July 2015 Texas Bar Exam Forum

[Devlin]

Does anyone know the "safe amount" of P&E to get correct? I know it's all relative to the other portions of the test... but as long as we can get 15/20 correct, that's good -- right?

I have been getting around 15/20. I think hope that is more than enough.

[TxBarTaker09]

Good luck to everyone tomorrow! Be sure to rest tonight, get something good to eat, and get plenty of sleep!

[unlicensedpotato]

Does anyone know the "safe amount" of P&E to get correct? I know it's all relative to the other portions of the test... but as long as we can get 15/20 correct, that's good -- right?

I have been getting around 15/20. I think hope that is more than enough.

I assume 15/20 will definitely be good enough. One caveat is that, based on their sample "answers" (which for criminal are a joke), it may be harder to get a 5 on a given question than I was expecting. They make it seem sometimes that you were supposed to provide information that wasn't directly asked, I guess because of the "explain fully" language.

[Devlin]

Does anyone know the "safe amount" of P&E to get correct? I know it's all relative to the other portions of the test... but as long as we can get 15/20 correct, that's good -- right?

I have been getting around 15/20. I think hope that is more than enough.

I assume 15/20 will definitely be good enough. One caveat is that, based on their sample "answers" (which for criminal are a joke), it may be harder to get a 5 on a given question than I was expecting. They make it seem sometimes that you were supposed to provide information that wasn't directly asked, I guess because of the "explain fully" language.

I'm using the "explain fully" as a window to regurgitate everything I know about the rule/issue that goes beyond the specific question.

[jamescastle]

I still need to hardcore cram some civil procedure nuances.
Also I don't know if I'll be making the 2.25 minute per question time or if I'll be rushing at the end.

[ladylawyer1221]

Does anyone know the "safe amount" of P&E to get correct? I know it's all relative to the other portions of the test... but as long as we can get 15/20 correct, that's good -- right?

I have been getting around 15/20. I think hope that is more than enough.

I assume 15/20 will definitely be good enough. One caveat is that, based on their sample "answers" (which for criminal are a joke), it may be harder to get a 5 on a given question than I was expecting. They make it seem sometimes that you were supposed to provide information that wasn't directly asked, I guess because of the "explain fully" language.

This is true, and that's what irritates me the most because I don't see how they expect us to write everything in those 5 lines. I'm jealous that February takers will be able to use their laptops for the P&E. Oh well. Just praying I won't have to join them in February

[BVest]

This is true, and that's what irritates me the most because I don't see how they expect us to write everything in those 5 lines. I'm jealous that February takers will be able to use their laptops for the P&E. Oh well. Just praying I won't have to join them in February

Yeah, BarBri got a little longwinded with their sample answers, but it made for good study material.

As far as typing, I was jealous about Feb, but I've been handwriting all my answers in bar prep (including essays) so I feel ready to write this for the exam, and it's nice to have a limit. I wonder if in Feb they'll word/character limit answers for typists. If they do, that will be such a time suck that it might benefit the non-typists.

[ladylawyer1221]

As far as typing, I was jealous about Feb, but I've been handwriting all my answers in bar prep (including essays) so I feel ready to write this for the exam, and it's nice to have a limit. I wonder if in Feb they'll word/character limit answers for typists. If they do, that will be such a time suck that it might benefit the non-typists.

I was wondering the same thing. I imagine they will have some sort of word limit.... I went to a school that required a laptop starting in 5th grade so anything that requires me to write by hand is an automatic disadvantage lol. I feel bad for the grader who will have to read my P&E.

[BVest]

Just to be clear, I'm typing the rest of the exam... but all my handwriting this summer has prepared me well enough to write a 1.5 hour portion of the exam. And I do feel badly for whomever has to read these. Even folks who usually write well will likely not do so under the crunch of time and pressure.

And I almost had surgery on my dominant wrist this summer. I'd had a condition since last summer that I was told would go away on its own in six months or would require surgery. It cleared up on its own in month 11 when I was trying to gameplan the surgery schedule (Barbri vs June 30 new insurance deductible year vs. bar exam vs job in September).

[jamescastle]

MPT: Not as bad as it could have been; fairly straightforward I thought. Glad I didn't spend too much time preparing for this section (only did the MPT class and the one in the half-day simulated).
Civil P&E: Felt confident on a lot of my answers here.
Criminal P&E: Had to guess and/or had no clue on more than I would have liked.

Are we allowed to talk about stuff at all? Obviously not questions but just feelings on stuff or is that not allowed either? If so, I'll delete this.

Also: I saw you all today. All of you.

[Greenandgold]

MPT: Not as bad as it could have been; fairly straightforward I thought. Glad I didn't spend too much time preparing for this section (only did the MPT class and the one in the half-day simulated).
Civil P&E: Felt confident on a lot of my answers here.
Criminal P&E: Had to guess and/or had no clue on more than I would have liked.

Are we allowed to talk about stuff at all? Obviously not questions but just feelings on stuff or is that not allowed either? If so, I'll delete this.

Also: I saw you all today. All of you.

Felt the exact same way for each of the sections. I thought we really lucked out with the MPT (assuming we all take the same one? I'm unsure about that. I feel like Barbri's materials have said that multiple MPTs are used, but I can't remember.) Glad to have the MBE next and to just be so close to the finish line.

[Devlin]

Agree with above. Without getting in to specifics I thought there were two or so questions on the crim side that Barbri did not address in the lecture or workshop.

[Greenandgold]

Agree with above. Without getting in to specifics I thought there were two or so questions on the crim side that Barbri did not address in the lecture or workshop.

You did the workshop? What did you think? I ended up skipping it cause I didn't want to pay for it, but I'm curious if you thought it helped much now that we've sat for that portion of the exam.

[jamescastle]

On one I had no clue of I did get to use some humor by referencing timeouts in basketball. Then I corrected it and said football because "we're in Texas and football is #1." Hopefully I get a 5 on that one haha.
Don't want to say any more.

[BVest]

I felt pretty good about today. Though I had one answer that was like "The court did err by ..." followed by explanation, filling 4.5 of the 5 lines. I then decided I was wrong, crossed out everything after the first sentence, added "^ not" to the first sentence and put my reasoning on the last remaining bit of line 5.

[TXLawHopeful15]

Agree with above. Without getting in to specifics I thought there were two or so questions on the crim side that Barbri did not address in the lecture or workshop.

Yeah I am pretty sure I missed my standard 5 per civil and Criminal....maybe more if they can't read my handwriting! It was cold in there!

[BVest]

As soon as I walked in this morning, I was very glad to have worn long-sleeves.

[jamescastle]

Just remembered to submit my exam. Y'all still got 30 minutes if you haven't already!

[Devlin]

Agree with above. Without getting in to specifics I thought there were two or so questions on the crim side that Barbri did not address in the lecture or workshop.

You did the workshop? What did you think? I ended up skipping it cause I didn't want to pay for it, but I'm curious if you thought it helped much now that we've sat for that portion of the exam.

Yeah I definitely found it helpful.

[Devlin]

I felt pretty good about today. Though I had one answer that was like "The court did err by ..." followed by explanation, filling 4.5 of the 5 lines. I then decided I was wrong, crossed out everything after the first sentence, added "^ not" to the first sentence and put my reasoning on the last remaining bit of line 5.

Instead of saying "not" you should have said "JK". Probably would have gotten .1 of a point more.

[Neff]

See, I've been telling you guys for weeks that this quiz was going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy. You got this.

[Neff]

After this joke of a day one, if you just cop that median MBE, you'd have to not show up on Thursday to fail.

[Devlin]

If everyone feels that way then would it not be a push because of the curve? I guess it's a bad assumption to begin with that everyone feels decent after today.

[BigBananaLaw]

I didn't feel great coming out of it. That said, I've taken and passed two other bar exams in the last 12 months, and I felt equally bad coming out of those. How do you shake the lingering fear that maybe somehow everything you wrote is entirely wrong? Also, fuck them for making it so cold. And fuck them for prohibiting cell phones and not providing some way for test takers to get a cab or uber after they let us out. Some of us are in hotels without rental cars.

[dsb83]

I wouldn't assume that everyone feels great about today. I fucked up the MPT bad. Really thin analysis and left it unfinished. No sleep and such. A friend of mine told me a story of looking over at the girl next to her and seeing that she hadn't started writing 80 minutes into the MPT.