July 2015 MBE Scores/Results Forum

marztri · Post by **marztri** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:02 pm

Been following everyone's comments on the MBE. I was a repeater in July. I found the AM section much easier than the PM session. I finished the AM at 12.10. But the PM session with only 5 minutes to spare. The first time I took the exam I got a 130 on the MBE and I had only done barbri sets 1-6 for tort, contract, criminal, evidence and property. I had read the rules for the other two from a friends hand out. But this time around I did all 6 sets of 7 topics, I did the 4 OPE exams from the NCBE website. I did 3 simulated barbri exams and I did the phone app daily. And I am honestly still worried as this is such a mind boggling experience. I will also probably be one of the last to get results for NY. When I do I will post as to how I did and we will see if there is an correlation to more practice meaning higher results compare to my 130 in Feb. My friend passed the NY bar on a 133 also so if you feel your essays and MPT were strong you could still easily pass.

marztri · Post by **marztri** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:03 pm

Also I felt there was little similarity between Barbri and the actual exam. The NCBE exams are definitely worth their weight in gold.

FBI · Post by **FBI** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:08 pm

MT pass rate fell to 61%. Down about 5 points from 2014.

ResIpsa305 · Post by **ResIpsa305** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:25 pm

Congrats to all who've passed!

Is there any indication of how the raw to scaled conversion is computed for the July 2015 MBE? I've heard varying things for previous administrations - usually to add +/- 15 to your raw score and that, roughly, equals your scaled score. I know it's more complex than that and varies by state -- but does anyone have an idea?

Hoping for a more generous conversion this year in light of a demonstrably more difficult MBE.

jlanky · Post by **jlanky** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:33 pm

ResIpsa305 wrote:
Hoping for a more generous conversion this year in light of a demonstrably more difficult MBE.

There is no evidence to support this statement....yet.

ElBence · Post by **ElBence** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:33 pm

ResIpsa305 wrote:Congrats to all who've passed!

Is there any indication of how the raw to scaled conversion is computed for the July 2015 MBE? I've heard varying things for previous administrations - usually to add +/- 15 to your raw score and that, roughly, equals your scaled score. I know it's more complex than that and varies by state -- but does anyone have an idea?

Hoping for a more generous conversion this year in light of a demonstrably more difficult MBE.

How was this exam demonstrably more difficult? I took last July and this year, and I felt that this year's exam was easier.

jlanky · Post by **jlanky** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:36 pm

ElBence wrote: How was this exam demonstrably more difficult? I took last July and this year, and I felt that this year's exam was easier.

I took the exam for the first time in 2010. I remember walking out of that exam feeling like everyone did walking out of this exam. I walked out of this July's exam thinking it was about as difficult as I expected. You are not suppose to walk out feeling good. The exam is intended to be difficult.

marztri · Post by **marztri** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:36 pm

jlanky wrote:
ResIpsa305 wrote:
Hoping for a more generous conversion this year in light of a demonstrably more difficult MBE.
There is no evidence to support this statement....yet.

Agreed... I took Feb '15 and July was not harder in my opinion... But I felt Feb was more civ pro heavy than July. Am I allowed say that on this forum?

ResIpsa305 · Post by **ResIpsa305** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:38 pm

Fair enough. I'm a first time taker so I don't have the perspective. I thought the general consensus was that this MBE was out of the ordinary in terms of difficulty. I suppose it could just be us first-time takers freaking out. Regardless, my question still stands.

marztri · Post by **marztri** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:41 pm

ResIpsa305 wrote:Fair enough. I'm a first time taker so I don't have the perspective. I thought the general consensus was that this MBE was out of the ordinary in terms of difficulty. I suppose it could just be us first-time takers freaking out. Regardless, my question still stands.

I think it is because repeaters have gone through it and have an idea what to expect. And depends maybe on practice out in. My practice was triple for my repeat. I would also like to know what raw to scaled is converted..... If you were doing 120 on a the barbri etc..

nyny · Post by **nyny** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:47 pm

marztri wrote:Been following everyone's comments on the MBE. I was a repeater in July. I found the AM section much easier than the PM session. I finished the AM at 12.10. But the PM session with only 5 minutes to spare. The first time I took the exam I got a 130 on the MBE and I had only done barbri sets 1-6 for tort, contract, criminal, evidence and property. I had read the rules for the other two from a friends hand out. But this time around I did all 6 sets of 7 topics, I did the 4 OPE exams from the NCBE website. I did 3 simulated barbri exams and I did the phone app daily. And I am honestly still worried as this is such a mind boggling experience. I will also probably be one of the last to get results for NY. When I do I will post as to how I did and we will see if there is an correlation to more practice meaning higher results compare to my 130 in Feb. My friend passed the NY bar on a 133 also so if you feel your essays and MPT were strong you could still easily pass.

I know 4 people who passed NY with 126 MBE's an under. In NY a strong NY day can pass you because its worth 60% whereas the MBE day is worth 40%. If both days were 50%-50% I would have passed in January.

PJP · Post by **PJP** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 5:48 pm

jlanky wrote:
ElBence wrote: How was this exam demonstrably more difficult? I took last July and this year, and I felt that this year's exam was easier.
I took the exam for the first time in 2010. I remember walking out of that exam feeling like everyone did walking out of this exam. I walked out of this July's exam thinking it was about as difficult as I expected. You are not suppose to walk out feeling good. The exam is intended to be difficult.

I also did take the MBE for the first time in 2010. I felt it was easier back then in terms of being more predictable and similar to practice questions. The national passage rate drop started from July 2014 so I am not surprised to hear that MBE from July 14' was very difficult.

Akriant · Post by **Akriant** » Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:38 pm

I will get the actual UBE score (and hence MBE result) either tomorrow or by (mail?). But I've passed the MO bar. So there's that. Man, this is such a relief.

balancez · Post by **balancez** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 10:44 am

Passed the bar in Missouri. I got an MBE score of 140 (and an essay of 165 so I was very happy about my essay). I used barbri, and I was basically in the average for everything on the practice set questions; Also, I think I scored around a 115 on the midterm and a 56 / 100 on the final refresher. So I was pretty average all around on the mbe during bar prep.

And just so you know, I felt AWFUL about the mbe. I felt unconfident about basically every answer that I put down, especially the property questions and the Civ Pro questions. Furthermore, I do not remember ever having a string of D's like everyone else. Since the test, I thought there was a pretty high chance that I failed simply because I thought the MBE ruined my score.. I was just hoping my essay would be able to save me because I felt great about the essay. But it ended up fine because I scored right around the average mbe in missouri (the average mbe this year in Missouri was a 142).

So all of you people freaking out, calm down because you really couldn't have felt much worse about the mbe after the test than I did and my score ended up turning out fine.

K Rock · Post by **K Rock** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 11:43 am

Just got an e-mail from the Illinois Board of Bar Examiners and almost had a heart attack. It was just asking me to update my contact information though.

bjhs08 · Post by **bjhs08** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 11:45 am

I passed Missouri as well. Scored a 157 scaled on the MBE and a 151 scaled on the essays. I scored a 121 on the Barbri midterm and a 62 on the final refresher. I felt ok about the MBE, not great but not freaking out. I knew that my essay scores would be lower as I had about 2 minutes for the final one and essentially wrote something sounding like a rule and conclusion. Good luck to everyone still waiting!

sdphill · Post by **sdphill** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:00 pm

K Rock wrote:Just got an e-mail from the Illinois Board of Bar Examiners and almost had a heart attack. It was just asking me to update my contact information though.

Me too. Does that mean we are still in the running?

robinhoodOO · Post by **robinhoodOO** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:02 pm

*Update (39 Takers reporting): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Congratulations to all those reporting they've passed!!!

Also, in addition to adding score information, etc., I'm trying to add more substantive information to make this as useful as possible. My hope is that this will not only be useful for people waiting, but people who have failed and need to retake and people who have yet to take the bar exam. Thus, the more information and data, the better. Suggestions and assistance welcome!

ineptimusprime · Post by **ineptimusprime** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:03 pm

sdphill wrote:
K Rock wrote:Just got an e-mail from the Illinois Board of Bar Examiners and almost had a heart attack. It was just asking me to update my contact information though.
Me too. Does that mean we are still in the running?

LOL--they've gotta send you a letter if you failed too, right?

infynyti · Post by **infynyti** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:04 pm

Passed Missouri. 135 MBE and 147 essay. On Barbri midterm and final MBE were both around 60%. SO HAPPY!

robinhoodOO · Post by **robinhoodOO** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:15 pm

infynyti wrote:Passed Missouri. 135 MBE and 147 essay. On Barbri midterm and final MBE were both around 60%. SO HAPPY!

I would tell the people reporting from Missouri congratulations, but now you have to practice law in Missouri

(I'm from Iowa, so pardon the obligatory joke about our southern brethren).

Congrats, guys

Great to hear more positive news

lakerinstl · Post by **lakerinstl** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:40 pm

Passed Missouri as well. Scores of 141 on MBE and 157 on essays.

texasbar · Post by **texasbar** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:48 pm

I'm interested to hear about how people are performing on the essays. I didn't think the MBE was that bad but felt pretty shitty after some of those essays, especially in the PM. I also didn't finish the MPT. I wrote in Texas, which is 40% MBE, 40% essays, and 10% MPT (the other 10% was for crim and civ pro qs, which were fine).

Thanks in advance for any input.

lawguyjake · Post by **lawguyjake** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:51 pm

Yo. Missouri posted results yesterday. 84% pass overall which is down 1 point from July 2014.

I passed, but just barely.

Here's some food for thought:

1) Used Barbri; completed 90+% of the material but never submitted essays (ain't nobody got time for that). Was scoring 60-65% on PTs toward the end.

2) Bombed the midterm. 98/200. Cried a lot. Almost didn't take.

3) Ended up getting a 132 scaled on the MBE. State average was 142.

4) The MBE was the most ridiculous, unfair test I have ever taken. In the AM session, I maybe felt confident about five questions; the rest I could narrow down to two or three and guessed wildly. The PM session was somewhat better: I probably felt confident on about 10; guessed on the rest.

5) I had a small section of D's on the AM session. Probably 5-7 in a row.

6) Re the MBE, generally: despite having passed, I'm still legitimately angry. I don't feel like there was anything I could have done to adequately prepare for that test. This was not a test over "general competence"; it was legal minutiae--so much so that "generally incompetent" people in my class (at a reputable Midwest state school) passed but one of the smartest people failed. I can't fathom the purpose of making people take an exam where their pass or fail is determined largely by whether they were a good guesser. In my case, I feel that luck was what dragged me across the finish line. Honestly, it should give us all pause that we don't receive a raw score for the MBE. Reform that shit now.

7) TL;DR: the MBE sucks.

robinhoodOO · Post by **robinhoodOO** » Wed Sep 16, 2015 12:56 pm

lakerinstl wrote:Passed Missouri as well. Scores of 141 on MBE and 157 on essays.

Would you mind sharing your bar review course and how you did on the final or midterm? Thanks!

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