Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2014 Exam Forum

[blue920]

Holy shit just got 44% on the new york multiple choice section of today's simulated essay exam. Anyone else do horribly? I'm actually surprised I got even 44% right... I was only confident on about one of the questions.

Yeah, I did even worse than that. I don't think 44% is terrible because we're only aiming for 50%, but I answered very few questions based on my actual knowledge of NY law. Mostly just guessed.

But I don't remember learning a lot of this stuff. Now that I'm reviewing, yes, I see that the anti-lapse adoption question is covered in one paragraph of the 50-page wills outline. But it's not mentioned in the handout accompanying the lectures. Did I read the wills outline? I think I did, since that was in the beginning when I was following all directions to the letter. Does that mean I remember one paragraph in a 50-page outline? No.

Also, I really enjoyed how they set a 70% goal when they've said previously we're aiming for 50%. I'm just going to ignore that part.

[mmmnnn]

At the risk of humble-bragging, does anyone feel like they're doing better than they should be on the MBE questions? During the exams, I'm confident on only a handful of questions. I always click "complete task," expecting 60% or worse, but then my score is always much higher.... I'm worried that my scores are more about luck than substantive knowledge at this point.

[bport hopeful]

So, Secured Transactions has only come up on the NY bar 7 times since 1981.

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

Anyone else much more concerned about essays than the MBE?

Yes.

Completely fucking terrified.

Meeeeeeeeee toooooooo!! Reviewing Civ Pro today just in case!! and every second I'm feeling guilty that I'm not studying a different subject that I am way more certain of appearing on the CA Bar. Printed out the Themis practice essay exam, but I can't take it yet. At best, I'll try to issue spot it tomorrow, but there's no way I'll know all the rules! Lucky to even find the issues at this point! I feel like I'm going about everything all wrong ZERO confidence here... for the essays at least. MBEs seem "ok"

[inkincorporate]

Anyone have Hans Romo as an advisor/grader? If I get nearly all the law right on the essays and spot all the issues, I'll get at most a 60/100. God forbid I don't recite the law verbadim from the themis outline or miss even one thing... my grade goes down to like a 30/100. I'm assuming the answer is yes but does themis grade essays harder than the actual bar exam grades?

[Tanicius]

Anyone have Hans Romo as an advisor/grader? If I get nearly all the law right on the essays and spot all the issues, I'll get at most a 60/100. God forbid I don't recite the law verbadim from the themis outline or miss even one thing... my grade goes down to like a 30/100. I'm assuming the answer is yes but does themis grade essays harder than the actual bar exam grades?

There is no way your real essays will be graded that harshly.

[champ33]

What are people doing to memorize NY civ pro? Appears to be a frequently tested topic but the summary outline is 54 pages long.

[Bigbub75]

Anyone else much more concerned about essays than the MBE?

Yes, yes, yes. I'm "comfortable" with my MBE scores. I've been pretty consistently getting it down to 2 choices on MBE questions. So even if I have to guess, I like those odds. With the essays, I can't guess if I have no clue what the hell is even going on. If there is a question about Conflict of Laws I am pretty sure I will be making up answers. "The state with the most letters in its name law is controlling..."

[j1987]

Anyone else much more concerned about essays than the MBE?

Yes, yes, yes. I'm "comfortable" with my MBE scores. I've been pretty consistently getting it down to 2 choices on MBE questions. So even if I have to guess, I like those odds. With the essays, I can't guess if I have no clue what the hell is even going on. If there is a question about Conflict of Laws I am pretty sure I will be making up answers. "The state with the most letters in its name law is controlling..."

100% more concerned about essays. I can sometimes remember concepts, but they are nowhere near as eloquently put as in the Themis outlines or some of the model answers.

[j1987]

What are people doing to memorize NY civ pro? Appears to be a frequently tested topic but the summary outline is 54 pages long.

I'm focusing on the topics they said will be most frequently tested out of NY Civ Pro (Statutes of limitation, motions to dismiss, motion for SJ, jurisdiction, provisional remedies); other than that, I don't know how much detail I'm going to go into. It's a lot of information + all the other stuff we have to memorize.

[j1987]

At the risk of humble-bragging, does anyone feel like they're doing better than they should be on the MBE questions? During the exams, I'm confident on only a handful of questions. I always click "complete task," expecting 60% or worse, but then my score is always much higher.... I'm worried that my scores are more about luck than substantive knowledge at this point.

I think 60% is a good score, but I was pleasantly surprised on my milestone exam. That said, I am worried I won't be as lucky on the actual MBE. I am able to consistently get answers down to two choices, and if I get it wrong, I always end up having the answer I didn't pick being the right answer, so I've got a 50% chance of being right if I have to guess.

[Genuine4ps]

I am so sick of the people who write these MBE questions. I just had one where a guy flushed his friends drugs down the toilet. The correct answer was that he should be found guilty of larceny. That's fucking stupid. I will pay the writer of that question $1000 if he can show me a single prosecutor in the free world who would charge someone with larceny for flushing another's drugs down the toilet. The bar exam is already dumb enough, and they're feeding us this bullshit?

rant/

[bport hopeful]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

[Tanicius]

I am so sick of the people who write these MBE questions. I just had one where a guy flushed his friends drugs down the toilet. The correct answer was that he should be found guilty of larceny. That's fucking stupid. I will pay the writer of that question $1000 if he can show me a single prosecutor in the free world who would charge someone with larceny for flushing another's drugs down the toilet. The bar exam is already dumb enough, and they're feeding us this bullshit?

rant/

This just doesn't happen very often because victims of theft who are themselves criminals in possessing the object stolen don't report it to the police.

[Genuine4ps]

I am so sick of the people who write these MBE questions. I just had one where a guy flushed his friends drugs down the toilet. The correct answer was that he should be found guilty of larceny. That's fucking stupid. I will pay the writer of that question $1000 if he can show me a single prosecutor in the free world who would charge someone with larceny for flushing another's drugs down the toilet. The bar exam is already dumb enough, and they're feeding us this bullshit?

rant/

This just doesn't happen very often because victims of theft who are themselves criminals in possessing the object stolen don't report it to the police.

It wouldn't matter if they did report it. A prosecutor who values his job would never file charges in that scenario. I'm just wondering why can't think of some real-world scenarios, instead of these hypothetical "gotcha" situations.

ETA: Yes, I know I'm just pissed because I got the question wrong.

[kapital98]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

No way in hell I get 69% of the MBE questions correct. The NY MC questions are basically a lost cause. I'm banking on getting median scores on the essays to save me.

[BarExamAvoider]

If conflicts comes up just pick the law of the forum if you're stuck.

[northwood]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

that's a 65% MBE, a 5/10 for 6 essays and 23/50 NYMC??

the essays I can do, the MBE... im not sure about that

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

Why oh WHY can't this be true in California??!!!! stupid essays

[kapital98]

At the risk of humble-bragging, does anyone feel like they're doing better than they should be on the MBE questions? During the exams, I'm confident on only a handful of questions. I always click "complete task," expecting 60% or worse, but then my score is always much higher.... I'm worried that my scores are more about luck than substantive knowledge at this point.

I'm getting extremely high scores in evidence MBE questions (75%+) and I really don't understand evidence. Every time I use my common sense I get the question right. It was my worst MBE subject in law school. I'm glad I'm getting such high scores but I don't know if they will hold come exam time. To a smaller extent the same thing is happening in Con law.

Everything else I suck at (60% or lower). I'm going to focus most of the last two weeks on going through endless MBE questions.

[kapital98]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

that's a 65% MBE, a 5/10 for 6 essays and 23/50 NYMC??

the essays I can do, the MBE... im not sure about that

It's 68.5% on MBE (130/190). Once you reach that ~70% goal everything becomes much easier. It's really tough to get there though.

[bport hopeful]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

that's a 65% MBE, a 5/10 for 6 essays and 23/50 NYMC??

the essays I can do, the MBE... im not sure about that

It's 68.5% on MBE (130/190). Once you reach that ~70% goal everything becomes much easier. It's really tough to get there though.

I didn't think of the ten throwaways. Seeming less likely.

[bport hopeful]

This is what I used by the way. Idk exactly how it works. Maybe someone else can come up with more definitive answers

http://www.seperac.com/calc-bar-f08.php

[iLoveFruits&Veggies]

NY takers. From what I can tell, if you get a 130 raw, you only need to a little over half the points on the writing portions and a 23 on the state MC to pass. That seems almost doable. If I could pass the written sections

that's a 65% MBE, a 5/10 for 6 essays and 23/50 NYMC??

the essays I can do, the MBE... im not sure about that

It's 68.5% on MBE (130/190). Once you reach that ~70% goal everything becomes much easier. It's really tough to get there though.

I didn't think of the ten throwaways. Seeming less likely.

yeah, 130/190 seems kinda hard when you put it like that lol

[Genuine4ps]

Anyone know how many questions we have to get right in a UBE state?