post bar exam thoughts Forum

[memo2partner]

Did you think it was easier, harder, or about what you expected?

I took barbri, and I heard a lot of people say the mbe was a lot easier than barbri's mbe. I don't agree, I think the actual mbe was as hard if not harder than barbri's mbe. What does everyone else think?

[sweetpea1813]

100% agree. I took Kaplan and thought the real MBE was harder than our practice exams. Given that Kaplan is known for its MBE prep, I wasn't expecting that at all.

[Void]

I thought it was harder than Barbri, but one half (my first half) was much harder than the other. Still, even the easier half was about as difficult as Barbri's 100-question "final exam" or whatever, which was supposedly made up of their hardest questions.

The brighter side is that at long as the majority of people had a hard time, the curve will work in our favor.

[lawdawg09]

I took CA. I thought the essays were easier than expected but the PTs and the MBEs were way harder than expected.

Overall, I felt CA was way harder than expected. I got a 140 on the Barbri full MBE and I was getting 43-47s on the sets of 50. I would be blown away if I improved my score on the actual MBE.

I am not throwing in the towel yet, there were a lot of broken hearts. I'm sure my PTs sucked but lets just hope they suck a little less than everyone elses....

[newyorker88]

I took Babri and Kaplan's 3 day PMBR. I thought the actual MBE was significantly harder than both.

[BaiAilian2013]

What did people who bought the NCBE tests think? The real MBE threw me off a little, but I had never done anything other than Barbri and Kaplan questions, so I think maybe my brain interpreted all the easy questions as sneaky tricks.

[massarisucks]

What did people who bought the NCBE tests think? The real MBE threw me off a little, but I had never done anything other than Barbri and Kaplan questions, so I think maybe my brain interpreted all the easy questions as sneaky tricks.

Threw me off as well. I did the NCBE tests on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (100 sets) and was expecting the actual MBE to be in line with the practice tests. The only explanation is that they are making the test harder. Why? Too many law schools + Too many law students + too many law graduates = bad rap for legal profession in the media for employment stats...thus, start fixing the problem by making the MBE more difficult. Only explanation.

[BaiAilian2013]

What did people who bought the NCBE tests think? The real MBE threw me off a little, but I had never done anything other than Barbri and Kaplan questions, so I think maybe my brain interpreted all the easy questions as sneaky tricks.

Threw me off as well. I did the NCBE tests on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (100 sets) and was expecting the actual MBE to be in line with the practice tests. The only explanation is that they are making the test harder. Why? Too many law schools + Too many law students + too many law graduates = bad rap for legal profession in the media for employment stats...thus, start fixing the problem by making the MBE more difficult. Only explanation.

Definitely a possibility. I've heard from lawyers that sometimes there are just fluke years though, where the MBE is harder so the curve ends up being a little different.

[ninereal]

essays easier, MBE harder, ultimately a wash

[memo2partner]

MBE was definitely harder than barbri's, imo. I got a 135 on the simulated barbri mbe, but I definitely don't think I did nearly as well on the actual mbe.

[newyorker88]

What did people who bought the NCBE tests think? The real MBE threw me off a little, but I had never done anything other than Barbri and Kaplan questions, so I think maybe my brain interpreted all the easy questions as sneaky tricks.

Threw me off as well. I did the NCBE tests on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (100 sets) and was expecting the actual MBE to be in line with the practice tests. The only explanation is that they are making the test harder. Why? Too many law schools + Too many law students + too many law graduates = bad rap for legal profession in the media for employment stats...thus, start fixing the problem by making the MBE more difficult. Only explanation.

That's a good point. I didn't think about it like that.

[Tangerine Gleam]

On balance, I thought the MBE was about as difficult as the BarBri simulated MBE. BarBri's whole spiel about "don't worry, our questions are harder" seems like a joke.

[09042014]

I dunno I thought half the MBE was pretty easy, the other half was probably a little harder than Themis's simulated MBE.

You are just dwelling on this shit. Doesn't really matter anyway, the curve will even the score. I know a Cum Laude graduate at a T14 who had to fill in C for the last 11 Qs on the hard half.

[conwaystern]

I think Barbri really missed the mark in MBE prep.

[BarbellDreams]

I thought the MBE was more difficult than the sets we did with Themis but actually thought the essays for both PA and especially NJ were much easier than what we did for Themis. I truly thought the NJ essays were the most simple essays I have ever seen.

[keg411]

I thought the MBE was more difficult than the sets we did with Themis but actually thought the essays for both PA and especially NJ were much easier than what we did for Themis. I truly thought the NJ essays were the most simple essays I have ever seen.

Agreed on the NJ essays for the most part (the CivPro one was annoying).

[Void]

I thought the MBE was more difficult than the sets we did with Themis but actually thought the essays for both PA and especially NJ were much easier than what we did for Themis. I truly thought the NJ essays were the most simple essays I have ever seen.

+1 on NJ. I thought they felt like 1L exam questions. The only difficult part was keeping my answers brief (especially for the crim question). But that might not be a good thing- if everyone had an easy time, the curve will work against us. Then again, there were TONS of people at the Meadowlands Expo. Some of them had to have screwed up even on those questions.

[BarbellDreams]

I thought the MBE was more difficult than the sets we did with Themis but actually thought the essays for both PA and especially NJ were much easier than what we did for Themis. I truly thought the NJ essays were the most simple essays I have ever seen.

+1 on NJ. I thought they felt like 1L exam questions. The only difficult part was keeping my answers brief (especially for the crim question). But that might not be a good thing- if everyone had an easy time, the curve will work against us. Then again, there were TONS of people at the Meadowlands Expo. Some of them had to have screwed up even on those questions.

I wrote like 3 pages for the crim one alone. Stupid Dan, stop commiting 7 crimes in an hour. And Tom's murder/voluntary manslaughter with transferred intent/ involuntary manslaughter due to gross negligence charge took me like a page to cover by itself.

[Void]

I thought the MBE was more difficult than the sets we did with Themis but actually thought the essays for both PA and especially NJ were much easier than what we did for Themis. I truly thought the NJ essays were the most simple essays I have ever seen.

+1 on NJ. I thought they felt like 1L exam questions. The only difficult part was keeping my answers brief (especially for the crim question). But that might not be a good thing- if everyone had an easy time, the curve will work against us. Then again, there were TONS of people at the Meadowlands Expo. Some of them had to have screwed up even on those questions.

I wrote like 3 pages for the crim one alone. Stupid Dan, stop commiting 7 crimes in an hour. And Tom's murder/voluntary manslaughter with transferred intent/ involuntary manslaughter due to gross negligence charge took me like a page to cover by itself.

Ah crap I didn't consider voluntary manslaughter with transferred intent. I guess I was too busy spending 40 minutes on Dan's crime spree and addressing his insanity defense and its likelihood of success for each one. And then there was Paul and his doomed motion to suppress the weed they found in his car. Poor bastard.