Themis Bar Review Hangout - July 2015 Exam Forum

[smalogna]

For those of you in MPT jurisdictions, finding 90 minutes to do a practice MPT is not going to be fun moving forward. I'm skipping ahead and reading Con Law outline tonight because I'm drained and I don't think doing a practice MPT tonight will really serve its purpose

[zot1]

When they say upload your answers later if you use the books, do they just mean to take the exam again online but just using the answers from before?

That's what I did.

Thanks!

[zot1]

How did everyone score on the milestone exam?

I have been consistently scoring around 68-75% on the mbe PQs but for some reason I only scored 60% on this test (27 correct). There were a few exceptions I had not heard of until today but overall I was disappointed with myself.

Ditto. So disappointed.

Although I missed the part where we were supposed to review the final outlines prior to the exam. Whatever, I guess the goal was 55%.

[GULCPerson]

I think I have a new favorite insane subjective NCBE rationale for a question. Or maybe yall can tell me that I'm nuts and this totally makes sense.

TORTS MBE PRACTICE QUESTION SPOILERS ABOUT SKATEBOARDING

[+] Spoiler

Apparently when a 13 year old kid wants to skate on your warehouse ramp, and says “Please. I know how dangerous skateboarding is. I do it all the time.”, NCBE thinks he actually "fully appreciates" the risk. NCBE has not interacted with many 13 year olds lately.

[MrMustache]

Been scoring in the 60s on practice MBE questions. With the milestone exam, the good news is that I ended up with 15 minutes to spare, the bad news is that I only got 57% right.

[kgus22]

For those of you in MPT jurisdictions, finding 90 minutes to do a practice MPT is not going to be fun moving forward. I'm skipping ahead and reading Con Law outline tonight because I'm drained and I don't think doing a practice MPT tonight will really serve its purpose

I don't know why they scheduled the first MPT on the milestone day. And I had a leftover family law essay to do from yesterday. Halfway through the MPT I paused for dinner. Now off to actually write it.

[gr8scOtt!]

You guys are on MPTs already?! My first assignment (read MPT outline) isn't until June 18th!

[Robert Paulson]

I got a 73% on the milestone (33 right). Unfortunately, my jurisdiction weights essays highly and my first essay was a 29% Hopefully, the grading is as bs as everyone has been saying.

[kgus22]

You guys are on MPTs already?! My first assignment (read MPT outline) isn't until June 18th!

be happy that you aren't on MPTs already. I didn't find it that difficult, just time pressured and a time suck.

also as a note to everyone, the order of the assigned MPT's is not the same as the order they are in the book. so when you have your first assigned one, don't just start doing the first one in the book. I made that mistake today.

[Confused7]

Why is the MPT such a time suck and yet only 10% of our grade in NY?

[FallonJ]

How far along are NYers?

[InternationalShoe]

How far along are NYers?

I'm around 27%. I think I'm two or three assignments behind schedule.

[sd5289]

How far along are NYers?

About 29%, but due to a lot of things outside my control, I couldn't do the Milestone exam yesterday (couldn't simulate "testing conditions" because of people in my house, so moved into the MPT and Con Law stuff). Doing the Milestone this morning, and (hopefully) the MPT writing assignment this afternoon.

[habz]

Any NYers that have stated crim law. Is it just me or is she talking ridiculously fast once you hit lecture number three?

[Confused7]

Any NYers that have stated crim law. Is it just me or is she talking ridiculously fast once you hit lecture number three?

Yeah she's pretty ridiculous. She starts out slow in the beginning of each lecture but then moves at ridic speed. Though I guess there's a lot of elements to recite for crim.

[collegewriter]

How far along are NYers?

Only 18%

[sd5289]

Just finished Milestone Exam #1. That went surprisingly well (33 out of 45 correct) considering how iffy I felt on a lot of them, which I think is just lack of memorization because most of the time I would think "is it this rule, or this rule?"

And of course missed a set of 4 in a row right in the middle. Gotta work on that exam fatigue.

[habz]

I just got a 43 on my latest essay and I am really starting to wonder whether this grader actually reads it before inserting random comments. Comments are ridiculously vague. He usually just writes the whole subject matter and pretends that that is the rule of law I was supposed to use. Then he repeats the answer THAT I WROTE and says that this is the correct answer. This is BS

[MrMustache]

I just got a 43 on my latest essay and I am really starting to wonder whether this grader actually reads it before inserting random comments. Comments are ridiculously vague. He usually just writes the whole subject matter and pretends that that is the rule of law I was supposed to use. Then he repeats the answer THAT I WROTE and says that this is the correct answer. This is BS

How is that even possible? In California, the lowest score you could get is a 40.

Source http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkCli ... &tabid=270

[clintdwatts]

Don't worry quite so much about being perfectly on time. My advice, master the core and spend time on property and contracts. These two sections, especially property, contain simple principles cloaked in seemingly difficult language. Once you're comfortable with the language you'll get the questions right more often than not. Understanding the basic operation of a rule and the general policy basis really does produce results on the exam. I took themis and passed the Rhode Island and Massachusetts bars on the first try. Its about knowing your strengths and weaknesses and how the principles fit together. GOOD LUCK!

-CW

[kjartan]

I just got a 43 on my latest essay and I am really starting to wonder whether this grader actually reads it before inserting random comments. Comments are ridiculously vague. He usually just writes the whole subject matter and pretends that that is the rule of law I was supposed to use. Then he repeats the answer THAT I WROTE and says that this is the correct answer. This is BS

How is that even possible? In California, the lowest score you could get is a 40.

Source http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkCli ... &tabid=270

Yeah, and early on Themis said that the true range is closer to 50-80. Also, I am starting to wonder how precise our actual rule statements on the bar will be by the time we've learned 13 subjects. That's one reason I think Themis's grading is bullshit. If I can write the rules practically verbatim and understand how to write a bar essay (following IRAC and generally knowing how to apply the law to facts), then assuming I spotted the issues, there's no way I didn't write a passing answer.

[sd5289]

Has anyone started the Con Law lectures? The way he pronounces "defendant" and "process" is weird.

[zot1]

Just finished Milestone Exam #1. That went surprisingly well (33 out of 45 correct) considering how iffy I felt on a lot of them, which I think is just lack of memorization because most of the time I would think "is it this rule, or this rule?"

And of course missed a set of 4 in a row right in the middle. Gotta work on that exam fatigue.

Yeah, exam fatigue got me good: I missed maybe 2 on the first 27 questions, then missed a whole bunch towards the end that brought me down to 60%.

[habz]

I just got a 43 on my latest essay and I am really starting to wonder whether this grader actually reads it before inserting random comments. Comments are ridiculously vague. He usually just writes the whole subject matter and pretends that that is the rule of law I was supposed to use. Then he repeats the answer THAT I WROTE and says that this is the correct answer. This is BS

How is that even possible? In California, the lowest score you could get is a 40.

Source http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkCli ... &tabid=270

I kid you not. The guy said I didn't write the rule and then proceeded to tell me that the rule is what I had already written. He gave me a 25 for legal knowledge. For kicks he said that my structure was good and gave me a 50 for that overall (am i missing something here?). The funniest part is that for the last essay he did exactly the opposite, said my legal knowledge was good but structure sucked. I emailed him to ask for an explanation. I don't like feeling that i spent good money for this course and this guy is not even reading the essays

[habz]

Has anyone started the Con Law lectures? The way he pronounces "defendant" and "process" is weird.

Yeah he's got a real southern accent going for him but I will say this to his credit. He does a really good job distilling the law to what you need to know and he's a pretty good lecturer too