California Bar Exam (July 2014) thread Forum

[neonx]

Good-luck to all my friends in California!

[2807]

Good luck to you all.
Never Give up.
My place is here, I fight with you !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IddP8AAIGTQONE

The time is now, the day is here !
At the barricades of Freedom !

EVERY MAN WILL BE A KING !

TOMORROW WE'LL DISCOVER WHAT OUR GOD IN HEAVEN HAS IN STORE !
One more dawn...
One more day...
One... Day.... MOOOOOOOORRRRRE !

[s1m4]

For all the new associates here in Cali, anyone worried about what to tell their employer in the case that things dont go as planned? (biglaw, midsize, small firms?)

[sundance95]

For all the new associates here in Cali, anyone worried about what to tell their employer in the case that things dont go as planned? (biglaw, midsize, small firms?)

No. One should worry about whether you need to tell your employer bad news; but if bad news arrives, what one must say is pretty obvious: "I did not pass the bar."

[Carryon]

Hi - checking in here, this wait is torture. Anyway, 2oldfts, just wanted to say I'm in the same boat - took NY bar 8 years ago - found CA to be so much harder. I took the attorney's exam and now I'm wondering whether I should have taken the full 3 days with the MBE. I don't think the impeachment issue was a major one (it seemed like there were lots of parts to that question), and I know a lot of people missed 10b-5 so I think you're in better shape than you think. I screwed up the trusts/CP question, did not even recognize the resulting trust issue (and I think it was a major one). But still holding out hope. Hang in there.

I debated that initially, but I think that the two day is better, especially since what I am hearing now is that this summer's MBE was harder than usual. Also, since I work full time, I would have limited time to do the MBE practice questions, which would also take time away from doing the essay and pt questions. But, who knows, if you are a good MBE exam taker, it would help your overall score.

[Carryon]

Kinda late for this but check this out. It was a presentation given at Berkeley by a guy who has been in charge of raising passage rates at a couple of schools.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/BarP ... .22.08.pdf

from page 4

Scoring the Bar Exam
Essay Exam & Performance Test Scoring
85 - 100 An outstanding answer
80 A very good answer
75 A clearly passing answer
70 Unable to determine if the essay passes or fails
65 A clearly failing answer
40 - 60 A poor answer

This doesn't seem to jibe with what I have seen from test takers who have gotten their essays and scores (seems more generous). But if this is actually how they grade I'd feel a lot better. The problem is, while we see the "model answers" and the essays and scores of people who fail, we don't see the essays from people who pass..we don't know what the range of essay scores are for people who pass. We may know that a 60 was the minimum average passing score in a given year...but how are the scores distributed among passers? are the there big clusters right around the minimum or are a critical mass of passers scoring an avg of 70 or above. This whole black box thing only serves to further mystify the exam

Ah..I am so tired of thinking about this ish

FWIW the BarBri self-grade essays seemed fairly generous with their scoring - much more so than the people on here (or other places) who assume that a single missed or wrongly considered issue will drop you to a 50.

Then again, I haven't really looked at real, graded essays online except for the occasional model answer, which I assume would be in the 80+ category. I also imagine when looking at graded essays, regular people tend to focus on actual analysis rather than on stylistic factors (headings, word count) that by all accounts tend to have a rather large impact on the graders.

Regarding stylistics (headings, word count), what I saw for the grader comments for the graded essays at baressays.com was that they commented at the area of the word count that issues were probably missed if low word count (800), and probably enough words to get all issues if the word count was around 1500 for essay. They sometimes would say that the examinee should have used headings for each element of a legal rule. Whether points were taken off or not for no headings, who knows.

[barbirthday]

Kinda late for this but check this out. It was a presentation given at Berkeley by a guy who has been in charge of raising passage rates at a couple of schools.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/BarP ... .22.08.pdf

from page 4

Scoring the Bar Exam
Essay Exam & Performance Test Scoring
85 - 100 An outstanding answer
80 A very good answer
75 A clearly passing answer
70 Unable to determine if the essay passes or fails
65 A clearly failing answer
40 - 60 A poor answer

This doesn't seem to jibe with what I have seen from test takers who have gotten their essays and scores (seems more generous). But if this is actually how they grade I'd feel a lot better. The problem is, while we see the "model answers" and the essays and scores of people who fail, we don't see the essays from people who pass..we don't know what the range of essay scores are for people who pass. We may know that a 60 was the minimum average passing score in a given year...but how are the scores distributed among passers? are the there big clusters right around the minimum or are a critical mass of passers scoring an avg of 70 or above. This whole black box thing only serves to further mystify the exam

Ah..I am so tired of thinking about this ish

FWIW the BarBri self-grade essays seemed fairly generous with their scoring - much more so than the people on here (or other places) who assume that a single missed or wrongly considered issue will drop you to a 50.

Then again, I haven't really looked at real, graded essays online except for the occasional model answer, which I assume would be in the 80+ category. I also imagine when looking at graded essays, regular people tend to focus on actual analysis rather than on stylistic factors (headings, word count) that by all accounts tend to have a rather large impact on the graders.

Regarding stylistics (headings, word count), what I saw for the grader comments for the graded essays at baressays.com was that they commented at the area of the word count that issues were probably missed if low word count (800), and probably enough words to get all issues if the word count was around 1500 for essay. They sometimes would say that the examinee should have used headings for each element of a legal rule. Whether points were taken off or not for no headings, who knows.

Are you saying that some comments on essays said things like "low word count, missed issues"?

[Carryon]

Kinda late for this but check this out. It was a presentation given at Berkeley by a guy who has been in charge of raising passage rates at a couple of schools.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/BarP ... .22.08.pdf

from page 4

Scoring the Bar Exam
Essay Exam & Performance Test Scoring
85 - 100 An outstanding answer
80 A very good answer
75 A clearly passing answer
70 Unable to determine if the essay passes or fails
65 A clearly failing answer
40 - 60 A poor answer

This doesn't seem to jibe with what I have seen from test takers who have gotten their essays and scores (seems more generous). But if this is actually how they grade I'd feel a lot better. The problem is, while we see the "model answers" and the essays and scores of people who fail, we don't see the essays from people who pass..we don't know what the range of essay scores are for people who pass. We may know that a 60 was the minimum average passing score in a given year...but how are the scores distributed among passers? are the there big clusters right around the minimum or are a critical mass of passers scoring an avg of 70 or above. This whole black box thing only serves to further mystify the exam

Ah..I am so tired of thinking about this ish

FWIW the BarBri self-grade essays seemed fairly generous with their scoring - much more so than the people on here (or other places) who assume that a single missed or wrongly considered issue will drop you to a 50.

Then again, I haven't really looked at real, graded essays online except for the occasional model answer, which I assume would be in the 80+ category. I also imagine when looking at graded essays, regular people tend to focus on actual analysis rather than on stylistic factors (headings, word count) that by all accounts tend to have a rather large impact on the graders.

Regarding stylistics (headings, word count), what I saw for the grader comments for the graded essays at baressays.com was that they commented at the area of the word count that issues were probably missed if low word count (800), and probably enough words to get all issues if the word count was around 1500 for essay. They sometimes would say that the examinee should have used headings for each element of a legal rule. Whether points were taken off or not for no headings, who knows.

Are you saying that some comments on essays said things like "low word count, missed issues"?

Yes, for the graded comments on the 2014 February bar, the word count was printed on the first page of the exam soft answers. If it was around 800 words, the grader would say "word count is low, issues likely missed". Also, at the end of answer, the grader would say something like this to summarize ( score:70 used irac; two issues missed; but these issues may not have counted much)

[gaagoots]

Kinda late for this but check this out. It was a presentation given at Berkeley by a guy who has been in charge of raising passage rates at a couple of schools.
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/BarP ... .22.08.pdf

from page 4

Scoring the Bar Exam
Essay Exam & Performance Test Scoring
85 - 100 An outstanding answer
80 A very good answer
75 A clearly passing answer
70 Unable to determine if the essay passes or fails
65 A clearly failing answer
40 - 60 A poor answer

This doesn't seem to jibe with what I have seen from test takers who have gotten their essays and scores (seems more generous). But if this is actually how they grade I'd feel a lot better. The problem is, while we see the "model answers" and the essays and scores of people who fail, we don't see the essays from people who pass..we don't know what the range of essay scores are for people who pass. We may know that a 60 was the minimum average passing score in a given year...but how are the scores distributed among passers? are the there big clusters right around the minimum or are a critical mass of passers scoring an avg of 70 or above. This whole black box thing only serves to further mystify the exam

Ah..I am so tired of thinking about this ish

FWIW the BarBri self-grade essays seemed fairly generous with their scoring - much more so than the people on here (or other places) who assume that a single missed or wrongly considered issue will drop you to a 50.

Then again, I haven't really looked at real, graded essays online except for the occasional model answer, which I assume would be in the 80+ category. I also imagine when looking at graded essays, regular people tend to focus on actual analysis rather than on stylistic factors (headings, word count) that by all accounts tend to have a rather large impact on the graders.

Regarding stylistics (headings, word count), what I saw for the grader comments for the graded essays at baressays.com was that they commented at the area of the word count that issues were probably missed if low word count (800), and probably enough words to get all issues if the word count was around 1500 for essay. They sometimes would say that the examinee should have used headings for each element of a legal rule. Whether points were taken off or not for no headings, who knows.

Are you saying that some comments on essays said things like "low word count, missed issues"?

Comments say this" The word count is low; likely missing issues." and the last post-it note comment says something like this:
Score: 55
Issues: Missed at least 3 issues.
Rules: Incomplete for some issues.
Analysis; Do not just repeat the facts; use the facts to prove the rules.
Organization: Good IRAC.

I have seen some graded BarMax essays with comments and they were way to generous with grading for missed issues that were in Baressays and model answers for Cal Bar.

[LegalConvoFounder]

Good luck everyone!

[gothamm]

can someone post the exact link where we can check our results tomorrow at 6 for CA?

[camelcrema]

can someone post the exact link where we can check our results tomorrow at 6 for CA?

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... &start=457

[a male human]

I laughed

[calbar20144]

I stupidly misplaced my admission ticket after the bar exam and have no idea what my "applicant number" is for purposes of checking my results tomorrow. I have my file number, and I have a different number from when I uploaded my exam files that says: "application # 0XXXX."

Is it safe to assume that this is the number calbar is looking for?

[camelcrema]

I stupidly misplaced my admission ticket after the bar exam and have no idea what my "applicant number" is for purposes of checking my results tomorrow. I have my file number, and I have a different number from when I uploaded my exam files that says: "application # 0XXXX."

Is it safe to assume that this is the number calbar is looking for?

That's what I was going to go with.

[sundance95]

I stupidly misplaced my admission ticket after the bar exam and have no idea what my "applicant number" is for purposes of checking my results tomorrow. I have my file number, and I have a different number from when I uploaded my exam files that says: "application # 0XXXX."

Is it safe to assume that this is the number calbar is looking for?

That's what I was going to go with.

I saved a PDF of my exam ticket. The applicant number has 4 digits, so if it is indeed the number you're referencing you'll probably need to drop the initial 0.

[071816]

Why the hell did I think we were getting our results on the 26th?? I feel like a complete idiot...

[camelcrema]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wILFddYxKOM

[Furball]

By this time tomorrow we'll know the results. I'm in utter hell right now.

[camelcrema]

By this time tomorrow we'll know the results. I'm in utter hell right now.

For sure, I'm going to need a couple of drinks to fall asleep tonight.

[a male human]

i am tipsy and fairly drunk

excited for doomsday someone end this life

[jarofsoup]

I am on the east coast. Have to wait till 9pm. Yay. All night and day.

[lawladylaw]

Good luck to everyone! I am thinking of you all. If only that helped.

I just started studying for the February exam. I am hoping none of you will be joining me.

[Carryon]

Question - how do you check if you passed on 11/21? Do you just check your Admission Status or is there a different website that you use to check? Thanks.

There should be a link in cal bar's website that takes you to a login page or portal for the exam results. You enter the number that is on your badge that allowed you access to the exam room. It then tells you whether you were successful in passing the bar.

According to cal bar's website, you have to use your applicant number and file number to see whether you passed. Anybody else have more information?

[WonkyPanda]

is this new? Essays for July 2014 are up: http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/Portals ... ions_R.pdf