Handwriting NY bar advice Forum

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Calbears123

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Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by Calbears123 » Mon May 21, 2018 12:13 pm

Long story short I messed up and forgot to signup for the Laptop program for the NY bar. I called and they told me I couldn’t change after the application period ended...so I’m stuck handwriting.

Advice? I’m worried but I have good handwriting, wrote all my notes in law school, and took 3-6 hour writing exams in undergrad.

I’m worried I won’t have time to write all my answers, but people use to all have to write the exam. I’m sure they write the bar with handwriters in mind?

Someone calm my nerves

sprintin23

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by sprintin23 » Mon May 21, 2018 1:20 pm

If it makes you feel any better, all the handy's from my school ended up passing last year. If you have good handwriting and can write legibly quickly, you should be fine.

UKATTORNEYUSA

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by UKATTORNEYUSA » Mon May 21, 2018 1:29 pm

Practice essays under timed conditions is the best way to practice.

Colds_Law

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by Colds_Law » Mon May 21, 2018 2:25 pm

I have taken 3 bar exams in 3 different states (Don't ask - long story), all in the era of the laptop, and ended up passing all three- including the California bar exam when it was heavily weighted towards the essays and MPTs. I was worried about this last one in February and having doubts about not registering for the laptop exam and ended getting a 150 on the written portion.

The key is to get your time management down (learn what questions you can spend less time on and which ones require more effort, watch the clock and adjust accordingly) and practice practice practice- I wrote out essays ands MPTS at least once a week and did outlines for other questions about every other day. It's like muscle memory, when it came to exam time it was almost automatic, I spotted the main issues and finished all of the questions. To me, feeling a bit more urgency and having to limit myself somewhat was helpful. I'm a messy handwriter in general, but I found that by slowing down just a bit and working at a good, even pace, I was able to write clearly, legibly, and in an organized fashion. If I had a laptop, I might be encouraged to ramble more than I should, much like this post.

A few last words of comfort- to me, I liked not having the stress of thinking about whether my equipment or software was going to fail, or stressing about getting everything set up. I just sat there and calmed myself while people were scrambling to get computers set up and raising hands with technical issues. Also, I was once told a long time ago- and I don't know if this is true- that all handwritten exams were graded by separate graders than those who see the laptop exams. Either way, I made it through three tests and so can you, the bar is mainly an endurance test. Good luck!

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Calbears123

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by Calbears123 » Wed May 23, 2018 5:09 pm

Still worried but thanks for the responses.

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beckgirl123

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by beckgirl123 » Wed May 23, 2018 5:19 pm

Wait someone from my school missed the laptop cut off by nearly a month last year and managed to talk them into letting him sign up late over the phone?! (or so the person said, can't imagine why they'd lie) Try again?!

bettythelabrador

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by bettythelabrador » Tue May 28, 2019 12:44 am

Hi. May I ask what type of pen was permitted and are we able to write in pencil? THank you.

Lurker123

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by Lurker123 » Tue May 28, 2019 12:49 pm

This exact same thing happened to me as well. Attempted to call and sign up late but they were not having it.

In terms of preparation, I just focused HEAVILY on the MBE portion since I knew it would provide the most bang for my buck. I'd guess I completed about 5-8 actual essays but stopped once I felt there wasn't much ROI there. Since I knew I would have trouble writing all that I wanted to say, I really focused on the issue spotting aspect when practicing and just taking a few minutes to outline answers and then reviewing the model answer rather than actually writing out essays. Also, the approach that I saw suggested by another TLS user of copy and pasting all the model answers into a separate word doc and organizing by topic was extremely helpful when it came to just getting a feel for what the main issues that arise were, what was heavily tested and just general structure.

Take this with a grain of salt but I ended up around 135-140 on the essays but was able to get a 305 total due to focusing more heavily on the MBE since I felt I had more control. Writing the essays sucks but as other posters have said, it isn't some sort of death blow to passing.

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Calbears123

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Re: Handwriting NY bar advice

Post by Calbears123 » Tue May 28, 2019 2:26 pm

Wow my thread from a year ago. I did handwrite the bar and scored a 155 on the writing section. It was no problem

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