Texas Saloon- Feb. 2016 Texas Bar Forum

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

To those re-taking BARBRI and that are mainly using your July 2015 notes to study:

I was just looking at Family Law and obviously there's some changes there with respect to the same-sex marriage decision that happened last summer. It was too early to test it for those July 2015 essays but I guess it's fair game now.
Anyway, my question is: Have y'all found any other topics in looking at the July 2015 lecture handouts/notes/outlines/flashcards that are different for February 2016?

I noticed that the property lecture covered mechanic's and materialmen's liens this time, because of that nasty curveball of an essay in July. The only big differences I've noticed are some lectures telling us that X was tested in July. Oh and there was something new for Trusts based on a new law from the latest legislative session. Other than that I havent seen much new law.

[BVest]

I noticed that the property lecture covered mechanic's and materialmen's liens this time, because of that nasty curveball of an essay in July. The only big differences I've noticed are some lectures telling us that X was tested in July. Oh and there was something new for Trusts based on a new law from the latest legislative session. Other than that I havent seen much new law.

That's funny. Especially since the odds of them testing it again this soon are really low.

[left shark]

That's funny. Especially since the odds of them testing it again this soon are really low.

Famous last words.....


That essay ruined my life and if they pull that nonsense again I will get up and run screaming from the testing room.

[texasbar]

To those re-taking BARBRI and that are mainly using your July 2015 notes to study:

I was just looking at Family Law and obviously there's some changes there with respect to the same-sex marriage decision that happened last summer. It was too early to test it for those July 2015 essays but I guess it's fair game now.
Anyway, my question is: Have y'all found any other topics in looking at the July 2015 lecture handouts/notes/outlines/flashcards that are different for February 2016?

Barbri posted replacement family law And guardianship CMR outlines.

[texasbar]

Does Barbri intentionally hard-grade you on the graded essays? My essay from last week got "slightly below passing" but I looked at a selected answer on the BLE website and that answer was less complete than the one I wrote.

I noticed that Barbri graded my essays way harder than the graders for the exam did.

[bluesplitter]

I have a question for the retakers:

What is a target score in your opinion for an essay?

What is the absolute lowest average do you think you can get and still be ok if you have an average MBE score?

Or asked another way,

What do you think did you in on the essays in July?

[longhornlaw]

Jesus H. Christ some of these Kaplan videos are way outdated. The lecturer in Secured Transactions is talking about Wade Phillips being the Cowboys coach.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

I have a question for the retakers:

What is a target score in your opinion for an essay?

I think 17/25 should be good.

What is the absolute lowest average do you think you can get and still be ok if you have an average MBE score?

Or asked another way,

What do you think did you in on the essays in July?

So, average MBE in July was like 138... so I'd say no lower than 131 on essays.

I did well on the AM essays in July, but screwed up some PM ones (ironically, I happened to do well on that property question... no idea how). I missed the rule compeltely in the Secured essay, but after thinking about it, I didn't do a good job making up a rule and applying the law to the facts. I just BS-d it too much. But, still got above passing on the essays overall.

[jamescastle]

Got my informal review response for my July 2015 failure.
It's pretty thorough and addresses what I missed on each question. Haven't really gone through it completely yet to see how helpful it is but it clearly shows two things: 1) they didn't just send a form letter; and 2) they re-read through my essays to know where I points and where I didn't.

@left shark: Hope your review is more helpful than you were anticipating.

[BVest]

Glad to hear it was detailed. Hopefully it will be helpful too. (as in hopefully it's applicable across questions as opposed to just limited to what was missed from each question).

[left shark]

Got my informal review response for my July 2015 failure.
It's pretty thorough and addresses what I missed on each question. Haven't really gone through it completely yet to see how helpful it is but it clearly shows two things: 1) they didn't just send a form letter; and 2) they re-read through my essays to know where I points and where I didn't.

@left shark: Hope your review is more helpful than you were anticipating.

I was just coming here to tell you guys I'd gotten it- haven't read through it yet, but your impression of it makes me feel better! Though I can't lie, seeing it in my inbox made my heart skip a beat. Studying has not been going my way (like, did I even go to law school? how come I don't know anything?!) so re-living July could either be really helpful or send me to a ledge somewhere.

[jamescastle]

Got my informal review response for my July 2015 failure.
It's pretty thorough and addresses what I missed on each question. Haven't really gone through it completely yet to see how helpful it is but it clearly shows two things: 1) they didn't just send a form letter; and 2) they re-read through my essays to know where I points and where I didn't.

@left shark: Hope your review is more helpful than you were anticipating.

I was just coming here to tell you guys I'd gotten it- haven't read through it yet, but your impression of it makes me feel better! Though I can't lie, seeing it in my inbox made my heart skip a beat. Studying has not been going my way (like, did I even go to law school? how come I don't know anything?!) so re-living July could either be really helpful or send me to a ledge somewhere.

Most of my request was on my low MPT score which was not part of the informal review in the email. I went to the office and talked to them (mostly because emails and phone conversations have left something to be desired in the past and because it isn't that hard considering where I live in Austin). Apparently MPT informal review meant to go out with that email but it hadn't yet as of when I was there this afternoon. I don't know if you got it in a separate email or what later. I haven't but I don't know if they didn't send it to me because I talked to them (which would be odd; my guess is we all get it tomorrow). But it's a helpful sheet as well that shows you what you missed.

[left shark]

Got my informal review response for my July 2015 failure.
It's pretty thorough and addresses what I missed on each question. Haven't really gone through it completely yet to see how helpful it is but it clearly shows two things: 1) they didn't just send a form letter; and 2) they re-read through my essays to know where I points and where I didn't.

@left shark: Hope your review is more helpful than you were anticipating.

I was just coming here to tell you guys I'd gotten it- haven't read through it yet, but your impression of it makes me feel better! Though I can't lie, seeing it in my inbox made my heart skip a beat. Studying has not been going my way (like, did I even go to law school? how come I don't know anything?!) so re-living July could either be really helpful or send me to a ledge somewhere.

Most of my request was on my low MPT score which was not part of the informal review in the email. I went to the office and talked to them (mostly because emails and phone conversations have left something to be desired in the past and because it isn't that hard considering where I live in Austin). Apparently MPT informal review meant to go out with that email but it hadn't yet as of when I was there this afternoon. I don't know if you got it in a separate email or what later. I haven't but I don't know if they didn't send it to me because I talked to them (which would be odd; my guess is we all get it tomorrow). But it's a helpful sheet as well that shows you what you missed.

I didn't get mine either. If it is anything like the review we got today then that will be helpful. I finally went through the essay review and while it was painful (UCC comment: "You must know the law!") I'm glad to see my errors and a few positive comments.

[DueProcessDoWheelies]

Anyone have any predictions as to whether we'll get a trusts or guardianship question? In July we had trusts. Hoping for guardianship- less info to memorize.

[left shark]

Anyone have any predictions as to whether we'll get a trusts or guardianship question? In July we had trusts. Hoping for guardianship- less info to memorize.

On the one hand, I think they will probably do trusts since the did guardianship last February. But then I think that they know we probably think that, so they'll give us a guardianship. But then, maybe they would expect us to guess that they'd be sneaky, so they'll just do trusts. But then the curve ball will be a combo DTPA/TDCA question that also requires knowledge of the Lemon Law, the Credit Services Organizations Act, and the Insurance Code.

Crossing my fingers so much for guardianship. I did well on the trusts question last year, but I like guardianship and I feel more comfortable with it.

[Lemon Lyman]

Checking in for Round 2. Started studying full-time a week ago, I've got a lot of ground to make up.

Anyone doing themis?

[tealeaf23]

Anyone have any predictions as to whether we'll get a trusts or guardianship question? In July we had trusts. Hoping for guardianship- less info to memorize.

I'm feeling guardianship for some reason. They'll probably think they're being sneaky since they did a guardianship essay in July and it seems like a total BLE move.

[BVest]

Anyone have any predictions as to whether we'll get a trusts or guardianship question? In July we had trusts. Hoping for guardianship- less info to memorize.

I'm feeling guardianship for some reason. They'll probably think they're being sneaky since they did a guardianship essay in July and it seems like a total BLE move.

They did trusts in July. (Red trust and Blue trust I think. One was a real trust and one was funded by and for the benefit of the same person.)

[bluesplitter]

Wow, so much information to cover.


I have a question,...if one can get a 150 on the MBE, and get atleast half the points on the short answer and MPT, what do ya'll think will be the absolute lowest average score for all 12 essays.


I personally think, i can get away with a 10 on each and still be within striking distance.

[BVest]

Wow, so much information to cover.


I have a question,...if one can get a 150 on the MBE, and get atleast half the points on the short answer and MPT, what do ya'll think will be the absolute lowest average score for all 12 essays.


I personally think, i can get away with a 10 on each and still be within striking distance.

It's hard to say:

[bluesplitter]

Wow, so much information to cover.


I have a question,...if one can get a 150 on the MBE, and get atleast half the points on the short answer and MPT, what do ya'll think will be the absolute lowest average score for all 12 essays.


I personally think, i can get away with a 10 on each and still be within striking distance.

It's hard to say:

Wow, thanks for the feedback.


I am no math wizz...but based on what you posted, the test is basically won or lost within the beast that is the MBE. The supermajority of the points is based on and measured against the performance of the MBE.

Good thing i spent the better part of two months on it!.

I wonder what is the highest MBE score someone has received and failed. Is that info even out there?

[left shark]

Checking in for Round 2. Started studying full-time a week ago, I've got a lot of ground to make up.

Anyone doing themis?

Themis here. (there's also a themis thread, if you want to talk about how great the property lecturer was or how difficult it was to get through the evidence lecture or how completely random the practice MPT was.....)


What's your game plan? I have been trudging through since December and I am only at 42%. I hate feeling like it's time to triage, but there is still so much stuff left to do.

[BVest]

Wow, so much information to cover.


I have a question,...if one can get a 150 on the MBE, and get atleast half the points on the short answer and MPT, what do ya'll think will be the absolute lowest average score for all 12 essays.


I personally think, i can get away with a 10 on each and still be within striking distance.

It's hard to say:

Wow, thanks for the feedback.


I am no math wizz...but based on what you posted, the test is basically won or lost within the beast that is the MBE. The supermajority of the points is based on and measured against the performance of the MBE.

Good thing i spent the better part of two months on it!.

I wonder what is the highest MBE score someone has received and failed. Is that info even out there?

What that says is everything is scaled to the overall MBE scale. So if the Mean MBE score for Texas is 140.5, and the standard deviation is 16.5, then the final median scaled score for the essays will be 140.5 with a standard deviation of 16.5 as well. Ditto for the scaled scores on the MPT and Proc exams.

Essay raw scores go through two levels of scaling before they get to their final scaled score. Thus, the reason it's hard to tell is that when your essays are graded, they're graded on a raw 1-25 scale, then for each question, they take all those raw scores and redistribute them on a 100-point-mean scale with a 10-point SD (we'll call this intermediate scaling), then each person's 12-question total based on their 100-point-mean scale will then be placed on a distribution that matches the MBE distribution. Assuming the mean 100-point-mean scale total is 1200, then a person with a 1200 intermediate scaled essay score would get a 140.5 final scaled essay score. (Edited. thanks for the assist, ninja-editing lurker)

[tealeaf23]

Anyone have any predictions as to whether we'll get a trusts or guardianship question? In July we had trusts. Hoping for guardianship- less info to memorize.

I'm feeling guardianship for some reason. They'll probably think they're being sneaky since they did a guardianship essay in July and it seems like a total BLE move.

They did trusts in July. (Red trust and Blue trust I think. One was a real trust and one was funded by and for the benefit of the same person.)

It is truly amazing how much I have repressed that experience.

[bluesplitter]

Wow, so much information to cover.


I have a question,...if one can get a 150 on the MBE, and get atleast half the points on the short answer and MPT, what do ya'll think will be the absolute lowest average score for all 12 essays.


I personally think, i can get away with a 10 on each and still be within striking distance.

BVest, you seem knowledgeable on many issues taking the bar exam.

I have a question, since i presume you are in Austin, how do you think the laptop charger situation is going to work ?

My laptop will last a solid 3 hours on a charge, but what about afternoon? How do people do it. And is the convention center in Austin going to be an issue, or are there things to plan for?

thanks!