Texas Saloon- Feb. 2016 Texas Bar Forum

vandyclark · Post by **vandyclark** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 6:05 pm

mtyler19 wrote:
yosi wrote:Did not finish MPT
Me neither

I didn't either- literally had to stop typing mid-word!

texasbar · Post by **texasbar** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 5:28 pm

How did everyone feel after this exam? I knew I failed the last time as soon as I walked out after essay day. This time I have hope that I passed. I don't know if it's because I think I did enough or if it's just wishful thinking.

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:41 pm

texasbar wrote:How did everyone feel after this exam? I knew I failed the last time as soon as I walked out after essay day. This time I have hope that I passed. I don't know if it's because I think I did enough or if it's just wishful thinking.

I feel fine about the bar. I think I have to have passed this time. I felt terrible after July and missed by 16. I definitely think I did over 16 points better this time. If I fail again, I have no idea what I could have done differently.

jamescastle · Post by **jamescastle** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:24 pm

DueProcessDoWheelies wrote:
texasbar wrote:How did everyone feel after this exam? I knew I failed the last time as soon as I walked out after essay day. This time I have hope that I passed. I don't know if it's because I think I did enough or if it's just wishful thinking.
I feel fine about the bar. I think I have to have passed this time. I felt terrible after July and missed by 16. I definitely think I did over 16 points better this time. If I fail again, I have no idea what I could have done differently.

Literally me. Change 16 to 27 though.
As friends, family, etc. have asked how I felt these past few days one response is "If this is a test of minimal competency, I have no idea how what I did could not be considered minimally competent."

ihatethetexasbar · Post by **ihatethetexasbar** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 12:00 pm

I celebrated after I was done and went through the "I think I passed!" phase, but now I'm in that phase where I'm questioning every answer I wrote down (mostly the Family Law essay and the Commercial Paper essay) and wondering if I did okay enough on the MBE. Last time around I felt awful. I cried on my way home after the MBE and had short and disorganized (and wrong) answers for at least three of the essays. I prepared for the worst all summer and fall, and in November, while I was devastated, I wasn't that surprised.

This time I feel like my essay answers were more fleshed out and that I knew more law. While last time I was averaging about 50%-60% correct on the MBE practice questions, I was getting about 62%-72% correct this time. I don't know what to think about the MPT. I didn't finish. I also got back on my anxiety meds this year and I felt a lot better emotionally and mentally. I failed July by only 16 points, and I'm just hoping that I improved by at least that much this time. I feel like I studied much better, and I completed 100% of my course, but still... I don't want the same news I got last November. I hope everyone is still feeling good about their performance. I'm trying to get back to that mindset, but the July Bar is still haunting me

I said a little prayer for y'all, especially my fellow retakers.

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 12:43 pm

ihatethetexasbar wrote:I celebrated after I was done and went through the "I think I passed!" phase, but now I'm in that phase where I'm questioning every answer I wrote down (mostly the Family Law essay and the Commercial Paper essay) and wondering if I did okay enough on the MBE. Last time around I felt awful. I cried on my way home after the MBE and had short and disorganized (and wrong) answers for at least three of the essays. I prepared for the worst all summer and fall, and in November, while I was devastated, I wasn't that surprised.

This time I feel like my essay answers were more fleshed out and that I knew more law. While last time I was averaging about 50%-60% correct on the MBE practice questions, I was getting about 62%-72% correct this time. I don't know what to think about the MPT. I didn't finish. I also got back on my anxiety meds this year and I felt a lot better emotionally and mentally. I failed July by only 16 points, and I'm just hoping that I improved by at least that much this time. I feel like I studied much better, and I completed 100% of my course, but still... I don't want the same news I got last November. I hope everyone is still feeling good about their performance. I'm trying to get back to that mindset, but the July Bar is still haunting me

I said a little prayer for y'all, especially my fellow retakers.

As someone who also failed by 16 in July, I know exactly how you feel. I felt awful after July. The MBE destroyed me and my confidence. Felt alright on the essays but overall didn't feel good about the exam. And we only missed by 16! That is hardly anything out of 1000. If we'd gotten a few more MBE questions right in July, that would have probably been enough to push us over 675.

Compare it to now. You feel better. That's a good sign. My friend once told me, "if you think you passed, you probably passed" and I think he's right. In July, I really did not think I passed.

I also thought the Family and Comm Paper essays were the hardest. I regurgitated what I knew about those topics on the essays and tried to make it sound as good as possible. That's all you really can do. If it makes you feel any better, I talked to some other people and they had similar reactions. Commercial paper will always suck. I forgot and/or don't remember studying much about adoption.

The MBE was better this time. Combination of it being less difficult and us being more prepared for it. Seriously, the July '15 MBE was an onslaught. That had to have been one of the hardest MBEs ever administered.

Just trust your initial feelings about this bar. Nothing you can do about it now except wait 2 months.

tealeaf23 · Post by **tealeaf23** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 2:43 pm

jamescastle wrote:
DueProcessDoWheelies wrote:
texasbar wrote:How did everyone feel after this exam? I knew I failed the last time as soon as I walked out after essay day. This time I have hope that I passed. I don't know if it's because I think I did enough or if it's just wishful thinking.
I feel fine about the bar. I think I have to have passed this time. I felt terrible after July and missed by 16. I definitely think I did over 16 points better this time. If I fail again, I have no idea what I could have done differently.
Literally me. Change 16 to 27 though.
As friends, family, etc. have asked how I felt these past few days one response is "If this is a test of minimal competency, I have no idea how what I did could not be considered minimally competent."

Exactly how I feel this time as well. Failed by 20 points last time and I've been telling myself I only had to do marginally better across the board to pass. Hopefully I managed to do that

I felt pretty good after taking it but it's getting increasingly difficult not to distrust that feeling. Ugh. I can't wait for the waiting to be over.

left shark · Post by **left shark** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 3:24 pm

I haven't looked anything up (except the pretrial question on the P&E because what?!) and I am not going to. I'm a little tempted, but I know it wouldn't matter.

I have had some of the essays pop into my mind- issues I missed or issues I knew were a thing, but didn't address because I was running out of time (damned consumer essays always take too long) or because I didn't know what the hell to say about them, or because I didn't plan out my answer well enough (hello 2 year SoL on informal marriage) and forgot about it until I got to the next question. I am convinced that stuff will come back to bite me in the ass.

Wednesday night I was talking to a guy who was taking it for the third or fourth time, and he said that if he didn't pass this time, he wasn't going to try again because the bar takes too much of a toll on your mind and body and he just couldn't put himself through it again. He's right, but I don't think I could opt out, even if it would be my third time.

I do feel better about the MBE, but I think that might have come at the expense of the essays. I don't feel completely crushed like I did in July though- I knew I'd failed. This time I felt different all week, but I don't know if that was because I was better prepared, in a better mental place, or just because I was in a "been there, done that" frame of mind.

Two months will fly by and we'll just go from there. I'm trying to focus on the awesome fact that when 530 rolls around, I get to go home and do nothing instead of staying at the office and studying.

texasbar · Post by **texasbar** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:52 pm

I'm glad everyone is feeling better this time around. I agree with the above-poster who said to trust your initial gut feeling. I failed by 7 points in July. I walked out knowing I failed and reminded myself not to forget that feeling to prevent any disappointment when November rolled around. I was tempted to think that maybe I had passed as time went on but reminded myself of the initial gut feeling, which was obviously correct. Here's to hoping we will all be celebrating in a few weeks! At least we don't have to wait as long!

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:56 pm

left shark wrote:I haven't looked anything up (except the pretrial question on the P&E because what?!) and I am not going to. I'm a little tempted, but I know it wouldn't matter.

I refuse to look anything up. Shipping my Barbri books back today or tomorrow so I'm not tempted. All it does is make you freak out if you find out you got something wrong. I already spent too much time in that MBE thread and found out I missed a couple hard questions. Seriously, at this point it's just adding unnecessary stress.

I should just ship the books now, because I'm really really sick of looking at them.

jamescastle · Post by **jamescastle** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 7:19 pm

@retakers:

Are you shipping your books back?
BARBRI let's you retake once for free but after that it'd cost again. So if I fail, I'd have no books if I shipped stuff back to them. If I kept the books I'd lose the $250 deposit but I might be able to recoup some if that through Craigslist despite the books being a year old.

bluesplitter · Post by **bluesplitter** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:49 pm

If u want to relive the moment that was the Feb 2016 Tex-bar-ex.....then the BLE has posted the essays and P&E....

Enjoy!

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 2:03 pm

bluesplitter wrote:If u want to relive the moment that was the Feb 2016 Tex-bar-ex.....then the BLE has posted the essays and P&E....

Enjoy!

I refuse to do that, because it will tempt me to look up answers. I already sent my books back so I wouldn't look up answers in there. I don't want to even think about that test until April 28. Why the hell am I posting on here anyway?

Lemon Lyman · Post by **Lemon Lyman** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:05 pm

That's torture, I don't know if I have it in me.. But I'm tempted to look.

BVest · Post by **BVest** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:12 pm

bluesplitter wrote:If u want to relive the moment that was the Feb 2016 Tex-bar-ex.....then the BLE has posted the essays and P&E....

It's been posted for a little while now, but I didn't have the heart to mention it.

tealeaf23 · Post by **tealeaf23** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 4:53 pm

I definitely don't have it in me to look. I made the mistake of looking at the re-takers' pass rate and that's enough for me to stress about until April

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:25 pm

tealeaf23 wrote:I definitely don't have it in me to look. I made the mistake of looking at the re-takers' pass rate and that's enough for me to stress about until April

I have no idea why the repeaters' pass rate is so low. It's like that in every state. It doesn't make sense to me because this time I felt twice as prepared and the bar actually felt less stressful. I feel like if you are a repeater and you adequately prepare, you will pass for sure.

law732 · Post by **law732** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:47 pm

Failed by 4 points in July and knew I failed afterwords. Feel 100X better this time around. Think I did enough. Hopefully the confidence and good vibes translate into a passing score. Good luck to all on here. The frequent posters on this site busted their asses just like I did. We got this guys/girls

nyfailedjuly2015 · Post by **nyfailedjuly2015** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:56 pm

Seems like NYers took the same MPT (workers comp/independent contractor memo) as you guys in Texas. Someone in the MBE thread said that their MPT was a demand letter. Are there different MPTs for different states?

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:11 pm

nyfailedjuly2015 wrote:Seems like NYers took the same MPT (workers comp/independent contractor memo) as you guys in Texas. Someone in the MBE thread said that their MPT was a demand letter. Are there different MPTs for different states?

Some states have more than one MPT. I guess for the states that only have one the BLE just picks.

BVest · Post by **BVest** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:50 pm

nyfailedjuly2015 wrote:Seems like NYers took the same MPT (workers comp/independent contractor memo) as you guys in Texas. Someone in the MBE thread said that their MPT was a demand letter. Are there different MPTs for different states?

As DueProcess says, there are two per exam. States that only use one select which one they want to use.

jamescastle · Post by **jamescastle** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 11:22 pm

law732 wrote:Failed by 4 points in July and knew I failed afterwords. Feel 100X better this time around. Think I did enough. Hopefully the confidence and good vibes translate into a passing score. Good luck to all on here. The frequent posters on this site busted their asses just like I did. We got this guys/girls

You got a 671?
I thought I had read on here that between 670-675 they regrade your exam and pretty much everyone gets the points to pass. Weird...

law732 · Post by **law732** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 11:04 am

jamescastle wrote:
law732 wrote:Failed by 4 points in July and knew I failed afterwords. Feel 100X better this time around. Think I did enough. Hopefully the confidence and good vibes translate into a passing score. Good luck to all on here. The frequent posters on this site busted their asses just like I did. We got this guys/girls
You got a 671?
I thought I had read on here that between 670-675 they regrade your exam and pretty much everyone gets the points to pass. Weird...

Im an NJ taker. I know I'm in the Texas forum but I didn't know where else to lurk after the admins deleted the MBE thread.

sluj11 · Post by **sluj11** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 4:56 pm

DueProcessDoWheelies wrote:
tealeaf23 wrote:I definitely don't have it in me to look. I made the mistake of looking at the re-takers' pass rate and that's enough for me to stress about until April
I have no idea why the repeaters' pass rate is so low. It's like that in every state. It doesn't make sense to me because this time I felt twice as prepared and the bar actually felt less stressful. I feel like if you are a repeater and you adequately prepare, you will pass for sure.

The definition of "re-taker" is really broad. From what I understand, it includes everybody who is re-taking the exam, even if it is for their third or fourth time. Because I had the same concerns, my law school informed me that a first time re-taker's pass rate is actually really high, especially if you were within striking distance (1-50 points). Again, this is what my law school told me, so they could just be blowing smoke to give me hope to take the exam again.

I do, however, agree with you. I felt much more prepared and knew the law much better the second time around.

DueProcessDoWheelies · Post by **DueProcessDoWheelies** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 6:09 pm

sluj11 wrote:
DueProcessDoWheelies wrote:
tealeaf23 wrote:I definitely don't have it in me to look. I made the mistake of looking at the re-takers' pass rate and that's enough for me to stress about until April
I have no idea why the repeaters' pass rate is so low. It's like that in every state. It doesn't make sense to me because this time I felt twice as prepared and the bar actually felt less stressful. I feel like if you are a repeater and you adequately prepare, you will pass for sure.

The definition of "re-taker" is really broad. From what I understand, it includes everybody who is re-taking the exam, even if it is for their third or fourth time. Because I had the same concerns, my law school informed me that a first time re-taker's pass rate is actually really high, especially if you were within striking distance (1-50 points). Again, this is what my law school told me, so they could just be blowing smoke to give me hope to take the exam again.

I do, however, agree with you. I felt much more prepared and knew the law much better the second time around.

I'd reckon your law school is correct. Every repeater I know passed the 2nd or 3rd time. For the poor souls who took it a 3rd time, their score at least went up the 2nd time. I have never heard of anyone doing worse the 2nd time.

I failed by 16 in July. If I don't do at least 16 points better this time then I'd be speechless.

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