February 2015 Bar Exam Forum

[YibanRen]

How do you know if you're not in passing territory? What's the standard?

Depends on the state, and if you are good at the MBE. If you can pull a 70% raw on the MBE, and complete your PTs, you only need to average 45% on your essays to pass (attempting them).

If you can pull 70% on the essays, complete your PTs, you need something like a 58% raw on the MBE in some states...

[YibanRen]

Ah okay. For some reason I thought there were more than that. I guess since I knew a bunch of people who took NY/MA and NY/NJ.

It is also because the MEE is given across 5 timezones, and at staggered times for some disability candidates. So, if you are on the East Coast and post your topics right after the session, someone in Hawaii or taking it at a different time has two hours to study up...

How does this work? I thought each state had its own essays and PTs, and you have to sit for the bar in the state itself. So there's no way of spoiling, except for disability candidates right?

The MEE is given in many states, and is uniform. It is written by the same people who write the MBE. For example, the 13 UBE states give the same exact exam. Other states will have an additional day for state-specific essays. The only difference is that the essays are curved locally, and they have different pass levels (280/400 for Idaho, 270/400 for Washington State, 260/400 for Missouri). NY and CA are not like this.

[Barbarbara]

Ah okay. For some reason I thought there were more than that. I guess since I knew a bunch of people who took NY/MA and NY/NJ.

It is also because the MEE is given across 5 timezones, and at staggered times for some disability candidates. So, if you are on the East Coast and post your topics right after the session, someone in Hawaii or taking it at a different time has two hours to study up...

How does this work? I thought each state had its own essays and PTs, and you have to sit for the bar in the state itself. So there's no way of spoiling, except for disability candidates right?

The MEE is given in many states, and is uniform. It is written by the same people who write the MBE. For example, the 13 UBE states give the same exact exam. Other states will have an additional day for state-specific essays. The only difference is that the essays are curved locally, and they have different pass levels (280/400 for Idaho, 270/400 for Washington State, 260/400 for Missouri). NY and CA are not like this.

Thanks for the info! I'm taking it in CA, and I had no idea.

[Holly Golightly]

Ah okay. For some reason I thought there were more than that. I guess since I knew a bunch of people who took NY/MA and NY/NJ.

It is also because the MEE is given across 5 timezones, and at staggered times for some disability candidates. So, if you are on the East Coast and post your topics right after the session, someone in Hawaii or taking it at a different time has two hours to study up...

How does this work? I thought each state had its own essays and PTs, and you have to sit for the bar in the state itself. So there's no way of spoiling, except for disability candidates right?

The MEE is given in many states, and is uniform. It is written by the same people who write the MBE. For example, the 13 UBE states give the same exact exam. Other states will have an additional day for state-specific essays. The only difference is that the essays are curved locally, and they have different pass levels (280/400 for Idaho, 270/400 for Washington State, 260/400 for Missouri). NY and CA are not like this.

WV gives the UBE, it just isn't official for reciprocity. lulz

And IL gives 1 MPT in the morning and all MEE essays in the afternoon

[Bubbles 4 Life]

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[numbertwo88]

Just watched the Park and Rec finale while looking over MBE notecards. That episode is how you get inspired to take an exam.

Was it encouraging? I was going to tune in but winded up watching a different show.

[Holly Golightly]

Oh God from what I temember MBE day is way more demoralizing than essay day. I can't wait for it to be drunk time.

[redblueyellow]

Oh God from what I temember MBE day is way more demoralizing than essay day. I can't wait for it to be drunk time.

Yea, agreed. 3 essays will hurt, but 200 MC questions ESPECIALLY now that we know that the civ pro questions we had last time as our filler questions are no longer skippable, is just a punch to the gut. It doesn't matter if you did them correctly or wrong, you still feel bad afterwards.

[YibanRen]

Oh God from what I temember MBE day is way more demoralizing than essay day. I can't wait for it to be drunk time.

Yea, agreed. 3 essays will hurt, but 200 MC questions ESPECIALLY now that we know that the civ pro questions we had last time as our filler questions are no longer skippable, is just a punch to the gut. It doesn't matter if you did them correctly or wrong, you still feel bad afterwards.

Man, lucky. You got civ pro questions, and you got to skip them. This probably made the MBE easier.

[redblueyellow]

Oh God from what I temember MBE day is way more demoralizing than essay day. I can't wait for it to be drunk time.

Yea, agreed. 3 essays will hurt, but 200 MC questions ESPECIALLY now that we know that the civ pro questions we had last time as our filler questions are no longer skippable, is just a punch to the gut. It doesn't matter if you did them correctly or wrong, you still feel bad afterwards.

Man, lucky. You got civ pro questions, and you got to skip them. This probably made the MBE easier.

NOPE. You know why? Because I did most of them and was feeling good about myself that I thought I got right before I realized that none of those count.

[Holly Golightly]

Oh good. Almost time for more.

[numbertwo88]

Not too horrible so far.

[Bubbles 4 Life]

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[underthirty]

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[abogadesq]

Florida doesn't have a cliff I can jump off from.

[numbertwo88]

Compared to July, which literally slaughtered me and shit on me and set my ass on fire, I felt better about today's MBE experience. But to be fair, I didn't do a lot of practice questions in the summer whereas I did a shit-ton of them this time.

[MichBar]

I thought it was very hard and I feel completely owned by it, and my practice MC's were all pretty good. My question is if questions are arranged in the same order and answer choices in the same letter order for every test taker. I had an alarming frequency of one particular letter in the afternoon and someone else who is good at MBE also had a ton but of a different letter.

[numbertwo88]

I thought it was very hard and I feel completely owned by it, and my practice MC's were all pretty good. My question is if questions are arranged in the same order and answer choices in the same letter order for every test taker. I had an alarming frequency of one particular letter in the afternoon and someone else who is good at MBE also had a ton but of a different letter.

I think they're varied and not in the same order based on the different answer form numbers ... there are 10 of them I think? Maybe 8?

[cooperlaserpup]

I thought my AM MBE was....odd. I thought my PM MBE was fucking impossible and I felt like I had no idea what was going on. And I passed a jurisdiction in July with a 148 MBE. I will not be getting a 148 this time, I can tell you that much.

Thanks christ that is over. I am just not going to think about it for two months.

[MichBar]

The questions are varied or the answer choices are also varied (i.e. My right answer D being someone else's A for the same question)?

[numbertwo88]

The questions are varied or the answer choices are also varied (i.e. My right answer D being someone else's A for the same question)?

Hm, I'm not sure about that. I had a lot of a certain letter as well - I'm just assuming I had a lot of the right answer choices so it was coincidental. That's what I'm telling myself.

[BeachedBrit]

I thought those were pretty hard overall, with a lot of trick/tricky stuff and lots of stuff I didn't think they would test much that came up multiple times.

My only other note is that I literally just took Crim Pro: Investigation (everything before trial covered) as one of my last classes in law school, got an A in it, never missed a single warrants/search question in Barbri or the released questions I did (~500 total) and had two search/warrants questions on the test today that I didn't think had a really good answer option available. I could have written a multi-page essay on those question's material but if the answer choice isn't there, what can ya do?

Edit: oh, and there were a lot of Civ Pro questions that BarBri didn't really cover and certainly didn't focus on.

[minnbills]

I agree re crim pro. There were some weird questions on this thing.

On the whole it felt "ok" to "pretty good." Not sure what that means.

[aquasalad]

Passed Texas in July with a 155. I think this MBE was easier overall. That said, there was still some weird ass shit to deal with.

This morning I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Did not feel like I was definitely getting right answers most of the time. This afternoon went by pretty easily and felt more like the normal MBE stuff I am used to. In both sessions, the civ pro stuff was weird and I was basically guessing. Evidence was straightforward, property was straightforward (no marshalling/judicial liens like July), torts was almost non-existent, homicide was heavily tested, con law was difficult.

There is definitely something to be said for a rigorous professional prep routine for the MBE. doing practice questions after work for a few weeks resulted in an interesting experience... I am also of the belief that Barbri's MBE question sets are out of date. The MBE does not feel the same.

[WORLDSTAR]

there were some definite curve-balls thrown, and a LOT of "controversial" stuff thrown out there. In one case, the examiners started an answer choice with the correct answer and changed a couple words at the end to make it wrong--the correct answer was the one below it. I almost fell for that trick because I was working quickly.

All in all, fuck the NCBE