California February 2016 Bar Exam (Westside For Life) Forum

[poorunfortunatesoul]

Hi everyone,

I was lurking in the forum yesterday waiting for results. Unfortunately, I didn't pass. July will be my third time. If anyone has any advice or materials they want to get rid of, please let me know. I'm also looking for a discount code for baressays.com. Thanks!

Hi 2Times - I just PM'd you.

Does anybody have a code for Adaptibar? Would be much appreciated!

Hi, teabreeze! I just PM'ed you! Best of luck!

[poorunfortunatesoul]

Congratulations to all who passed! I"m truly happy for you!

For everyone else, I wish you the very best!

PM me if you need an Adaptibar code!

[BrokenMouse]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p9344867

Here's my advice guys. I wrote a guide.

[MarcZero]

Advice on how to pass the bar is very person-specific sometimes, but one piece I think was vital to me was to make a spreadsheet or word document listing all of the RULES from MBE questions you missed. I wouldn't copy the whole answer, just the underlying rule. I split them up by subjects as well. Eventually I had a 20+ page document a couple weeks before the bar. The morning of the MBE, I read the whole thing twice before walking in. I was actually reading it up to the doorway and dumped it in the trash as I walked into the testing center.

I can remember at least 5-10 specific questions I got right on the MBE solely because I had just read it that morning that I would have not remembered otherwise. (FRCP Rule 48 for example.) At roughly 3 points a pop, that can add 15-30 points on your score.

[MooMoon]

I have never posted, but I have been reading the thread for a while now. This forum really helped me staying motivated! So thank you all.

Congratulations to all who pass!

Congratulations to all who will pass next, be proud of your work and dedication!

I strongly recommend BarEssays, it really really helped me. I also really liked the Themis lectures.

My study method was 2 hours/ 5 days a week from september to december, then average 8 hours/day january to february.
I am a first time LLM student, so I really needed to understand the material, since I only took 4 bar tested classes during my LLM. I think learning small bits but often really helps too. Anyway, good luck all <3

[Hope2016]

I graduated from law school in May 2013 from a top tier law school. I took the CA bar exam each time I was eligible to take it. I FINALLY passed on my 6th attempt. 3 long years after graduating I am finally free of the bar exam.

I did BARBRI twice, studied on my own twice, and utilized One-Timers the last two times. I saw my score increase with each attempt, and nearly passed last time. This time around I focused more of my time on doing more practice MBE's until I was averaging 75% correct across all topics on all my practice questions. My writing was always stronger than the MBE, particularly the PT's, but by MBE score would go up and down the first 5 attempts so I focused more of my time/effort on the MBE.

I can tell you I was very low, emotionally and financially throughout this process. But with the encouragement of my family and friends I persevered and feel so grateful that I pushed on and took the exam one more time.

YOU CAN DO IT. If you failed, take it from me, YOU CAN DO IT. It will be worth it when you pass. If you failed, don't give up hope. Feel terrible for a few days, but remember, you graduated from law school. You can do it.

Congratulation!!! I am really happy for you. I am going thru similar situation that you went thru, except that I don't think I passed this tiem ( I have not checked) I looked thru my admission status and it says "not satisfied" so I assume I failed. I took the bar 4 times and each time my score improve, last time I took it it was 1420. my last MBE was 159 my essays vary from 55 to 75. I work full time but not in an area related to law. I want to move forward but I feel stuck. My scores go up but at a very slow rate, I just want to pass this test and move on. Thank you for keeping us look forward and be positive.

[just_lila]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p9344867

Here's my advice guys. I wrote a guide.

Congrats BrokenMouse!
Very useful guide. You did a great job.

I passed this time.

These are the things I did differently this time:
- I cared much less about studying the law;
- I outlined as many essays as I could;
- When I wrote essays or PTS, I followed IRAC religiously (I used "Here," and "Thus" in each and every paragraph);
- in addition to Themis that was available to repeaters anyway (mostly I used them to send essays for grading), I also used a barbri conviser, adaptibar, baressays, and Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam by Mary Basick and Tina Schindler.

This forum was really helpful.
Congratulations to all who passed. Sorry to those that did not pass. Best of luck in July.
Thank you A Male Human, Healthnut and BuenAbogado. Your posts helped me a lot.

[AntiHuman]

I know this is a repeat post from another thread, but see my following message below. You all can do it no matter where you started from.

PM me for tips.

Long time lurker on the threads. I've helped several people pass their 2nd/3rd time around on the exam. Some of my stats:

1. Took LSAT at 18 years old. Failed. High GPA combined with low LSAT I ended up at a good school.
2. Horrible law school grades. Never used IRAC or learned how to spot issues. Did virtually no studying in law school.
3. Took bar exam at 22 years old and failed first time. Studied about 30 hours total and attended no barbri classes or did any homework. So far from this story you can tell I am not a good test taker(aka didn't know wtf I was doing).

Scores my first time:

Essays: 55, 55, 60, 60, 85, 55
PTs: 55, 60
MBE: Slightly below passing

The 85 may jump out at you. This isn't an intelligence test. You will do well if you know how to approach the exam and study smart(not hard). Most importantly, you must know how to spot ALL the issues(or as many as you can). I asked a professor why the huge discrepancy on my essays. On the contracts essay, I spotted every issue and got an 85. I failed the rest because I didn't spot several minor issues. Issue spotting DETERMINES your score. Not analysis. People might bash me on this. Everyone will know the rules and have analysis. Shoutout to Injun on this for commending me, but I am big on spotting issues.

2nd time: I walked out of the exam and went straight to the bar to buy everyone shots because I knew I passed. It was that easy. No matter your score the first time, you can pass the 2nd time. It's just a matter of knowing how to approach the exam. I just put the first exam behind me, took a deep breathe and started researching strategies on what to do differently.

Failing sucks, but nobody has ever asked me my law school grades or how many times I took the bar exam. It will all be laughable in a few years.

PM me for exact details on what I did differently the 2nd time around on each section of the exam(MBE, essays, PTs).

[july16bartaker]

I'm planning to take the July bar, can someone PM me and send me a code for the BarEssays?! Thank you so much for your help!!!

[minkylowlife]

Would anyone like Kaplan materials? I'll pay shipping.

[storge]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p9344867

Here's my advice guys. I wrote a guide.

Congrats BrokenMouse!
Very useful guide. You did a great job.

I passed this time.

These are the things I did differently this time:
- I cared much less about studying the law;
- I outlined as many essays as I could;
- When I wrote essays or PTS, I followed IRAC religiously (I used "Here," and "Thus" in each and every paragraph);
- in addition to Themis that was available to repeaters anyway (mostly I used them to send essays for grading), I also used a barbri conviser, adaptibar, baressays, and Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam by Mary Basick and Tina Schindler.

This forum was really helpful.
Congratulations to all who passed. Sorry to those that did not pass. Best of luck in July.
Thank you A Male Human, Healthnut and BuenAbogado. Your posts helped me a lot.

+1 to outlining as many essays as possible - fact patterns will start to look familiar and you'll start seeing that certain type of facts are written specifically to raise a specific issue or set of issues/sub-issues.

+1 to IRAC with "HERE" and "THUS" headers every time, for each issue, no exceptions. Half the battle is as simple as writing the way they want you to. Keep it simple & easy to follow.

[storge]

I know this is a repeat post from another thread, but see my following message below. You all can do it no matter where you started from.

PM me for tips.

Long time lurker on the threads. I've helped several people pass their 2nd/3rd time around on the exam. Some of my stats:

1. Took LSAT at 18 years old. Failed. High GPA combined with low LSAT I ended up at a good school.
2. Horrible law school grades. Never used IRAC or learned how to spot issues. Did virtually no studying in law school.
3. Took bar exam at 22 years old and failed first time. Studied about 30 hours total and attended no barbri classes or did any homework. So far from this story you can tell I am not a good test taker(aka didn't know wtf I was doing).

Scores my first time:

Essays: 55, 55, 60, 60, 85, 55
PTs: 55, 60
MBE: Slightly below passing

The 85 may jump out at you. This isn't an intelligence test. You will do well if you know how to approach the exam and study smart(not hard). Most importantly, you must know how to spot ALL the issues(or as many as you can). I asked a professor why the huge discrepancy on my essays. On the contracts essay, I spotted every issue and got an 85. I failed the rest because I didn't spot several minor issues. Issue spotting DETERMINES your score. Not analysis. People might bash me on this. Everyone will know the rules and have analysis. Shoutout to Injun on this for commending me, but I am big on spotting issues.

2nd time: I walked out of the exam and went straight to the bar to buy everyone shots because I knew I passed. It was that easy. No matter your score the first time, you can pass the 2nd time. It's just a matter of knowing how to approach the exam. I just put the first exam behind me, took a deep breathe and started researching strategies on what to do differently.

Failing sucks, but nobody has ever asked me my law school grades or how many times I took the bar exam. It will all be laughable in a few years.

PM me for exact details on what I did differently the 2nd time around on each section of the exam(MBE, essays, PTs).

+1 to making it your goal to spot ALL RELEVANT issues. I followed AntiHuman's and aMaleHuman's advice on this. I also saw this when I religiously reviewed past answers posted on the bar website and BarEssays. I saw patterns of a specific set of issues that were raised in passing answers that were not raised on non-passing ones.

Also, I saw a lot of discussion about negligence for the Feb 2016 essay and how that won't hurt your score if you raised it just in case. I'm completely with BrokenMouse on this and only wrote about intentional tort in that essay as I did not see that Q raising the type of fact pattern that the bar examiners typically raise when they want to see negligence in the answer. Will see if that was a deal breaker -- probably not by itself, but maybe if too many irrelevant issues were raised. While I agree that raising a sub-issue or maybe even an issue that doesn't apply here and there may not hurt your score, I do think that raising a major issue or too many irrelevant issues CAN hurt your score as I've seen it on the past answers on BarEssays (premium shows grader comments on some of the essays where the grader specifically said that the examinee misses point by raising irrelevant issue(s) X). My advice is to be careful about raising too many irrelevant issues just to CYA. With enough practice and exposure to past questions, you will grasp most if not all issues the examiners want you to raise.

Note, I wasn't perfect on my essays in Feb. Unlike AntiHuman, I didn't walk out confident I passed, but I felt like I had a decent shot. I did walk out knowing that there were a few (about 5-7 total/combining all 6 essays) of issues/sub-issues that I knew the examiners wanted to see, but I just didn't have time to write about them. This haunted me through the wait for results. However, I was confident that I discussed most if not all absolute must issues/the major ones, which gave me a little piece of mind. This shows that you can pass with imperfect essays, but they can't be too imperfect. Practice makes almost perfect so do it even if you don't feel like you know the BLL. They'll test stuff you can't learn unless you do a practice Q so you actually learn the law that way. Hindsight, I probably could've used even more practice to perfect timing and walk out feeling like AntiHuman did.

Strive for perfection (getting all issues), but know that you won't need perfection to pass. That's what I did with each practice Q.

Hope this helps someone out there. Good luck to all!

[2TimesTheCharm]

Would anyone like Kaplan materials? I'll pay shipping.

Please, if they are still available?

[minkylowlife]

Would anyone like Kaplan materials? I'll pay shipping.

Please, if they are still available?

They are! I'll PP you.

[a male human]

I know this is a repeat post from another thread, but see my following message below. You all can do it no matter where you started from.

PM me for tips.

Long time lurker on the threads. I've helped several people pass their 2nd/3rd time around on the exam. Some of my stats:

1. Took LSAT at 18 years old. Failed. High GPA combined with low LSAT I ended up at a good school.
2. Horrible law school grades. Never used IRAC or learned how to spot issues. Did virtually no studying in law school.
3. Took bar exam at 22 years old and failed first time. Studied about 30 hours total and attended no barbri classes or did any homework. So far from this story you can tell I am not a good test taker(aka didn't know wtf I was doing).

Scores my first time:

Essays: 55, 55, 60, 60, 85, 55
PTs: 55, 60
MBE: Slightly below passing

The 85 may jump out at you. This isn't an intelligence test. You will do well if you know how to approach the exam and study smart(not hard). Most importantly, you must know how to spot ALL the issues(or as many as you can). I asked a professor why the huge discrepancy on my essays. On the contracts essay, I spotted every issue and got an 85. I failed the rest because I didn't spot several minor issues. Issue spotting DETERMINES your score. Not analysis. People might bash me on this. Everyone will know the rules and have analysis. Shoutout to Injun on this for commending me, but I am big on spotting issues.

2nd time: I walked out of the exam and went straight to the bar to buy everyone shots because I knew I passed. It was that easy. No matter your score the first time, you can pass the 2nd time. It's just a matter of knowing how to approach the exam. I just put the first exam behind me, took a deep breathe and started researching strategies on what to do differently.

Failing sucks, but nobody has ever asked me my law school grades or how many times I took the bar exam. It will all be laughable in a few years.

PM me for exact details on what I did differently the 2nd time around on each section of the exam(MBE, essays, PTs).

+1 to making it your goal to spot ALL RELEVANT issues. I followed AntiHuman's and aMaleHuman's advice on this. I also saw this when I religiously reviewed past answers posted on the bar website and BarEssays. I saw patterns of a specific set of issues that were raised in passing answers that were not raised on non-passing ones.

Also, I saw a lot of discussion about negligence for the Feb 2016 essay and how that won't hurt your score if you raised it just in case. I'm completely with BrokenMouse on this and only wrote about intentional tort in that essay as I did not see that Q raising the type of fact pattern that the bar examiners typically raise when they want to see negligence in the answer. Will see if that was a deal breaker -- probably not by itself, but maybe if too many irrelevant issues were raised. While I agree that raising a sub-issue or maybe even an issue that doesn't apply here and there may not hurt your score, I do think that raising a major issue or too many irrelevant issues CAN hurt your score as I've seen it on the past answers on BarEssays (premium shows grader comments on some of the essays where the grader specifically said that the examinee misses point by raising irrelevant issue(s) X). My advice is to be careful about raising too many irrelevant issues just to CYA. With enough practice and exposure to past questions, you will grasp most if not all issues the examiners want you to raise.

Note, I wasn't perfect on my essays in Feb. Unlike AntiHuman, I didn't walk out confident I passed, but I felt like I had a decent shot. I did walk out knowing that there were a few (about 5-7 total/combining all 6 essays) of issues/sub-issues that I knew the examiners wanted to see, but I just didn't have time to write about them. This haunted me through the wait for results. However, I was confident that I discussed most if not all absolute must issues/the major ones, which gave me a little piece of mind. This shows that you can pass with imperfect essays, but they can't be too imperfect. Practice makes almost perfect so do it even if you don't feel like you know the BLL. They'll test stuff you can't learn unless you do a practice Q so you actually learn the law that way. Hindsight, I probably could've used even more practice to perfect timing and walk out feeling like AntiHuman did.

Strive for perfection (getting all issues), but know that you won't need perfection to pass. That's what I did with each practice Q.

Hope this helps someone out there. Good luck to all!

Yeah, I didn't want to say it before when people were freaking out about negligence, but I agree with storge. From what I can tell, you shouldn't just throw the kitchen sink thinking "it couldn't hurt."

In fact, the essay instructions explicitly say:
“Your answer should be complete, but you should not volunteer information or discuss legal doctrines that are not pertinent to the solution of the problem.”

That's basically what storge is saying, boiled down. Of course, it's somewhat easier said than done under pressure. But every repeater I know who failed with me in 2013 July—every last one—had to improve his or her essays/IRAC to pass. A systematic way to identify issues is discussed further in depth here.

[captaincalifornia]

February 16 was my first attempt and, even though I didn't put in the time that I thought I should have, I actually thought I had a shot at passing. I was wrong..

Did anyone else have trouble registering for the July 2016 exam? I keep getting this error message:

Your submission for this screen is not accepted and cannot be saved until you correct the following errors or omissions:

Please do not apply for the California Bar Examination at this time. Once the results from the February 2016 California Bar Examination are released, you will be given special filing deadlines.

If you cannot correct the errors on this page and would like to come back to it later, you can move on using the Skip & Jump feature.

I thought it was supposed to be available right away? 2 days have passed...

[AspiringCALawyer]

February 16 was my first attempt and, even though I didn't put in the time that I thought I should have, I actually thought I had a shot at passing. I was wrong..

Did anyone else have trouble registering for the July 2016 exam? I keep getting this error message:

Your submission for this screen is not accepted and cannot be saved until you correct the following errors or omissions:

Please do not apply for the California Bar Examination at this time. Once the results from the February 2016 California Bar Examination are released, you will be given special filing deadlines.

If you cannot correct the errors on this page and would like to come back to it later, you can move on using the Skip & Jump feature.

I thought it was supposed to be available right away? 2 days have passed...

I was able to fill out all screens; however, I didn't submit it yet. Still deciding the order of test centers. Went to Ontario in Feb; however, might pick LA as first choice this time.

[Justpassed2016]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Thankfully I passed! I have bar materials that I'm looking to get ride of. Pm me if you're interested in them.

[RoseBuddy]

This is interesting to me because I only wrote about negligence for the last call of the torts essay, didn't mention intentional torts at all for that portion. I really wish I could know the scores for me essay, but I passed so I'll never know if mentioning only negligence for that portion hurt me or not.

[BrokenMouse]

This is interesting to me because I only wrote about negligence for the last call of the torts essay, didn't mention intentional torts at all for that portion. I really wish I could know the scores for me essay, but I passed so I'll never know if mentioning only negligence for that portion hurt me or not.

that was only 1 of 3 questions in that essay. even if u bombed that particular q, you could theoretically still pass that with 65.

also, ppl still never responded to this, but if you intentionally unscrew nails in a chair to hurt your grandma when she sits on it because she refused to leave you money in her will, is that negligence? or is that intentional tort?

[bigpapi]

also, ppl still never responded to this, but if you intentionally unscrew nails in a chair to hurt your grandma when she sits on it because she refused to leave you money in her will, is that negligence? or is that intentional tort?

That's the intentional tort of battery.

[barprepblues]

hey all! popping in to say congrats to those who passed. for those who didn't, don't give up! the bar is learnable, it might just take a few tries.

for me, i used barbri for essay prep and borrowed my friend's kaplan book for mbe prep. use critical pass flash cards if you get behind on the lectures. also, find a friend to study with. it helps a lot.

good luck everyone. see you soon on the other side!

[aunt_pearl]

I failed. First time taker.

I don't know when I've been more depressed. I feel like I'm going crazy this weekend. I spent the last 48 hours not eating or sleeping, just sobbing.

My job (B4 tax) is in the highest COL in the country. I won't have be able to pay my loans back. I really hoped that I'd be able to jump ship if I passed the bar. I was working with a recruiter and she was hopeful. And now it looks like I won't be able to. And that just adds to the crushing depression.

[2TimesTheCharm]

I failed. First time taker.

I don't know when I've been more depressed. I feel like I'm going crazy this weekend. I spent the last 48 hours not eating or sleeping, just sobbing.

My job (B4 tax) is in the highest COL in the country. I won't have be able to pay my loans back. I really hoped that I'd be able to jump ship if I passed the bar. I was working with a recruiter and she was hopeful. And now it looks like I won't be able to. And that just adds to the crushing depression.

Don't feel bad You're in good company.

The first thing I did when I found out was email my law firm's coordinator. I asked him if I may take it again. He was very nice and said my boss will understand, and as long as I pass in July, everything will be okay. Your boss will understand. Ask him for another chance, and this time, you can work on the little things, like formatting and details.

[aunt_pearl]

The first thing I did when I found out was email my law firm's coordinator. I asked him if I may take it again. He was very nice and said my boss will understand, and as long as I pass in July, everything will be okay. Your boss will understand. Ask him for another chance, and this time, you can work on the little things, like formatting and details.

Thanks

I'm not so worried about my current job per se. No one needs a license at a B4. It's just that they pay me 74k to live in Palo Alto, with over a quarter mil of debt. And I feel liek I can't look for anything else until I have the bar.

I jsut... I don't know how to move forward from here. I'm in so much pain it's incredible. I feel like giving up all together.