July 2017 NY Bar Hangout Thread - Results Are Here!!! Forum

[nickadew]

Any other Barbri takers having problems with the online program today?

Yup. Definitely down. Called them and line is busy. Seems to be a problem for everyone.

Coincidentally, for all y'all Barbri people out there, are we not getting any physical books for the program?

[WestWingWatcher]

Any other Barbri takers having problems with the online program today?

Yup. Definitely down. Called them and line is busy. Seems to be a problem for everyone.

Coincidentally, for all y'all Barbri people out there, are we not getting any physical books for the program?

You have to request them

[thelawyer1908]

I'm afraid to do practice essay questions.

[Sprout]

Any other Barbri takers having problems with the online program today?

yep. can't log in, neither can my friend

Website is down.

[SplitMyPants]

No PMT I think I'm late to the party. I did the initial computer registration thing and I thought that was it (downloading it, mock exam, etc) but it appears that this is a new different thing (??). Prob for sure need to do it tomorrow. I'm not fucking handwriting an exam.

worst part is, if we miss the laptop deadline for nyle, there isn't even a handwrite option because we take it at home... so we'd be stuck taking it in fall
but that said, as others noted, we have til the 8th

[jingosaur]

So are BarBri questions easier or harder than real bar exam questions? Based on my scores so far, I'm thinking that the workshop questions are easier and the subject sets are harder, but it's hard to tell because I'm still not very good at these questions.

Also, fuck this outage. I planned to watch 10 hours of videos today.

[lolabear727]

Will you lovely in-staters please give a heads up when you got your emails so us out-of-staters know when to do the massive email refresh the next morning?? Thanks!!

I'm guessing out-of-staters will get our email 6/7...

[Slytherpuff]

Will you lovely in-staters please give a heads up when you got your emails so us out-of-staters know when to do the massive email refresh the next morning?? Thanks!!

I'm guessing out-of-staters will get our email 6/7...

We will! There will probably be like 5 NYC people immediately posting in here once the location email comes out.

[MrT]

So are BarBri questions easier or harder than real bar exam questions? Based on my scores so far, I'm thinking that the workshop questions are easier and the subject sets are harder, but it's hard to tell because I'm still not very good at these questions.

Also, fuck this outage. I planned to watch 10 hours of videos today.

Consensus is that, overall, the BarBri questions are more difficult than the real thing. However, my experience is that the CivPro questions specifically are slightly easier. Note that as you go along, the subject question sets will get progressively more difficult. At the end, the questions are seemingly impossible (refrain from breaking your computer).

Regardless, make use of the percentile rankings that BarBri provides. You MBE is score is graded on a curve so it's a pretty solid indicator of where you will ultimately fall on that curve.

[legallyblonde88]

For the few of us using Themis, does anyone have an idea of what the % score on our graded essay translates to? Do we know what % would be a "pass" for example?

[Sprout]

So are BarBri questions easier or harder than real bar exam questions? Based on my scores so far, I'm thinking that the workshop questions are easier and the subject sets are harder, but it's hard to tell because I'm still not very good at these questions.

Also, fuck this outage. I planned to watch 10 hours of videos today.

Consensus is that, overall, the BarBri questions are more difficult than the real thing. However, my experience is that the CivPro questions specifically are slightly easier. Note that as you go along, the subject question sets will get progressively more difficult. At the end, the questions are seemingly impossible (refrain from breaking your computer).

Regardless, make use of the percentile rankings that BarBri provides. You MBE is score is graded on a curve so it's a pretty solid indicator of where you will ultimately fall on that curve.

Bolded - how do we do this

[SplitMyPants]

For the few of us using Themis, does anyone have an idea of what the % score on our graded essay translates to? Do we know what % would be a "pass" for example?

i dunno but after getting back my first essay, the idea of having the same person grade them all seems pretty irrelevant as the only feed back i got was two sentence fragments from the reviewer... it just seemed kind of lazy.

i get way, way, way more out of reading the sample and seeing where i missed issues or how my structure is inferior. i'm kind of irked that something that each prep course touts as such a selling point seems so moot in practice now

[lolabear727]

Will you lovely in-staters please give a heads up when you got your emails so us out-of-staters know when to do the massive email refresh the next morning?? Thanks!!

I'm guessing out-of-staters will get our email 6/7...

We will! There will probably be like 5 NYC people immediately posting in here once the location email comes out.

Thanks Slytherpuff! I appreciate it.

[thelaw2.0]

For the few of us using Themis, does anyone have an idea of what the % score on our graded essay translates to? Do we know what % would be a "pass" for example?

I think they said we should be aiming for 4 or 5 out of 6. 4/6 is about 66%, and a 5/6 is a 83%. They did say though, higher scores on one essay can make up for lower scores on another essay.

[MrT]

So are BarBri questions easier or harder than real bar exam questions? Based on my scores so far, I'm thinking that the workshop questions are easier and the subject sets are harder, but it's hard to tell because I'm still not very good at these questions.

Also, fuck this outage. I planned to watch 10 hours of videos today.

Consensus is that, overall, the BarBri questions are more difficult than the real thing. However, my experience is that the CivPro questions specifically are slightly easier. Note that as you go along, the subject question sets will get progressively more difficult. At the end, the questions are seemingly impossible (refrain from breaking your computer).

Regardless, make use of the percentile rankings that BarBri provides. You MBE is score is graded on a curve so it's a pretty solid indicator of where you will ultimately fall on that curve.

Bolded - how do we do this

At some point, I know there is an intro video that explain this all in great detail but I will sum up the best I can.

For each subject, BarBri will show you your percentile rank relative to all other BarBri user (like 11,000 people). This number will constantly update as you answer more and more questions for that particular subject. So, for instance, if you are in the 60th percentile, you will have answered more questions correctly than 60% of all BarBri users. BarBri goes even further and will show you how well you did on each question set, as well as each question type. So in Contracts it may break down how well you perform on "offer and acceptance," "consideration," and "remedies" (these are guesses on the categories).

As you progress, you will get a decent visual of where you stand overall and where you need to focus your studies. For me, I was consistently in 90th percentile or better in Torts but closer to the 45th percentile on Property. So I re-reviewed Property more often but also made sure I was consistent in Torts.

Once you get through all the subjects, you can then go to your state and determine what the pass rate is in the state and what the necessary MBE is. So for NY, you need a 133 MBE score to be on target. So you use the 133 and compare it to NCBE's historical statistics (http://www.ncbex.org/publications/stati ... tatistics/). Looking at this chart, roughly 72% of all [July 2016] MBE takers score[d] 135 or better. Knowing this, you know you need to shoot to be AT LEAST in the 30th percentile or so in all subjects. Of course, the higher your overall percentile, the better. If you are below this threshhold, you need to step back and evaluate how to attack the subject.

I know that this is a lot of math and statistics and numbers are not lawyers friends so feel free to ask for clarification.

[King Cayuga]

Barbri's back.

[bda]

Barbri's back.

Is it actually working for everyone though? I can log in but can't view my assignments page to get past videos (I started late and am behind on the assignments)

[Sprout]

Barbri's back.

Is it actually working for everyone though? I can log in but can't view my assignments page to get past videos (I started late and am behind on the assignments)

bda - it should work now... maybe there is an issue with your server/wifi? Barbri didn't work for me on safari, only on chrome. being "behind" shouldn't be an issue for access using their calendar thing

[jingosaur]

Barbri's back.

Is it actually working for everyone though? I can log in but can't view my assignments page to get past videos (I started late and am behind on the assignments)

bda - it should work now... maybe there is an issue with your server/wifi? Barbri didn't work for me on safari, only on chrome. being "behind" shouldn't be an issue for access using their calendar thing

Is anyone having trouble accessing the StudySmart tool? I can't access it on Chrome/Windows 10. I just get a blank window.

[okaygo]

I'm getting a blank for Study Smart as well, so I just did MPQ set 1. I'm not sure if that was the correct choice. Also I'm below target for everything so that's generally demoralizing.

[King Cayuga]

Barbri's back.

Is it actually working for everyone though? I can log in but can't view my assignments page to get past videos (I started late and am behind on the assignments)

bda - it should work now... maybe there is an issue with your server/wifi? Barbri didn't work for me on safari, only on chrome. being "behind" shouldn't be an issue for access using their calendar thing

Is anyone having trouble accessing the StudySmart tool? I can't access it on Chrome/Windows 10. I just get a blank window.

It gave me some problems. I had to enable flash, and then the window sat there for 15-20 seconds before it loaded up.

E: This is on Chrome/OS X Yosemite

[de minimis]

WTF is up with this wills lecture. Every point of law ends with a conclusion that things can go several ways but it "depends on your state". Why not tell us what the rule is for the UBE?

[Harvard_Naw]

WTF is up with this wills lecture. Every point of law ends with a conclusion that things can go several ways but it "depends on your state". Why not tell us what the rule is for the UBE?

I think the point is that Wills isn't an MBE topic. So, since it can only be tested with an essay question, the examiners want us to analyze these issues in more than one direction.

[de minimis]

WTF is up with this wills lecture. Every point of law ends with a conclusion that things can go several ways but it "depends on your state". Why not tell us what the rule is for the UBE?

I think the point is that Wills isn't an MBE topic. So, since it can only be tested with an essay question, the examiners want us to analyze these issues in more than one direction.

That's makes sense. Amazing how a few days of MBE training deprogrammed me on how to take a normal law exam

[Jon_Snow]

Can't remember if my I had my school send in a certificate of attendance form...