correct for what are occasionally weak explanations. I reviewed these seven outlines, deleting items as I mastered them, thereby creating condensed outlines as exam day approached.

Initially, you are going to have to push to stay within time limits. I read the short fact patterns slow, and the long ones fast. There are a LOT of simple fact patterns with red herrings that waste a boatload of time. Burn through those bad boys. It's counterintuitive, but you have to do it. I also read the call once, after the fact pattern. A lot of people tell you to read it first, but I kept records, and that didn't help all that often, certainly not enough to counteract the problem of reading it first increases the number of dumb mistakes. You can't read it twice at first, even if it only takes ten seconds, 10 x 200 questions equals 33 minutes in a six hour test.
Finally, your time will greatly improve, thereby allowing you to read the call twice, and all of the answers, even when you think you know which one is correct. That also increases your score.

Finally, understand this is a frustrating process. You WILL, for example, get worse at CivPro as you add Property, and continue to backslide every time you add another subject. Most importantly, understand that this is not a linear process, so you won't see steady improvement until the end. One day you will be a hero, and the next day you will be a dummy. That's normal too.
Protect your psyche. When I was tired or hung over, I did more research and study and less questions. There's so much that goes into performance, you don't want to beat yourself up over the obvious. You will also hit barriers along the way. I hit a plateau at 68%, 75%, and 85%. I finished in the low 90s by changing my time management and instituting the aforementioned methods. There's really no limit on how well you do, the real issue is you just run out of time.

Use the analytics, they will help you sleep at night when you see how wretched everyone is, and steer you in the right direction with studying subtopics.

Good luck.

Smiddy you've been constantly giving some GREAT advice. I've Screenshotted all of your tips/tricks and advice. When you pass (or maybe now??) you should make one master post condensing all your advice into one post. I think it would be full of great insights!

Well that was very nice. Thanks. I certainly have a lot of notes, however if I published some of my opinions on why the NCBE keeps ramping up security procedures, and why certain bar companies write their own questions, I'm fairly sure I'd get my ass sued.

I'm inclined to second that motion, mysojuli. His advice and encouragement have been well-placed and genuine. He's lifted the spirits of many a weary traveler who has traversed the forums these five weeks, myself included.

[Smiddywesson]

LOL, we'll see how "uplifting" I am tomorrow when Mississippi releases the pass list. There might be a slight downturn in my demeanor in the near future. I keep thinking about that broken laptop and what could have gone better on the essays. On the other hand, I found this great thread yesterday from 2016. It was titled something like "horror stories and still passed." Talk about uplifting, every one of these stories is amazing. All we do is torture ourselves while waiting for grades over what went wrong, and then this thread comes along with people pouring their hearts out about how bad the bar went and yet they still passed. It's a must read, so I bumped it up the front page.

Thanks for your kind words.

[I10attorney]

LOL, we'll see how "uplifting" I am tomorrow when Mississippi releases the pass list. There might be a slight downturn in my demeanor in the near future. I keep thinking about that broken laptop and what could have gone better on the essays. On the other hand, I found this great thread yesterday from 2016. It was titled something like "horror stories and still passed." Talk about uplifting, every one of these stories is amazing. All we do is torture ourselves while waiting for grades over what went wrong, and then this thread comes along with people pouring their hearts out about how bad the bar went and yet they still passed. It's a must read, so I bumped it up the front page.

Thanks for your kind words.

You're welcome AND deserving of each of those kind words All the best tomorrow I have a few weeks of waiting left. Texas announced May 2nd as their release date.

[TheJuryMustDie]

FYI Joe.

Encouraging Feb. '19 MBE mean especially for repeaters. See link from NCBE: http://www.ncbex.org/news/february-2019-mbe-score/

[JoeSeperac]

FYI Joe.

Encouraging Feb. '19 MBE mean especially for repeaters. See link from NCBE: http://www.ncbex.org/news/february-2019-mbe-score/

I can't help but think that the bottom has been reached. If you look at the number of passing candidates nationally from 1996-2017 (NCBE hasn't released 2018 stats yet), the number of admitted attorneys has never been lower (just 41,812 in 2017 versus 51,723 in 1996). With a growing population and economy, this has to reverse.

[febtaker2019]

Is there any correlation between when NY will release and the April 15 article? Or any insight into NY release?

[JoeSeperac]

Thanks so much and of course I don't mind! Least I can do is share what I remember (which is limited). My general approach was to focus on multiple choice, as I had read you can do really badly on the essays and still pass. Plus you can always BS an essay.

I used Kaplan, and focused almost exclusively on doing multiple choice questions once I got through the video modules on each topic. I didn't do any of the review "outlining" (they program in like an hour to outline an entire topic, it was totally non-doable). I did/outlined a couple essays/week, but that was really it other than doing multiple choice questions and limited review of the "handout" stuff you fill in with the videos.

On multiple choice, I used the big practice book and the phone app (which was buggy but convenient) with all topics. I would do between 10 and 50 and then check my answers. No idea how many I did in total, but I would spend about 4-6 hours each day doing them. By the end I was getting around 90%.

I thought Kaplan did a great job with the multiple choice questions. All my friends that did Barbri said they didn't feel prepared. For me, by the end, the basic structure was familiar for all of them. I just spent the summer hanging out on my roof filling in bubbles or doing quizzes on my phone. It was actually a pretty good time.

Thanks. Scoring 90% correct in practice just before the exam suggested an MBE of 171 so you outperformed on the exam. I find that if someone can be at 80-90% correct in MBE practice about two weeks before the exam using Barbri or Kaplan questions, they are going to score very well on the MBE.

[JoeSeperac]

Is there any correlation between when NY will release and the April 15 article? Or any insight into NY release?

There is no correlation between when NY will release and the publication of the NCBE article. In 2010, someone found the NY pass list by going into a directory where it would be expected prior to it being released. Other than that, there has never been any indication of when scores would be released. Likewise, being able to re-register (or receiving C&F emails) has no bearing on whether you passed or not. Over the years, I’ve debunked numerous theories about indicators of passing/failing such as whether a high seat # leads to failing more often (seat #s can give a clue to the graders as to whether someone is a retaker or a late registrant) or even whether a prior low MPRE score results in graders grading more harshly. To me, the best indication of whether you will pass is your overall % correct in MBE practice.

Below is a list of past NY February release dates. My guess is going to be next Wednesday April 24 which would be 56 days from the exam

[febtaker2019]

thank you!!!!