2015 February Texas Bar Exam Forum

[BeachedBrit]

How are you guys "studying" for MPT?

It feels kind of pointless...I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing for it since it's "closed world"

I've had a few people that passed with ease tell me the following:

1) The MPT is freebie points if you're a competent human being

2) Look at ~10 prompts and briefly go through the materials for those prompts (2hr total max)

3) Outline ~5 prompts in no more than 35 minutes each (~3hr)

4) Fully complete 1 or 2 MPTs including outlining and writing (~3hr)

That's about one day spent entirely on the MPT. I think that's all you need to absolutely smash the MPT. If you did Barbri, on the day before Bar Day 1, I would just quickly flip through the handout notes on the MPT. Other than that, I think the TX Procedure and Evidence section is where most of your 10% section time should be spent. It seems pretty repetitive and memorizable for another easy 8%+.

My plan of attack is to pick up the easy points from the 10% sections (shooting for at least scaled 8% on each) and try to smash the MBE (shooting for at least 32% scaled), since those things are predictable. That would leave me needing a pathetically bad score on the TX Essays (a little less than scaled 20% of the available 40%) to pass. I don't like the essays because you can know a subject incredibly well yet the question just happens to have some stupid little wrinkle that you didn't learn and then you're stuck with a low score. That makes me nervous.

[Raven1228]

Thank you for the quick and thorough responses. I appreciate it.

[BeachedBrit]

Does anyone know of any available real essay question answers that received good (22 out of 25) scores or better? I know the Barbri ones are absurd and impossible to replicate on the real exam in many cases, so i'm just hoping to get a better sense of what constitutes a top quality answer.

[februarybartaker]

Does anybody have an example of what a mediocre (but passing) answer might look like (e.g. 17/25)?

Also, where is everyone in their studies? I'm feeling comfortable with the MBE, but pretty behind on the essays at this point.

[Raven1228]

I think the bar examiner's website has sample answers chosen from previous years doesn't it? I don't think they're as comprehensive as the barbri ones

I'm the opposite, I feel decent with essays but unsure how the MBE will come out. After today is all MBE studies except for the last couple days for the Day One material.

[februarybartaker]

Here's the TBE answer page (click on the "Selected Answers" tab):

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/MainPage/examinfo.htm

Also, is everyone pretty much on board re: using the past 5-7 years of exams to study for the P&E portion? Is the consensus that this is truly sufficient?

[BeachedBrit]

Also, is everyone pretty much on board re: using the past 5-7 years of exams to study for the P&E portion? Is the consensus that this is truly sufficient?

Yes. I've now heard that repeated by friends that passed using all of the major courses as well as a couple of times on here. It may not be sufficient to get 100% on that section, but it seems to be the optimal point of return for time invested (which seems to be no more than 2 days).

[februarybartaker]

Based on previous posts, it seems that the most efficient way to study is through old exams.

After skimming through Barbri outlines, would it be best to just try and memorize previous answers? The voluminous amount of info. in the outlines is a bit daunting.

Also, how far back should we go? 5 years (10 administrations)?

As are most on this forum, I'm trying to balance knowledge acquisition with the limited time available.

Thanks for the input!

[Raven1228]

When you say to study just previous exams are you talking about just the fill-in-the-blank portion? If so, that's what I plan to do.

I don't recommend that for essays though. The fact patterns can vary slightly and have a completely different outcome.

[Neve]

Also, is everyone pretty much on board re: using the past 5-7 years of exams to study for the P&E portion? Is the consensus that this is truly sufficient?

Based on previous posts, it seems that the most efficient way to study is through old exams.

After skimming through Barbri outlines, would it be best to just try and memorize previous answers? The voluminous amount of info. in the outlines is a bit daunting.

Also, how far back should we go? 5 years (10 administrations)?

Go back 7 years (14 administrations) for the essays and 5-7 years (10-14 administrations) for the P&E.

[Neve]

When you say to study just previous exams are you talking about just the fill-in-the-blank portion? If so, that's what I plan to do.

The fact patterns can vary slightly and have a completely different outcome.

True, but the Texas Bar Examiners aren't that creative and you only need to pass.

[TxBarTaker09]

In regards to the Civil P/E section, the bar examiner put it to me like this, they can only ask you so many questions, so they've pretty much asked everything they can ask you.

Criminal P/E is a little more varied, but their structures are consistent test to test.

[Raven1228]

This might be a long shot, but if any of you have tried both Kaplan and BarBri practice MBE questions, which do you prefer? Or which do you think helped you the most?

My school gave us a copy of both and I can't decide which to continue working with for the last week.

[TxBarTaker09]

As someone who does routinely terrible on the MBE, I did better on it with Kaplan MBE prep than with BarBri, so I prefer Kaplan. I also think Kaplan does a better job at predicting frequency of the type of questions you'll see, and has the questions at a higher difficulty towards the end of the course.

[LLB2JD]

Does anyone have short outlines (or flowcharts) that they may be willing to share for the essays? I feel like I'm almost there but for the life of me, I seem to be getting floored with Commercial Paper, Secured Transaction and Property.

[februarybartaker]

Seconded to the above. Plus Family Law...

To past exam takers - do you have any opinion re: BARBRI's "essay writing workshops"? Is the review provided within those handouts something to pay attention to (i.e. can we pass the Q knowing that), or is it too brief to be helpful?

[saraea]

Hey all, first time TX taker (licensed out of state). Anyone know how important the crossover topics (bankruptcy and tax) really are? Do they come up often? Can I safely skim them?

[februarybartaker]

Saraea - bankruptcy has only been tested as a "cross over" topic, and just 3 times since 1999.

Re: taxation, there have not been any Q's since 2002.

If you're in a time crunch, looks like you should skim.

[TxBarTaker09]

When taxation has come up in my attempts, it was coupled with the corporations questions (which of these, general partnerships, corporations, limited liability would be most favorable) and then it lists a bunch of factors, including tax liability. I can't remember bankruptcy ever coming up.

[OklahomasOK]

When taxation has come up in my attempts, it was coupled with the corporations questions (which of these, general partnerships, corporations, limited liability would be most favorable) and then it lists a bunch of factors, including tax liability. I can't remember bankruptcy ever coming up.

Good luck next week. Hope you crush it.

[TxBarTaker09]

When taxation has come up in my attempts, it was coupled with the corporations questions (which of these, general partnerships, corporations, limited liability would be most favorable) and then it lists a bunch of factors, including tax liability. I can't remember bankruptcy ever coming up.

Good luck next week. Hope you crush it.

Thanks! It will all come down to the MBE, as it always does.

[BeachedBrit]

Does anyone that has done this before (or has seen a post from someone talking about this or discussed with someone) have any idea what bad essay scores look like? I swear I saw something saying ~10/25 was 1st percentile, but I can't remember where nor can I find it now.

What i'm looking for is, if I have basically no clue, and just take educated guesses at all the rules and the outcome of a particular essay, can I expect that i'll get at least a 5 or 8 or 10 out of 25?

[TxBarTaker09]

I remember 12/25 being pretty low.

[februarybartaker]

I agree BeachedBrit - it would be very telling to get a sense of the bell curve/percentiles for various scores on the essays.

EDIT: Below are some helpful comments from the 2014 July Texas Bar Exam Thread. FWIW, I think arkhamhorror took PA.

No. In fact, I actually know very little black letter law at the moment but am hoping to cram a few things in there during the last week or so.

The other jurisdiction I took had state specific essays, and I remember making up tax, estates, and real property, and still got the average you needed to pass.

Instead of cramming just black letter law, I found it helpful to go over old exams in the last week and issue spot like crazy (don't actually write out the answers unless you're having major time management issues). They cycle through scenarios, and it's helpful to see the actual depth of stuff that they test on.

Couple points.

Re: sample answers. Yes, they're detailed but my understanding is that those are the models that get 24-25. Hence, they properly state the rule of law and don't contain any misstatements, and cover all the facts in a clear and concise manner. If you can write that much then great, you're essentially guaranteed to pass. But you're really aiming for an average of 16-17 on each, so if you have to make up a rule here or there or don't cover every single point either due to not knowing the answer, or running out of time, or overlooking it, the hope is that what you do know will get you to that average score.

Re: commercial paper. I made flashcards from the CMR and I'm planning on reviewing the remainder of sample answers concerning the subject. Outside of that, I'm concentrating on concepts that are easier to memorize and not worrying about it too much. Worst comes to worst, I know the commercial paper "buzz words" so that, combined with some b.s. legal analysis, should be enough to scrape a 12/13 on the essay, and hopefully I'll score higher on another subject to bring the average up.

I'd rather focus on UCC/Family Law/Estates & Wills since that's 50% of the exam.

[LLB2JD]

How detailed do the responses have to be on the Criminal and civil procedure? I find that my answers are kinda brief, but my feeling is that it needs to be more detailed. I have to dig deep these last couple of days.