NY July 2015 Support Group Forum

[imalreadyamember?]

At what point are we allowed to talk openly about essay questions? Do they release the questions and the model answers when they release the test results?

If the exams and their answers ever get released, you can discuss them then. Until that point, stop discussing questions and answers here.

Toldju guise gosh

[nyny]

The wait continues folks, enjoy your weekends, and the results will be out next week more than likely, based on last years release.

[victortsoi]

Looking at the seperac calculator, it ends at 60. How impossible is it to get over a 60? I assume there are scores up to 99. Am I wrong?

[AReasonableMan]

You're assuming that they didn't lay off graders or reduce their budget in response to there being less test takers. But I knew almost no law and am probably going to have to take it again, which is embarrassing considering an LSAT tutor I worked with also barely studied and got a 186 MBE.

[Nybar2015]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

[imalreadyamember?]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

Well luckily for you, they almost always seem to do Wed/Fri :/

Last year it was a Tuesday. Let's hope they go with Monday anyway.

[Fedlife]

Okay, essays -- without getting too into the particulars. Here's one thing that's been bothering me: on essay 1, sub-question 1, did you reach different conclusions for the two plots of land? With the exception of timing, I thought the analysis was essentially the same for both plots, but if that's actually the case, I don't know why they would have asked us about each separately.

Nope, they weren't...

I have to disagree, they seemed pretty damn similar vis-a-vis adverse possession analysis. FWIW, I said he had claim to both.

There was a very tiny, very obscure ny distinction that made the conclusion different. I forget what it was at this point but I know that I made quite a few of those kinds of errors on the exam. How hard is it to get a 55 on the essays, really?

Shit. Didn't even know that. I think I gave an incomplete rule statement for the first DR issue, completely forgot the NY distinction on the torts question and screwed up the rest of the questions on that essay besides the last one, and botched the con law + crim aspects of the admin question. Of course I messed up minor things across all the essays. How screwed am I?

Well DR/family law is usually always tested on the NY bar, either matrimonial or some child custody issue...Admin law I skimmed it briefly, but I hope the con law analysis will be somewhat acceptable, probably not the full amount of points for an admin law analysis. I thought the crim law question was fairly straight forward, but I've spoken to some friends of mine who tried to do an in depth crim law analysis to make up for the lost points from the admin law question. I feel like the MPT probably could have saved if you had enough time for it...

[Fedlife]

You're assuming that they didn't lay off graders or reduce their budget in response to there being less test takers. But I knew almost no law and am probably going to have to take it again, which is embarrassing considering an LSAT tutor I worked with also barely studied and got a 186 MBE.

Those LSAT tutors are like naturals...I paid for one through Princeton review, back when I used to make good money doing banking in NY. Looking back at it, I probably should have gotten my MBA. At least I wouldn't have to deal with this Bar exam nonsense...

[Fedlife]

Looking at the seperac calculator, it ends at 60. How impossible is it to get over a 60? I assume there are scores up to 99. Am I wrong?

I think 60 is the highest although I may be mistaken, that means you probably hit legend status on that essay. Anything in the high 50's is considered above average.

However I do have 99 problems and a NY essay is one...

[Fedlife]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

If I wake up to a fail email from BOLE on a Monday morning i will literally call out for the rest of the week...not like anyone at the Fed will care as most barely come to work as it is...but I digress

[victortsoi]

Looking at the seperac calculator, it ends at 60. How impossible is it to get over a 60? I assume there are scores up to 99. Am I wrong?

I think 60 is the highest although I may be mistaken, that means you probably hit legend status on that essay. Anything in the high 50's is considered above average.

However I do have 99 problems and a NY essay is one...

Please clarify this for me- isn't the average 52?

[BarTaker]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

If I wake up to a fail email from BOLE on a Monday morning i will literally call out for the rest of the week...not like anyone at the Fed will care as most barely come to work as it is...but I digress

If I wake up to a fail email, I'll ban and unsubscribe all CLE advertising emails forever!

[Fedlife]

Looking at the seperac calculator, it ends at 60. How impossible is it to get over a 60? I assume there are scores up to 99. Am I wrong?

I think 60 is the highest although I may be mistaken, that means you probably hit legend status on that essay. Anything in the high 50's is considered above average.

However I do have 99 problems and a NY essay is one...

Please clarify this for me- isn't the average 52?

The average essay score is around 50...anything in high 50's is above average...but 50 is still considered a good score, they say in bar prep you should aim for 50 and above on your essays and around 140 and on the MBE for a passing score...I hope this helps

[Fedlife]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

If I wake up to a fail email from BOLE on a Monday morning i will literally call out for the rest of the week...not like anyone at the Fed will care as most barely come to work as it is...but I digress

If I wake up to a fail email, I'll ban and unsubscribe all CLE advertising emails forever!

But you won't...you will wake up to a hot guy/girl making you Starbucks medium roast coffee while butt naked in your kitchen as you open that pass email like a boss...

[nyny]

Yea pretty much because most takers score from 45-55 on a given essay, the goal is to score high enough on the mbe to make getting a question wrong on essays less of a burden...

[BarTaker]

There will be a full moon in Taurus for October 27, 2015...

"The theme of the October 12, 2015 new moon was excited anticipation of coming success and happiness. A well placed Neptune in the October 2015 full moon astrology chart represents fulfillment of our dreams over the past two weeks...

Of much stronger influence is the triple conjunction, which includes Venus conjunct Mars, Venus conjunct Jupiter and Mars conjunct Jupiter. This is an omen of happiness and success in achieving our hearts desires. It brings good luck in love, money, in fact anything we care about. This is an ideal alignment for the birth of something truly wonderful..." (Source: http://astrologyking.com/full-moon-october-2015/)

Well, maybe we are going to receive very good news for all!

[BarTaker]

It's going to be Monday now..what a great beginning..

If I wake up to a fail email from BOLE on a Monday morning i will literally call out for the rest of the week...not like anyone at the Fed will care as most barely come to work as it is...but I digress

If I wake up to a fail email, I'll ban and unsubscribe all CLE advertising emails forever!

But you won't...you will wake up to a hot guy/girl making you Starbucks medium roast coffee while butt naked in your kitchen as you open that pass email like a boss...

[Fedlife]

Yea pretty much because most takers score from 45-55 on a given essay, the goal is to score high enough on the mbe to make getting a question wrong on essays less of a burden...

According to the seperac Feb 2015 bar calculator a written average of 55 translates into about a 705 common scaled score which is very good...you could probably still barely pass with an mbe of about 125 assuming about half of your NYMC answers are correct...but then again the time it took to complete NYMC wasn't worth the 10% IMO compared to the points you can grab focusing on the essays...

[lspa2015]

Yea pretty much because most takers score from 45-55 on a given essay, the goal is to score high enough on the mbe to make getting a question wrong on essays less of a burden...

According to the seperac Feb 2015 bar calculator a written average of 55 translates into about a 705 common scaled score which is very good...you could probably still barely pass with an mbe of about 125 assuming about half of your NYMC answers are correct...but then again the time it took to complete NYMC wasn't worth the 10% IMO compared to the points you can grab focusing on the essays...

You don't want to use a February Seperac calculator as July numbers are very different. For example, that same 55 for July 2014 translates to a 754 common scaled score. Anyway, for what it's worth, from a 2006 study of the NY Bar (http://www.nybarexam.org/press/ncberep.pdf) that was based on the July 2005 test:

Mean male essay score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 724.12
Mean female essay score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 734.08
Mean male MBE score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 148
Mean female MBE score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 142.6

The report also had similar info for repeat test takers, as well as breakdowns by ethnic classes. I'm not sure if it had data for test takers educated outside the US. While scores have generally gone down since 2006, the data is probably a decent barometer of average scores. If you want, you can use the Seperac calculator to figure out how the mean essay numbers translate to the actual essay score.

[sd5289]

I received that email from the 2nd dept over a month ago. So now what?

the one you got, was it the instructions with what to do (all the paper work and such) or email with the log in name and password for the videos?

The email contained both paper work, instructions, and login to view the ethical videos. The login was "ad2op." The exact date I recieved it was August 20, 2015. It was sent from administration@nys....

Adding on that I also got this email...way back in August while I was still in Europe. I don't think timing really matters here as there's no way our stuff was graded at that point.

ETA: as to the horoscope discussion (Virgo here), this is mine for tomorrow. Weirdly relevant:

The conflicts or challenges that are going on in your life right now may be making it tough for you to stay smiling all day long, but are they really all that bad? Give them another look, and you just might see a silver lining in all those clouds. Be open-minded about the fact that things happen for a reason -- and you will know what the reason is soon enough. Good friends offer words of encouragement that can help put things in perspective and keep you chugging along.

[sharklet]

this is so stupid but i have to ask

to the people receiving CLE emails from rossdale, what bar prep did you use?

Themis, and they go to my spam folder.

Is anyone who's 100% out-of-state (Third Dept., non-NY work and home addresses) getting these emails?

I'm in the UK, 3rd Department, and not getting any of these e-mails, or mail.

[trustmouse83]

Same here.

[Green Glass Windows]

this is so stupid but i have to ask

to the people receiving CLE emails from rossdale, what bar prep did you use?

Themis, and they go to my spam folder.

Is anyone who's 100% out-of-state (Third Dept., non-NY work and home addresses) getting these emails?

I'm in the UK, 3rd Department, and not getting any of these e-mails, or mail.

Same. To all of that. Maybe they just hate people in the UK. Figures.

[Fedlife]

Yea pretty much because most takers score from 45-55 on a given essay, the goal is to score high enough on the mbe to make getting a question wrong on essays less of a burden...

According to the seperac Feb 2015 bar calculator a written average of 55 translates into about a 705 common scaled score which is very good...you could probably still barely pass with an mbe of about 125 assuming about half of your NYMC answers are correct...but then again the time it took to complete NYMC wasn't worth the 10% IMO compared to the points you can grab focusing on the essays...

You don't want to use a February Seperac calculator as July numbers are very different. For example, that same 55 for July 2014 translates to a 754 common scaled score. Anyway, for what it's worth, from a 2006 study of the NY Bar (http://www.nybarexam.org/press/ncberep.pdf) that was based on the July 2005 test:

Mean male essay score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 724.12
Mean female essay score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 734.08
Mean male MBE score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 148
Mean female MBE score for first time male takers, domestically educated - 142.6

The report also had similar info for repeat test takers, as well as breakdowns by ethnic classes. I'm not sure if it had data for test takers educated outside the US. While scores have generally gone down since 2006, the data is probably a decent barometer of average scores. If you want, you can use the Seperac calculator to figure out how the mean essay numbers translate to the actual essay score.

Makes sense that men would score better on the MBE since they tend to be more decisive. JK women run the world "Hillary 2016!"

[thesteelers]

This wait is agony.

I don't even know what to do with myself.