July 2015 MBE Scores/Results Forum

[hawks12]

Looks like WA really went up from last July for first time, ABA-JD exam takers: it went from 79.8% in July 2014 to 81.5% in July 2015.

LLMs and repeaters were crushed: 40% pass rates.

Where are you finding those stats? I've been checking the WSBA "Bar Exam Results and Admission" page and when I click on "Bar Exam Statistics" I'm still seeing Winter 2015. I'd love to see what you were able to find!

[Outis Onoma]

Looks like WA really went up from last July for first time, ABA-JD exam takers: it went from 79.8% in July 2014 to 81.5% in July 2015.

LLMs and repeaters were crushed: 40% pass rates.

Where are you finding those stats? I've been checking the WSBA "Bar Exam Results and Admission" page and when I click on "Bar Exam Statistics" I'm still seeing Winter 2015. I'd love to see what you were able to find!

I used google. WSBA remove the links on their website, but leave the files online.
July 2015: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/Licen ... Stats.ashx

July 2014: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/News_ ... 00914.ashx

[hawks12]

Looks like WA really went up from last July for first time, ABA-JD exam takers: it went from 79.8% in July 2014 to 81.5% in July 2015.

LLMs and repeaters were crushed: 40% pass rates.

Where are you finding those stats? I've been checking the WSBA "Bar Exam Results and Admission" page and when I click on "Bar Exam Statistics" I'm still seeing Winter 2015. I'd love to see what you were able to find!

I used google. WSBA remove the links on their website, but leave the files online.
July 2015: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/Licen ... Stats.ashx

July 2014: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/News_ ... 00914.ashx

The one you have labeled as July 2015 links to Winter 2015. It's dated April 11, 2015.

[Outis Onoma]

Looks like WA really went up from last July for first time, ABA-JD exam takers: it went from 79.8% in July 2014 to 81.5% in July 2015.

LLMs and repeaters were crushed: 40% pass rates.

Where are you finding those stats? I've been checking the WSBA "Bar Exam Results and Admission" page and when I click on "Bar Exam Statistics" I'm still seeing Winter 2015. I'd love to see what you were able to find!

I used google. WSBA remove the links on their website, but leave the files online.
July 2015: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/Licen ... Stats.ashx

July 2014: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/News_ ... 00914.ashx

The one you have labeled as July 2015 links to Winter 2015. It's dated April 11, 2015.

Weird, when I follow the links they take me to the correct files: July 2015 --> Summer 2015 results. July 2014 --> Summer 2014 results.

[ryan05]

State: NM. MBE Score: 154. Felt awful after MBE. Was pressed for time, had to hustle just to keep up. Had a lot of Ds like everyone else. Self study using about 800 Kaplan questions from 2009, 200 Barbri questions from 2012 and reading over the 2012 Barbri Conviser about 8 times. Did not create my own outlines. Took 4 of the NCBE online sample exams that you pay $50 each for. Scored in the mid 150s on each online NCBE sample exam. So actual performance was almost exactly what NCBE sample exams predicted. The difference was that after each sample NCBE Exam, I felt good and had 30 min to spare. On the actual MBE (AM and PM), no time to spare and felt like I did much worse.

[hawks12]

Looks like WA really went up from last July for first time, ABA-JD exam takers: it went from 79.8% in July 2014 to 81.5% in July 2015.

LLMs and repeaters were crushed: 40% pass rates.

Where are you finding those stats? I've been checking the WSBA "Bar Exam Results and Admission" page and when I click on "Bar Exam Statistics" I'm still seeing Winter 2015. I'd love to see what you were able to find!

I used google. WSBA remove the links on their website, but leave the files online.
July 2015: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/Licen ... Stats.ashx

July 2014: http://www.wsba.org/~/media/Files/News_ ... 00914.ashx

The one you have labeled as July 2015 links to Winter 2015. It's dated April 11, 2015.

Weird, when I follow the links they take me to the correct files: July 2015 --> Summer 2015 results. July 2014 --> Summer 2014 results.

HUH! Okay. So when I Googled "'July 2015' WSBA results" the link came up. When I clicked it without doing anything, it took me back to Winter 2015. When I click the drop down menu and click "cashed," I can access the new stats. I don't know why it's still linking me to the Winter 2015 results when I click that link, but whatever. Got it to work. Thanks!

[uganik]

I was left with 45 minutes to spare on each section, but felt like the test was a foreign animal compared to the 3,000+ Kaplan MBE questions taken and fully reviewed. I did go back and review upwards of 20 on each section of the actual Bar, and thus did not put down my pencil until time was called.

But my Bar results wont post until the end of October -- at best. And I changed an answer toward the end of the second section, only to realize at the start of my five hour journey home that I changed it from right to wrong, which made the journey home somewhat maddening.

Cheers to all who prevail and my sympathies to those that don't -- this time around.


My thanks to Robinhood for keeping us all in the loop!

[afangel804]

Checking in from Indiana and by the grace of God, I passed. We do not receive any sort of score with our result in Indiana but curiosity got the best of me and I ordered my MBE score, which was a 145.

In IN, MBE is 50%, IN essays are 30%, and MPTs are 20%. I did BarBri and completed ~90% of the assignments because I did not perform very well in law school and wanted to be confident for the test (although I definitely did not feel too confident walking out of the MBE). I did about 1100 practice MBE questions and got a 120/200 on the final practice test I did though BarBri. I don't remember my midterm, but it was around the same score as the final.

I felt really confident after the MPT and Indiana essay testing and totally shitty after the MBE. For what it's worth, I did have the odd string of D's in the AM session--maybe 7 in a row was the longest and more scattered about. Good luck to all those still waiting!

[uganik]

I was really taken back by the MBE, as I expected the similarity of Kaplan questions to actual Bar questions to be as similar as the MPRE Kaplan/Barbri study questions were to the actual MPRE. I rocked the MPRE first time around with a 124. Thus, I felt a lot of confidence in my decision to put many of my basket's eggs into MBE preparation. So to experience a great disparity, rather than similarity, in the actual MBE questions was indeed shocking as well as frustrating.

Nonetheless, Kaplan probably did its job, as others putting in serious preparation time with them appeared to have done quite well.

[july2015bartaker]

Thanks robinhoodOO for starting this thread.

I have not yet received my results, but I'm wondering if anyone who has posted theirs thus far could comment on whether they had trouble finishing either the AM or PM MBE sessions. I think I read one or two other posts that discussed timing, but I've been panicking because I never had a problem with timing during my preparation, but on the actual MBE I did not finish the AM session. I rushed through probably about the last 20 questions and ended up leaving about five answers blank. I did finish the PM session with a few minutes to spare though.

[robinhoodOO]

Thanks robinhoodOO for starting this thread.

I have not yet received my results, but I'm wondering if anyone who has posted theirs thus far could comment on whether they had trouble finishing either the AM or PM MBE sessions. I think I read one or two other posts that discussed timing, but I've been panicking because I never had a problem with timing during my preparation, but on the actual MBE I did not finish the AM session. I rushed through probably about the last 20 questions and ended up leaving about five answers blank. I did finish the PM session with a few minutes to spare though.

No problem! I just hope the thread and information is useful while people wait

Also, I haven't included a great deal of reported information in the spreadsheet just because of the sheer volume. Among the feedback I haven't incorporated is that many people reported not finishing on time (AM more so than PM), or having to rush through 10-20 Q's in the last 10-15 minutes.

Without reviewing all of the PM's, I would say 5-8 people reported either not finishing or finishing after having to rush through multiple questions and guess in the last 10 minutes.

[robinhoodOO]

I was really taken back by the MBE, as I expected the similarity of Kaplan questions to actual Bar questions to be as similar as the MPRE Kaplan/Barbri study questions were to the actual MPRE. I rocked the MPRE first time around with a 124. Thus, I felt a lot of confidence in my decision to put many of my basket's eggs into MBE preparation. So to experience a great disparity, rather than similarity, in the actual MBE questions was indeed shocking as well as frustrating.

Nonetheless, Kaplan probably did its job, as others putting in serious preparation time with them appeared to have done quite well.

I took Kap too. So far, Fromm's "add 20 to your scaled MBE score" feedback is on point. That said, I felt just as horrible about the AM section as most are reporting. It sucks having that beaten down feeling about something you studied for months. The feedback, however, is helping pass the time and seems encouraging

*Update: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

[osbarca]

Finally got around to updating the spreadsheet after the weekend. Here you go (32 reporting): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Also, for those who passed but don't want your username public, feel free to PM me the information. I'll be sure to keep everything anonymous. The more, the better Also, if I've erred in anything reported, please contact me ASAP to correct/update the information.

To summarize some bullet points:

The Good: Scaled MBE Scores are coming in at approximately 20+ points as to what takers had on their Midterm/Finals with Bar Prep courses. Again, this is in line with what Kaplan's Chris Fromm estimated.

The Bad: CBX takers still have 67 days of waiting.

The Ugly: Initial statistics are that a many pass rates are down year-over-year in several states (at least including WA, IA, WI, NM & NC).

Also, it's safe to say that a vast majority of people felt like shit after taking the MBE and most of them have passed. I think 2 people reported actually feeling good or normal afterwards, and they got ungodly scores and were scoring in the top of their respective bar course's programs.

One error here. Iowa's pass rate went up compared to last year. We had a 91% pass rate for first-time takers compared to 82% last year.

91%???? I'd like my odds in that state.

[Fleetoffoot4]

Thanks robinhoodOO for starting this thread.

I have not yet received my results, but I'm wondering if anyone who has posted theirs thus far could comment on whether they had trouble finishing either the AM or PM MBE sessions. I think I read one or two other posts that discussed timing, but I've been panicking because I never had a problem with timing during my preparation, but on the actual MBE I did not finish the AM session. I rushed through probably about the last 20 questions and ended up leaving about five answers blank. I did finish the PM session with a few minutes to spare though.

I am also still waiting, and had an equally stressful experience with the MBE overall. As many have reported, felt like I was REALLY guessing on a significant number of questions during the AM session, and I had 20-25 questions to rush through in 10 minutes at the end of AM. With seconds to spare, I had to blindly bubble the last 5. Though the PM session felt much better by comparison, I still felt less prepared than I did during my Kaplan midterm and final, and had to rush through about 5 questions in about 2 minutes at the end of PM. On the whole, I felt like I failed the MBE walking out at the end of the day.

Hope that provides some comfort. Definitely calms the nerves a bit hearing that some TLSrs had a similar experience… strength in number (hopefully). Crossing my fingers for everyone still waiting for results!

[uganik]

Yeh. I felt pretty demoralized by the a.m. session as well. For instance, after circling question #7 in order to return to it later, I realized it was the third one circled out of those same 7 questions, which generated an immediate anxiety spike (surely no one on this forum knows what that is like ). However, it's clear from the feedback received that they reversed the sections for many, leaving the hardest section for the p.m. session of others. Statistically, I wonder what the outcome difference is among testtakers when comparing each respective group. It's my guess that those presented with the hardest section early on experienced more anxiety and shock -- as this section greatly depleted the confidence derived from a sense of familiarity. Conversely, those presented with the more difficult section in the p.m. likely did poorly as a result of fatigue. Thus, the adverse consequences related to the more difficult section among these two groups (and there's evidence of other group sections where the more difficult and easy questions were mixed) could be a wash. Although, in spite of my expected bias, I think the lion's share of adversity was experienced by those dealt the most difficult hand first.

"Give me the bad news first" may be an adage embraced by some, but under those circumstances there is freedom of choice. Here, there was none.

I just wish I hadn't changed that D -- residing in the middle of a long row of the same -- into a B

[osbarca]

Yeh. I felt pretty demoralized by the a.m. session as well. For instance, after circling question #7 in order to return to it later, I realized it was the third one circled out of those same 7 questions, which generated an immediate anxiety spike (surely no one on this forum knows what that is like ). However, it's clear from the feedback received that they reversed the sections for many, leaving the hardest section for the p.m. session of others. Statistically, I wonder what the outcome difference is among testtakers when comparing each respective group. It's my guess that those presented with the hardest section early on experienced more anxiety and shock -- as this section greatly depleted the confidence derived from a sense of familiarity. Conversely, those presented with the more difficult section in the p.m. likely did poorly as a result of fatigue. Thus, the adverse consequences related to the more difficult section among these two groups (and there's evidence of other group sections where the more difficult and easy questions were mixed) could be a wash. Although, in spite of my expected bias, I think the lion's share of adversity was experienced by those dealt the most difficult hand first.

"Give me the bad news first" may be an adage embraced by some, but under those circumstances there is freedom of choice. Here, there was none.

I just wish I hadn't changed that D -- residing in the middle of a long row of the same -- into a B

The a.m. definitely messed with my confidence. I started second-guessing myself like crazy, even for what I now know were easy questions. My heart pounding in my ears and my throat left little room to listen to my "instinct." Without the pressure of time and the test environment, I've had several moments of "doh! of course that was the answer. dammit."

Bar Bri also did a number on me. I was so ready to feel like the MBE was easier than the practice exams, since that is what they kept saying. It did not feel easier - and in fact, felt harder. So for the easier questions, I kept thinking "what am I missing? This can't be that straightforward" and I'd spin my wheels. On several occasions, I picked a harder answer, thinking that an exception might apply that really probably did not.

One thing I'm noticing on this thread, though, is that most people say that they were scoring in the 60-70% range on the MBE practice questions. I was in that range, and my scores (about 65%-66% average on each topic) ranked me towards the upper end of Bar Bri students. So, this thread is probably already skewed towards the high-achievers.

I hope that bodes well for my exam results!!!

[zot1]

Well, to be fair, I know people who have failed who's first instinct is to leave social media for a few weeks. So this sample is tend to be skewed for those who have passed. I too wish more fails would report, but I feel odd even trying that.

[robinhoodOO]

Well, to be fair, I know people who have failed who's first instinct is to leave social media for a few weeks. So this sample is tend to be skewed for those who have passed. I too wish more fails would report, but I feel odd even trying that.

There's definitely a disparity in people reporting. That said, we also have to keep in mind that a majority of first-time takers do actually pass. So, I don't think the disparity is really all that much (maybe 10-20%).

Also, this is why I keep requesting EVERYONE send in information if you're inclined so that there is a more accurate representation for people waiting. I'll keep it anonymous. And, even some of the brightest takers can fail. I'm sure many have heard this dozens of times, but Stanford's ex-law school dean failed her first go at the CBX. She went to Oxford for her Master's, Cornell for UG, and Harvard Law.

[uganik]

I called my Geico agent several months ago after a tree crushed my vehicle, and she told me her niece -- who graduated literally at the top of her George Washington Law class -- failed at her first go.

[diowad]

As an update for me in Iowa I received my actual mbe scores. When I found out I passed, I assumed I got in the high 120s. My Barbri midterm was 103. Felt pretty crappy walking out of the exam.

I got a very surprising 142. I can hardly believe it. 40 point jump since the midterm.

[osbarca]

Well, to be fair, I know people who have failed who's first instinct is to leave social media for a few weeks. So this sample is tend to be skewed for those who have passed. I too wish more fails would report, but I feel odd even trying that.

There's definitely a disparity in people reporting. That said, we also have to keep in mind that a majority of first-time takers do actually pass. So, I don't think the disparity is really all that much (maybe 10-20%).

Also, this is why I keep requesting EVERYONE send in information if you're inclined so that there is a more accurate representation for people waiting. I'll keep it anonymous. And, even some of the brightest takers can fail. I'm sure many have heard this dozens of times, but Stanford's ex-law school dean failed her first go at the CBX. She went to Oxford for her Master's, Cornell for UG, and Harvard Law.

My uncle was Yale undergrad, Harvard law school grad, and failed Oregon three times. In those days, that was it .... if you didn't pass in three efforts, you could not take it again. He's made a successful career in business, but didn't get to practice.

[PJP]

I was so ready to feel like the MBE was easier than the practice exams, since that is what they kept saying. It did not feel easier - and in fact, felt harder. So for the easier questions, I kept thinking "what am I missing? This can't be that straightforward" and I'd spin my wheels.

Yes. I remember those too easy ones after some impossible questions, which caused me reread looking for a wrinkle or nuance. This MBE really was a masterpiece... (imagining a bunch of bitter test writers in a backroom of NCBE discussing, "How can we f** these guys... Common, it will be fun. lol Well we could add about 80 D answer choices... and yeah bring in that one will question and a bunch of word games we've been playing for years.") The thing is I will still forgive them if I pass.

[PJP]

Well, to be fair, I know people who have failed who's first instinct is to leave social media for a few weeks. So this sample is tend to be skewed for those who have passed. I too wish more fails would report, but I feel odd even trying that.

There's definitely a disparity in people reporting. That said, we also have to keep in mind that a majority of first-time takers do actually pass. So, I don't think the disparity is really all that much (maybe 10-20%).

Also, this is why I keep requesting EVERYONE send in information if you're inclined so that there is a more accurate representation for people waiting. I'll keep it anonymous. And, even some of the brightest takers can fail. I'm sure many have heard this dozens of times, but Stanford's ex-law school dean failed her first go at the CBX. She went to Oxford for her Master's, Cornell for UG, and Harvard Law.

My uncle was Yale undergrad, Harvard law school grad, and failed Oregon three times. In those days, that was it .... if you didn't pass in three efforts, you could not take it again. He's made a successful career in business, but didn't get to practice.

Wow, that was harsh.

[zot1]

I didn't mean it's unusual or bad to not pass. I know many brilliant people who have had to retake. But let's be honest, one needs a grieving period no matter what. So some people grieve by staying away from social media, including TLS. That was my point. I'm sure we will get more results later on.

[osbarca]

I didn't mean it's unusual or bad to not pass. I know many brilliant people who have had to retake. But let's be honest, one needs a grieving period no matter what. So some people grieve by staying away from social media, including TLS. That was my point. I'm sure we will get more results later on.

I totally agree. There are tons of very smart people who fail. When I took the CA bar, I had a few friends in that boat.