NY Bar Feb Exam: Support Group Forum

[nyny]

I got the occasion to do a couple of questions on the kaplan Q bank MBE, holy shit they are way harder than the ones on Adaptibar

Has anyone else been able to make this comparison? It would make me feel a lot more confident if the Kaplan questions were harder than what I might see on the actual exam

Well, to be very precise about what I feel, I answered 2700 questions on Adaptibar and my average is like 73'ish.

Now i'm training with the Kaplan Q bank and holy shit it is hard as hell, facts patterns are very longs, 3 answers out of 4 look good etc etc. I just did a 50 questions and scored 48%, god.

I think i'm going to adaptibar, this shit is not good for the confidence.

Exactly, I would stick with Adaptibar right now because thats what you have been prepping with. The bar is a confidence exam, any cloud of doubt will kill your timing, which is already at a premium on the bar.

The exam is in a week right? If your timing and all of that is good right now, I would honestly stop doing questions and just review the ones I already have done.

Make sure you are really looking over the past NY essays from now, up until heading into the bar. This is very important... Get those essays down.

[Ineedhelpplease]

Essays are messing me up. I feel like I don't have enough knowledge to write an essay but my essay writing skills aren't so great. So I feel like on the day of the exam, I am going to be done writing after about 2 min.

This crap is so frustrating... bust your ass all this time - i don't know what I can manage to do with 7 days to go.

[NY_Sea]

Essays are messing me up. I feel like I don't have enough knowledge to write an essay but my essay writing skills aren't so great. So I feel like on the day of the exam, I am going to be done writing after about 2 min.

This crap is so frustrating... bust your ass all this time - i don't know what I can manage to do with 7 days to go.

I'm sure you know more than you're giving yourself credit for. I've been struggling literally my whole life with the sentiment you seem to have. I'm a perfectionist, and on top of that, not very forgiving of myself. So not only did I want to know every possible testing topic, but I wanted to be able to give it to you on command. It took a while for me to realize that's not going to happen. I've become much more calm, and ironically, much more successful in learning material once I cut myself some slack.

You're a law school graduate... You have the ability to get this down. I've been much happier and much more tolerable (ask my GF) since I've decided to cut myself some slack. Not only cut myself some slack, but have confidence and faith in my abilities. The unfortunate side effect that comes with being a perfectionist is a lack of self-confidence. You attach and have such ridiculous expectations, that you get upset with yourself when you don't achieve them.

You will be fine... Everyone has the feeling that you have, and they somehow write for 6 hours on the first day.

[starryski]

Essays are messing me up. I feel like I don't have enough knowledge to write an essay but my essay writing skills aren't so great. So I feel like on the day of the exam, I am going to be done writing after about 2 min.

This crap is so frustrating... bust your ass all this time - i don't know what I can manage to do with 7 days to go.

do you have mnemonics memorized? i also felt like you last time but i memorized a lot of mnemonics and they came in handy. once you plop the basic rules for everything possible everything starts coming back to you. even things you didn't think you'd remember. i failed, but got above avg in the essays and i truly feel that the mnemonics played a huge part in that. as well as reading past essays.

[iwantmybar]

On a side note I absolutely love the fight club from the NY board of examiners :
"Do NOT visit the examination site prior to the exam."

This is the first rule. What the actual fuck, I m not Georges Clooney and the Albany test center is not a casino Im not planning to commit a heist (or a burglary remember no dwelling element in Ny )

[Ineedhelpplease]

Essays are messing me up. I feel like I don't have enough knowledge to write an essay but my essay writing skills aren't so great. So I feel like on the day of the exam, I am going to be done writing after about 2 min.

This crap is so frustrating... bust your ass all this time - i don't know what I can manage to do with 7 days to go.

I'm sure you know more than you're giving yourself credit for. I've been struggling literally my whole life with the sentiment you seem to have. I'm a perfectionist, and on top of that, not very forgiving of myself. So not only did I want to know every possible testing topic, but I wanted to be able to give it to you on command. It took a while for me to realize that's not going to happen. I've become much more calm, and ironically, much more successful in learning material once I cut myself some slack.

You're a law school graduate... You have the ability to get this down. I've been much happier and much more tolerable (ask my GF) since I've decided to cut myself some slack. Not only cut myself some slack, but have confidence and faith in my abilities. The unfortunate side effect that comes with being a perfectionist is a lack of self-confidence. You attach and have such ridiculous expectations, that you get upset with yourself when you don't achieve them.

You will be fine... Everyone has the feeling that you have, and they somehow write for 6 hours on the first day.

Thanks for those words. Kind of hard to find people to get it sometimes.

[Ineedhelpplease]

Essays are messing me up. I feel like I don't have enough knowledge to write an essay but my essay writing skills aren't so great. So I feel like on the day of the exam, I am going to be done writing after about 2 min.

This crap is so frustrating... bust your ass all this time - i don't know what I can manage to do with 7 days to go.

do you have mnemonics memorized? i also felt like you last time but i memorized a lot of mnemonics and they came in handy. once you plop the basic rules for everything possible everything starts coming back to you. even things you didn't think you'd remember. i failed, but got above avg in the essays and i truly feel that the mnemonics played a huge part in that. as well as reading past essays.

Thanks for the advice. A friend offered me Pieper's mnemonics, I'll definitely take a look now.

[Carly12]

Hi guys, I have a silly question about wills. Do the spouse elective share rules also apply if the deceased died intestate?

Hope this helps,

Under the intestacy statute, for decedents dying partially or totally intestate,
• if the decedent is survived by a spouse and children, the surviving spouse receives $50,000 and one-half of the residue after nettng out debts, administration expenses, and funeral expenses.
• If the decedent is survived by a spouse and no children, the entire residue passes to the surviving spouse.
• If there is no surviving spouse, the children inherit the entire estate.

it applies only when a spouse dies with a will. it protects the living spouse from disinheritance. if the spouse died without a will then the living one isn't disinherited.

just looked at my notes
the right of election can be exercised by a surviving spouse regardless of whether the decdentd left a will

to determine it, the intestate estate is increased by the value of any non-probate assets passing upon the decedent's death; meaning any "testamentary substitutes" passing to anyone including those passing to the surviving spouse upon the testator's death.

If you guys are taking BarBri please look at § VII(A)(1)(a) in the Wills outline in the New York green book. It says in part "a surviving spouse's intestate share is always going to be larger than the elective share--unless the augmented estate includes substantial testamentary substitutes." <-- based upon that, it sounds like a spouse could opt for an elective share intestate but its an unlikely scenario. I can definitely imagine getting that scenario on a law school exam, but have a harder time seeing it on the bar based upon the essays we have written so far.

EDIT: Also look at pg 54 "The surviving spouse has a right of election even if the decedent left no will."

Thanks for your input and help guys - appreciated

[trustmouse83]

I'd just like to wish you all good luck.

I'll be retaking next year, so (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) I hope I never meet any of you.

Get after it!

[iwantmybar]

I'd just like to wish you all good luck.

I'll be retaking next year, so (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) I hope I never meet any of you.

Get after it!

Oh I thought you were retaking the bar this month as well?

[z0rk]

Silly logistical question that I am hoping someone who took a prior administration of the bar can answer: the security procedures state that we should leave our laptops in the test site on test day. Will we be submitting essays answer for the morning before leaving for lunch? Or do we just leave ExamSoft open but lock our screens?

[NY_Sea]

Silly logistical question that I am hoping someone who took a prior administration of the bar can answer: the security procedures state that we should leave our laptops in the test site on test day. Will we be submitting essays answer for the morning before leaving for lunch? Or do we just leave ExamSoft open but lock our screens?

So Examsoft cuts out the wifi (as you probably already know)... The way it works is that both the morning and afternoon answers save on your computer and then when you connect to wifi when you go home or get back to your hotel, the answer files upload. Be ready for people to freak out when they hear this on exam day...

[iwantmybar]

Silly logistical question that I am hoping someone who took a prior administration of the bar can answer: the security procedures state that we should leave our laptops in the test site on test day. Will we be submitting essays answer for the morning before leaving for lunch? Or do we just leave ExamSoft open but lock our screens?

So Examsoft cuts out the wifi (as you probably already know)... The way it works is that both the morning and afternoon answers save on your computer and then when you connect to wifi when you go home or get back to your hotel, the answer files upload. Be ready for people to freak out when they hear this on exam day...

Last july I was able to upload my essays at Javitz (wifi was available) but the signal was very weak, I was pretty lucky, the guy next took me asked me "how did you do that", I could tell he was very envious

[trustmouse83]

I'd just like to wish you all good luck.

I'll be retaking next year, so (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) I hope I never meet any of you.

Get after it!

Oh I thought you were retaking the bar this month as well?

No, having failed the NY bar 5 times over the years, i'm going to roll the dice with the UBE.
I know my weaknesses are essays and MPT, so I'm going to give myself the best part of a year to prepare. I have yet to decide if I'm shooting for Feb 2017, or July 2017. But it'll be one of them by the looks of things.

[iwantmybar]

Ok.

Best of luck then, i'm sure you will make it eventually.

[reasonable_man]

Good luck to those of you taking the last REAL NewYork bar exam. Anyone after this (taking the new watered down test) is half a lawyer in my estimation. Get it done!

[iwantmybar]

Hey,

Is there anything to eat something near the test center in Albany because i dont want to spend $40 for the lunch, it's way too expensive. Plus last time I saw what the food was, it's only worth $5 at most....

[NM7]

Does anyone get the feeling that Adaptibar's selection of questions gets harder as we inch closer to the exam? I haven't done all of them, though. Granted, I've been doing them with some Emanuel, Barmax and Barbri MPQs (and was doing fairly well on those) - but damn, Adaptibar is crushing my confidence at the worst possible time.

[NM7]

Hey,

Is there anything to eat something near the test center in Albany because i dont want to spend $40 for the lunch, it's way too expensive. Plus last time I saw what the food was, it's only worth $5 at most....

If you're taking it at Empire State Plaza, I believe there's a subway nearby (in the same block). There's also one next to the Hilton, all within walking distance. Tried and true beats cold questionable and unnecessarily expensive sandwiches.

[Ineedhelpplease]

Does anyone get the feeling that Adaptibar's selection of questions gets harder as we inch closer to the exam? I haven't done all of them, though. Granted, I've been doing them with some Emanuel, Barmax and Barbri MPQs (and was doing fairly well on those) - but damn, Adaptibar is crushing my confidence at the worst possible time.

I have gone through all of them - except for civil procedure (gave up on those) and don't think they have gotten worse. I know I missed abunch last week because I was stressed and tired, maybe its nothing more then that for you too.

[z0rk]

Another silly question, which I cannot seem to find a straightforward answer to: is there a limitation on how many times one can use the restroom during the exam? Any word on how the "restroom policy" is administered in Albany?

[iwantmybar]

Hey,

Is there anything to eat something near the test center in Albany because i dont want to spend $40 for the lunch, it's way too expensive. Plus last time I saw what the food was, it's only worth $5 at most....

If you're taking it at Empire State Plaza, I believe there's a subway nearby (in the same block). There's also one next to the Hilton, all within walking distance. Tried and true beats cold questionable and unnecessarily expensive sandwiches.

Thanks you, i'll bet at subway next, let's do a TLS meet up overthrew

[trustmouse83]

Another silly question, which I cannot seem to find a straightforward answer to: is there a limitation on how many times one can use the restroom during the exam? Any word on how the "restroom policy" is administered in Albany?

Put up hand or make eye contact with proctor assigned to the 20-30 or so people in your section.
Gesture towards bathroom or nod in that direction.
They come down and ask you to turn your paper over.
You leave.
There is a proctor posted outside the bathroom.
You nod to him, then enter bathroom.
2 or 3 years ago they came into the bathrooms and hung around the sinks, nowadays they stay outside.
Wash your damn hands.
Return to seat.

No limit, that I know of, for bathroom visits.

[iwantmybar]

Hahahah yeah I forgot about that, you had to raise your right hand with only the thumb or some shit like that, there is a special toilets password sign

[iwantmybar]

Did you guys study for Admin law?

Do you think it is going to be tested?