July 2014 Bar Exam results thread Forum

[OhScalia]

Just found out I passed. Based on the released list, it appears that roughly 70% to 75% of takers in my jurisdiction passed, which is consistent with prior years.

If my score sheet (which comes in a couple days) details MBE/scaling/etc. I'll let you guys know.

Also, thanks Themis!

Got my score sheet yesterday.

First, no update on passage rate. That's released separately for some reason.

Like everyone else said, there's no raw MBE score. My scaled score was shockingly high (172). Leaving the exam, I felt like I nailed the morning session, but I felt like the afternoon session was a horror show. Before the bar, I was averaging around 70-75% on Themis's mixed question sets and practice tests.

My essay (MEE) and MPT scores were all average/above average, which was totally consistent with my Themis feedback. I got the median score on the essay where I made up rules (Civ Pro) and got above average on another where I was somewhat lost (Corporations). My best essay score (perfect score) was family law, which is bizarre because I didn't feel all that great about my answer. I suppose a lot of people screwed it up. Heard some talk about mixing civ pro or conflicts, which I did not do at all--I stuck to family law only.

And my MPT scores, although good, weren't as high as I expected. My MEE scores were better, which is the opposite of how I felt during the exam. I'm guessing that many people did very well on the MPTs, which were relatively straightforward compared to some examples I encountered studying.

All in all, I passed with a lot of room to spare. More than I ever expected.

So don't fret. It'll probably be good news.

Great job on the MBE. I stand corrected the MBE was hard but not that hard.

[LSATurday]

Anyone have any insight on when Oregon's results come down?

FAQ says 5-6 weeks after exam, today marks 6 weeks.

[hoppingabird]

Iowa released the results for the July 2014 bar exam this morning.

I am very pleased to announce that I passed! I had previously taken a bar exam in another jurisdiction and was unsuccessful, so passing this time is great news for me! I can't describe how happy I am to have this process finished!

I don't know my scores and probably never will. I thought the MPT portion was fairly easily. The MEE was challenging as always. There were two simple essays (Crim Pro, Family Law, Civil Procedure) and two very difficult essays (Corporations and Contracts/UCC). The multi state multiple choice portion was a lot different than any practice exam I had used to prepare. My guess is that the points awarded on the scaled score were higher than previous years.

Another interesting statistic is the the July 2014 exam in Iowa had a 81% pass rate; however, the July 2013 Iowa exam had a 92% pass rate.

I'm relieved this process is over. Congrats to all who passed. If you were unsuccessful, please keep your attitude positive and your chin up. I have been there before. Take some time to be upset and then get up, dust yourself off, and get back to work and you CAN and WILL pass this exam. It is tough to deal with in the moment right now, but trust me, the feeling of passing is worth it!

Cheers!

[AJS30]

Do they give unsuccessful takers their MBE scores? I would love to know if the reason people failed was because the MBE, MEE or just a combo of both.

282 took the exam last year, 260 passed, 22 failed. This past July 253 took the exam, 206 passed, 47 failed.

[CaseClosed]

So is the average down or what? When is the first "big" state coming out?

[sherpaorlawschool]

So is the average down or what? When is the first "big" state coming out?

Some states are down and some are up. New Mexico saw a 3% increase in its passing rate over last year, while West Virginia saw about a 4% increase. North Carolina had a lower passage rate overall, but a higher first time passage rate. Other states such as Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin had lower pass rates than last year. Idaho just released and had a significantly lower passage rate than last year (lowest since 2002). Other states have released results, but we have no data yet. There is simply not enough information available to say whether scores are down across the board. The average scores may be down, if some of these early states are indicators, but not every state may be affected the same way. We'll just have to wait it out for the next couple of months. I believe the first large state to release results is Florida on September 22.

[Assumpsit]

I'm awful at stats but could the fact that Class of 2014 was across the board higher LSAT than recent years have any play in passage rates? I know that my school's LSAT median is down 2 or 3 from its 2011 peak (which will probably never be repeated, barring some crazy law school surge), and everyone else has seen LSAT medians plummet.

I guess it has less of an impact on the schools who let anyone in.

[jeffreymabq]

NM posted yesterday. First time passage identical to February (88%). Overall passage rate up from 81 to 84% over February.

As I recall, MBE scores will go out today in the mail.

Oh, and I passed - it's been a fun four years on here. Now, I gotta go bill.....

[Neidermeyer]

Congrats! Were still waiting until 9/26, which is starting to get harder and harder. Not sure how you NY and Cal people handle the wait

[Dafaq]

A couple of third/fourth years brought up their bar result stories today on how they handled the moment when the notification letter arrived in their mailbox. Some opened the envelope but then waited a while until they had downed several shots, others immediately just ripped it open. How did you handle it once you had the envelope in your hand?

[clintone88]

Washington UBE results came out. I had convinced myself I failed for sure, but passed. I had a 150 MBE, MUCH higher than I expected. I am guessing the curve was large because I left feeling like I completely fucked up. So happy right now.

I studied a lot less than I should have so there is definitely hope for you all! Good luck.

[Flett]

Washington UBE results came out. I had convinced myself I failed for sure, but passed. I had a 150 MBE, MUCH higher than I expected. I am guessing the curve was large because I left feeling like I completely fucked up. So happy right now.

I studied a lot less than I should have so there is definitely hope for you all! Good luck.

I'm in the same boat as you. In retrospect, planning a wedding while studying for the bar was a bad decision as neither got the attention it deserved. Thankfully, it all worked out and I passed. I thought the MBE was harder than expected (walked out certain I had bombed) and I still ended up with a 146.90. Keep the faith people, there's still hope, even for those of us who didn't study as much as we should have.

[LSATurday]

Oregon Bar just posted the following

"Results of the July 2014 bar exam will be available Friday, September 19, 2014 at 2:00 p.m."

Little slower then they said it would be, but at least now there is a set time so I am not constantly refreshing.

[chapstick00]

Had to de-lurk to ask this:

Say you're in a jx that releases by mail, and you've heard that your state has released results but you haven't received anything. How long do you wait before calling to check up on them?

[random_axes]

Long time follower, first time poster.

I passed the Washington bar after not feeling terribly optimistic about the exam. I scored a 162 on the MBE, a pleasant surprise in light of how awful I felt in its immediate aftermath. By my count,
*I felt absolutely sure of the answer on about 70 questions,
*Narrowed it down to 2 answers (but felt confident that one answer was better than the other) on about 40,
*Was 50/50 on about 30,
*Felt very unconfident on about 40,
*Straight up guessed on about 20

For the record, I thought the MBE was much harder than the Barbri's practice sets/midterm/simulated final. And given the figures above, you can see why I wasn't exactly confident coming out of the testing center! To add to my anxiety, in the days following the exam I made the mistake of looking up the answers to about 10 of the questions that I could recall. I got 8 of them wrong.

Anyhow, in the days leading up to the bar results being posted, I frequently came to this thread. Comparing my own experience to those of others as detailed in the posts here often made me feel better about my own chances. I hope that my experience can do the same for others.

TL;DR: I was 50/50 or worse on almost half of the questions and still ended up passing the exam. I'm sure that many, many others will achieve the same in the coming days. Best of luck!

[ixwad]

Thanks for the post ^

Indiana results are available at 5:00 EST today.

[adonai]

Are these mbe scores people are posting the raw scores or scaled? Congrats to all who passed.

[clintone88]

These are scaled MBE scores. So far no one has reported receiving a raw score on this forum.

[lalala21]

Pass rates seem to be down. They are down in Washington and Idaho. Crap.

[AJS30]

Pass rates seem to be down. They are down in Washington and Idaho. Crap.

Where are you getting that info? I don't see anything on their sites regarding stats yet.

[silky bruh]

Pass rates seem to be down. They are down in Washington and Idaho. Crap.

This was addressed on the exact same page as your post. Calm down, it's out of your hands.

So is the average down or what? When is the first "big" state coming out?

Some states are down and some are up. New Mexico saw a 3% increase in its passing rate over last year, while West Virginia saw about a 4% increase. North Carolina had a lower passage rate overall, but a higher first time passage rate. Other states such as Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin had lower pass rates than last year. Idaho just released and had a significantly lower passage rate than last year (lowest since 2002). Other states have released results, but we have no data yet. There is simply not enough information available to say whether scores are down across the board. The average scores may be down, if some of these early states are indicators, but not every state may be affected the same way. We'll just have to wait it out for the next couple of months. I believe the first large state to release results is Florida on September 22.

[lalala21]

Pass rates seem to be down. They are down in Washington and Idaho. Crap.

Where are you getting that info? I don't see anything on their sites regarding stats yet.

Idaho the pass rate was listed at 65% right above the names of the applicants who passed. Past pass rates are listed here http://www.ncbex.org/publications/statistics/

Pass rates seem to be down. They are down in Washington and Idaho. Crap.

This was addressed on the exact same page as your post. Calm down, it's out of your hands.

So is the average down or what? When is the first "big" state coming out?

Some states are down and some are up. New Mexico saw a 3% increase in its passing rate over last year, while West Virginia saw about a 4% increase. North Carolina had a lower passage rate overall, but a higher first time passage rate. Other states such as Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin had lower pass rates than last year. Idaho just released and had a significantly lower passage rate than last year (lowest since 2002). Other states have released results, but we have no data yet. There is simply not enough information available to say whether scores are down across the board. The average scores may be down, if some of these early states are indicators, but not every state may be affected the same way. We'll just have to wait it out for the next couple of months. I believe the first large state to release results is Florida on September 22.

I know. I am just venting.

[OklahomasOK]

Long time follower, first time poster.

I passed the Washington bar after not feeling terribly optimistic about the exam. I scored a 162 on the MBE...TL;DR: I was 50/50 or worse on almost half of the questions and still ended up passing the exam. I'm sure that many, many others will achieve the same in the coming days. Best of luck!

This is how I felt. Very reassuring.

[clintone88]

Idaho the pass rate was listed at 65% right above the names of the applicants who passed. Washington they listed the number who passed and the number who took the exam so I did the math. Past pass rates are listed here http://www.ncbex.org/publications/statistics/

Where did you see WA? They have the winter results on their site, but as far as I can tell they have only released scores to individuals who took the test for summer. Results are not being made public until tomorrow morning.

Also, WA has only administered 2 UBE exams total, only one of which was a summer exam, so a deviation from the one previous exam hardly proves anything.

[lalala21]

Idaho the pass rate was listed at 65% right above the names of the applicants who passed. Past pass rates are listed here http://www.ncbex.org/publications/statistics/

Where did you see WA? They have the winter results on their site, but as far as I can tell they have only released scores to individuals who took the test for summer. Results are not being made public until tomorrow morning.

Also, WA has only administered 2 UBE exams total, only one of which was a summer exam, so a deviation from the one previous exam hardly proves anything.

Yeah my bad. I got them mixed up. Edited