Feb 2016 bar results waiting thread Forum

[doubltall]

Congrats to all who passed this time!

To those who did not pass: don't even think about quitting. Think about the feelings you'll get when you find out you passed - you forget all your struggle, stress, sleepless nights and it all pays off. I passed on my third try. Took the first one without practicing MBE or essays, meaninglessly only reading, listening to the lectures and preparing study aids. Then I realized you should practice enough essays and at least 1000 MBE questions to know patterns. I missed it by few points on my second try, but after seeing the progress between the first and second time (35 points), I decided to not give up and sit for this damn exam as many times as it takes me to pass. Now I am super happy I did not get discouraged and found strength in me to keep going.

I am in WA, where passing score is 270. Pass rate was 58.5% this time, as opposed to 75.9 in summer

Congrats!

And yesterday I learned that I passed WA FEB16 too and it was 3rd try as well! And where I'd come a hair shy previously, I passed with almost 20pts to spare, I'm so so happy! The drastic changes I'd made to my self-study exam prep clearly paid off.

[Fleetoffoot4]

Happy to report I passed in OR! Scores aren't released if you pass unfortunately. I can say that the minimum passing score in OR is 283, and I think the minimum MBE is 142. I failed in July with a a 262.9 (136.1 MBE, 126.8 essay/MPT). I took Barbri the second time around, finished about 90% of the material, and received a 142 raw on the simulated MBE and a 71/100 on the refresher.

Thanks to everyone on this thread for helping me pass the time waiting for results, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for everyone still waiting. Hang in there, and good luck!!

[Sue]

Congrats to all who passed this time!

To those who did not pass: don't even think about quitting. Think about the feelings you'll get when you find out you passed - you forget all your struggle, stress, sleepless nights and it all pays off. I passed on my third try. Took the first one without practicing MBE or essays, meaninglessly only reading, listening to the lectures and preparing study aids. Then I realized you should practice enough essays and at least 1000 MBE questions to know patterns. I missed it by few points on my second try, but after seeing the progress between the first and second time (35 points), I decided to not give up and sit for this damn exam as many times as it takes me to pass. Now I am super happy I did not get discouraged and found strength in me to keep going.

I am in WA, where passing score is 270. Pass rate was 58.5% this time, as opposed to 75.9 in summer

Congrats!

And yesterday I learned that I passed WA FEB16 too and it was 3rd try as well! And where I'd come a hair shy previously, I passed with almost 20pts to spare, I'm so so happy! The drastic changes I'd made to my self-study exam prep clearly paid off.

Wow, you killed it! Congrats to you too!

[Sue]

It won't let me edit the post, but do you guys think repeaters generally pass more in February compared to the next july?

In Oregon they definitely do, according to the released pass rates. I speculate it's because Feb retakers are more likely to be fucked-up-once-in-july-but-figured-it-out-this-time testers, and July retakers are more likely to be 3-times-or-more-and-may-never-get-it types.

Oh no that's going to be me if I take it in July

Not necessarily. I passed this Feb on my third try

[legal10101]

Florida Posted.

[THE_U]

PASSED!! So happy right now. Truly at a loss for words.

[legal10101]

PASSED!! So happy right now. Truly at a loss for words.

Awesome Job! Did you look at the scores in general?????????? ALOT of Fails............... That is nuts. I have to go back for Part A... Guessing that UCC question did me in!

[salsahips]

Florida Posted.

Anyone know how to access Florida raw score data? All I'm seeing is pass/fail info

[THE_U]

PASSED!! So happy right now. Truly at a loss for words.

Awesome Job! Did you look at the scores in general?????????? ALOT of Fails............... That is nuts. I have to go back for Part A... Guessing that UCC question did me in!

Yeah I saw that

I think that Part A is definitely what screwed so many people over this time, rather than the MBE, so don't beat yourself up. You're gonna kill it in July.

[salsahips]

PASSED!! So happy right now. Truly at a loss for words.

Awesome Job! Did you look at the scores in general?????????? ALOT of Fails............... That is nuts. I have to go back for Part A... Guessing that UCC question did me in!

It looks like Florida may be under 50% pass rate

[legal10101]

PASSED!! So happy right now. Truly at a loss for words.

Awesome Job! Did you look at the scores in general?????????? ALOT of Fails............... That is nuts. I have to go back for Part A... Guessing that UCC question did me in!

It looks like Florida may be under 50% pass rate

Out of the 150 in my results section only 64 passed.....

[THE_U]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

[salsahips]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

I crunched the numbers for 4 of the 9 sheets (excluding those only taking one part since their "overall status" is missing) and its at 44%... 5 sheets aren't included in that number so take it with a grain of salt but I don't see the needle moving much

[apm5743]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

I crunched the numbers for 4 of the 9 sheets (excluding those only taking one part since their "overall status" is missing) and its at 44%... 5 sheets aren't included in that number so take it with a grain of salt but I don't see the needle moving much

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has released the statistics. The overall pass rate for first-time takers sitting for the entire exam is 58.4%. https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 9200485121

[Tzhs]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

I crunched the numbers for 4 of the 9 sheets (excluding those only taking one part since their "overall status" is missing) and its at 44%... 5 sheets aren't included in that number so take it with a grain of salt but I don't see the needle moving much

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has released the statistics. The overall pass rate for first-time takers sitting for the entire exam is 58.4%. https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 9200485121

Interesting to note that the pass rate for first time test takers in FL was 64.3 percent in Feb '15 and 72.9% in Feb '14.

[THE_U]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

I crunched the numbers for 4 of the 9 sheets (excluding those only taking one part since their "overall status" is missing) and its at 44%... 5 sheets aren't included in that number so take it with a grain of salt but I don't see the needle moving much

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has released the statistics. The overall pass rate for first-time takers sitting for the entire exam is 58.4%. https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 9200485121

Interesting to note that the pass rate for first time test takers in FL was 64.3 percent in Feb '15 and 72.9% in Feb '14.

Essays were surely the cause of this drop. Pretty shitty of the FL Bar.

[Tzhs]

The 1st PDF looks like it's definitely under 50%. What a blood bath.

I crunched the numbers for 4 of the 9 sheets (excluding those only taking one part since their "overall status" is missing) and its at 44%... 5 sheets aren't included in that number so take it with a grain of salt but I don't see the needle moving much

The Florida Board of Bar Examiners has released the statistics. The overall pass rate for first-time takers sitting for the entire exam is 58.4%. https://www.floridabarexam.org/__85257b ... 9200485121

Interesting to note that the pass rate for first time test takers in FL was 64.3 percent in Feb '15 and 72.9% in Feb '14.

Essays were surely the cause of this drop. Pretty shitty of the FL Bar.

The essays were likely NOT the reason for this. Florida likely scales their Part A scores off of the Part B MBE scores. Once the average score on the Part B MBE fell below 136 (PA lists it at a tad under 135), then the scaling of the FL scores resulted in the average FL part A score being below 135.

Even if the FL essays had been easier, scaling the part A state scores to the Part B MBE scores would have resulted in the average Part A score being below 136.

I have not crunched any data but if you look at the IL percentile distribution chart, it looks as if approximately 47 percent of FL test takers will get above 136 on the part B MBE. This means that approximately 47 percent of FL test takers will get above 136 on the Part A (multiple choice and essays).

Anyone who passed both Part A and Part B will pass by the overall method. There are some people who passed part A by a little but failed part B by more than the same amount of part A passage. Same thing for some people who passed B by a little but failed A by more than a little. No one is certain how the distribution of scores works or the correlation between positive scores on A and B, but this probably accounts for why the overall passage rate is south of 47 percent.

[Tzhs]

intentionally deleted

[Tzhs]

And one problem with scaling state scores off of the MBE scores is that it assumes a correlation between state essay/multiple choice performance and MBE performance. For example, assume, even though it may be controversial, that MBE scores are falling because people aren't as good at taking standardized tests now as they were a few years. Forget about the fact that doing well on a standardized test may bear no correlation with how one does as a lawyer.

Now, assume that the law schools are focusing more time and effort on the topics tested in the essay exams, and are teaching people how to write better essays. Assume that a test given today is as difficult as a test given 5 years ago, but that people taking that test today would write better essays because the schools have trained them better. So the people taking the test today would have received more points on these essays, on average, than the people taking the essay test five years ago.

However, even though the people taking the essay test wrote better essays, scaling the essay scores to the MBE implies that the average grade of all essay writers for people writing the essays today will be lower today than it was five years ago, because the average MBE test result today is lower than it was five years ago.

[rntojd]

Congratulations to all who passed! Awaiting NY results is not fun. When have previous NY Feb. Bar results been released? The BOLE website says results in mid-May, but that can't be right, especially in light of UBE deadlines.

[BVest]

Congratulations to all who passed! Awaiting NY results is not fun. When have previous NY Feb. Bar results been released? The BOLE website says results in mid-May, but that can't be right, especially in light of UBE deadlines.

What do UBE deadlines have to do with it (in their final non-UBE administration)?

[slavetothebar]

I agree completely - I hated Barbri's fake questions, lecturers and essay graders. The first time I took the bar I expected to do really well on essays because I was getting passing scores on all my barbri graded practice essays...did horrible on essays on the bar - Barbri graders were too generous - and I thought I was in a better position.

For Feb I scrapped Barbri's lesson plan - studied Essay model answers, Critical Pass and Lean Sheets - passed Feb.

Passed MT. (UBE state - 50% MBE, 30% essays (6 total), 20% MPT)

My only advice to those taking it next July (with a similar jurisdictional layout as MT) is to ignore everything that BARBRI says, and spend a large majority of your time doing practice MBE questions. Real MBE questions, not 20 a day of BARBRI's fake MBE questions that don't resemble the real ones in the slightest. From experience, I can tell you that they don't, and won't, help you at all.

Remember that what you are learning and what you are studying for is to pass this test. You aren't trying to learn the law or how to be a lawyer, you're trying to learn how to take this test. You're not trying to learn how to properly apply rules to facts, you are trying to learn how to take this test. You aren't trying remember and regurgitate as much law as possible, you are trying to learn how to pass this test.

The bar is like a game of basketball. What's the best way to get better at basketball? Is it by repeatedly reading the rules of the game? Reading how to properly dribble, pass, and shoot? Is it by playing NBA 2K16 and hoping your video game skills transfer over to the real game? (Looking at you, BARBRI MBE practice sets).

You get better at the MBE by doing the MBE. You don't improve your MBE score by learning the law, you improve your MBE score by sitting down and doing those fucking questions over and over and over again. The bar is a test of how good you are at taking tests, not a test of minimum competency. Get good at the MBE questions, and you'll pass.

[slavetothebar]

For those who didn't make it through this time - you WILL! Keep trying.

One thing I did differently this time was to not focus as much on the MBE part. I took the Illinois exam. In July I was 15 points shy. When I got my score sheet - I realized my essay scores were bad - but that left me lots of room for improvement.

This time, in choosing where to devote study time, I realized i needed to study smart - Essentially for each "point" I earned, after scaling the MBE (my state is 50/50 MEE/MPT and MBE) I discovered that my essay scores were given over 4 points each. So, to get the 15 points I needed, I can study MBE questions harder, and hope to get 15 more of those correct or I could focus, focus on essays - because 4 Essay points would give me 16 points.

I read a lot of model answers, really focusing on the facts they were utilizing - and I didn't stick to my study guides only - google, etc.

I passed.

It may not have been pretty - and maybe not the best manner of studying - but for me it worked. I went with the theory that repeaters tend to do the same - or maybe a bit better on the MBE itself - so I focused elsewhere - and made it happen.

[waiting06]

CONGRATS to everyone that passed!!

So happy for you all!

[abogadesq]

Congratulations to future Florida attorneys. To those who didn't make it, keep trying!