February 2015 Bar Exam Forum

[gaagoots]

After doing some Themis practice civil procedure questions, I am kind of worried about what they're going to look like on the February exam. I'm doing good on the problem sets (to my absolute surprise!) but there's only so much confidence I have knowing the NCBEX only released a tiny as sprinkle of example questions.

This worries me greatly.

And of the ten sample questions released, the official answer to one of them was not the correct answer: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/civpro ... tions.html


lol NCBE.

I answered "B" too guess this is why I am "less able" haha.

[mvsw]

Finally took the plunge and enrolled in a bar prep course for feb 2015. I know I need the extra kick in the butt. Passed in July, but all I did was study. In July I completed 95% of my bar prep program. Now I am working full time.

We will see how this goes. I forgot how terrible civ pro is. I just got the civ pro critical pass flash cards in the mail

[TheFutureLawyer]

x

[mvsw]

Finally took the plunge and enrolled in a bar prep course for feb 2015. I know I need the extra kick in the butt. Passed in July, but all I did was study. In July I completed 95% of my bar prep program. Now I am working full time.

We will see how this goes. I forgot how terrible civ pro is. I just got the civ pro critical pass flash cards in the mail

Joinder sucks. The rest ain't so bad (outside trying to memorize deadlines).



Also, if it helps, I'd kill to be in your situation (full time job, having passed in July). Would you be fired if you failed in February?

No thankfully I won't get fired if I fail.

[sparty99]

Finally took the plunge and enrolled in a bar prep course for feb 2015. I know I need the extra kick in the butt. Passed in July, but all I did was study. In July I completed 95% of my bar prep program. Now I am working full time.

We will see how this goes. I forgot how terrible civ pro is. I just got the civ pro critical pass flash cards in the mail

Joinder sucks. The rest ain't so bad (outside trying to memorize deadlines).





Also, if it helps, I'd kill to be in your situation (full time job, having passed in July). Would you be fired if you failed in February?

No thankfully I won't get fired if I fail.

good

[TheFutureLawyer]

x

[mouse89]

This might not be an option for you, but I'd consider asking my boss if taking in July instead would be an option. Your boss might not care too much about a five month delay, and it'd give you like 3x the amount of study time (which I think I would need if I was working full time).

The increase in study time sounds great but you'd also have to take into account the fact that there would be a passing score hike come July.

Yesterday I went to the Illinois essay review for people who didn't pass. I wish we had gotten graded copies of our essays instead of the clean copies. I went with a tutor and for some we could see where I'd went wrong, for others it felt like the graders had given out scores at random. I would have loved to see why I got what I got based on their own reasoning.

Also: http://www.chicagolawbulletin.com/Artic ... 11-12.aspx

[1234567888]

Just fyi...for anyone who does not believe that MBE results are down....

https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/38 ... ct-2014pdf

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/ ... rdmemo.pdf

[mouse89]

Thanks for posting those letters. It's really great seeing the Class of 2014 being supported in that way.

[numbertwo88]

Will you all be plugging through the holidays? Or just taking the day of the holiday off? Like not studying Thanksgiving day and etc.

Pretty sure that's what I'll be doing ... I figure I won't be doing anything else while I'm home for the holidays save for eating my body weight in food.

[Holly Golightly]

I will def not be studying on holidays unless I need an excuse to get away from my crazy family members. But I also kind of forgot about studying for the last week...

[mouse89]

Here's my issue right now: I wasn't really nervous taking the bar in July. I felt good and calm and had maybe one or two high anxiety moments during the summer when I was studying (Granted one was the morning before Day 1 of the bar). I actually walked out feeling great after the essay section (ie. my worst section) and celebrated with a drink. Things were good.

Now I'm just worried all the time. I lucked out and found a good job that may lead to an associate position-my boss keeps dropping hints about how he's excited for me to work on expanding his practice area when I'm licensed- but I can't stop thinking that I'm not going to pass this time around. I just don't feel as confident and don't really know how I'm supposed to get that back ya know?

Does anyone have advice about overcoming this? Or are we all in the same boat? I really hope I can shake this off by February.

[1234567888]

Here's my issue right now: I wasn't really nervous taking the bar in July. I felt good and calm and had maybe one or two high anxiety moments during the summer when I was studying (Granted one was the morning before Day 1 of the bar). I actually walked out feeling great after the essay section (ie. my worst section) and celebrated with a drink. Things were good.

Now I'm just worried all the time. I lucked out and found a good job that may lead to an associate position-my boss keeps dropping hints about how he's excited for me to work on expanding his practice area when I'm licensed- but I can't stop thinking that I'm not going to pass this time around. I just don't feel as confident and don't really know how I'm supposed to get that back ya know?

Does anyone have advice about overcoming this? Or are we all in the same boat? I really hope I can shake this off by February.

Yeah, I am in the same situation. It is tough. Just have to keep moving forward. Also, it is just a test that poorly measures lawyer competency. We can overcome a test.

[numbertwo88]

Does anyone have advice about overcoming this? Or are we all in the same boat? I really hope I can shake this off by February.

I feel the exact same way. I don't know what I'll do if I fail again

Some days when I don't feel like studying, I just remind myself that I NEVER want to feel how I felt when I opened my results envelope ever again ... it's quite the motivating factor. We can't let this ridiculous hazing ritual that literally has no bearing on how successful we'll be as attorneys keep us down. It's doable.

Side note, I purchased Strategies & Tactics for the MBE and it comes with supplemental Civil Procedure questions that you can print off/save. It was maybe 35 dollars off of amazon. Haven't started using it yet because I'm just into studying my second MBE subject - fucking Contracts from hell - so I can't report on how useful I find it. Skimming it through it seems like it'll be a good tool for anyone with not so great MBE skills like myself. In a month hopefully I'll be using it!

So in addition to Themis I'm using: Critical Pass cards, MBE Essentials (straightforward/simplistic question & answer format about MBE topics - I like it), and Emanuel.

I might toss in AdaptiBar once I finish all of the MBE questions I have currently.

[ucandoit26]

A bit early but...I'm taking it. Again. For the THIRD freaking time.
Anyone have any tutors they can suggest?

I was a repeat taker myself, but you can do it! I applaud you not giving up! That says a lot about you. I had issues with Evidence so I called Barbri and they found me a one on one tutor in my area that I met with in person. She was awesome!! I met with her for about a month for a total of like 10 hours just on Evidence and it was well worth the money. She explained things to me that made the concept on Evidence very easy and allowed me to pass the July 2014 Texas bar. So my advice would be to call Barbri find a tutor you can meet with in person not over the internet.

[numbertwo88]

Today is the first day I didn't study at all (I aim for Monday - Friday, July was overkill 7 days a week). I feel really guilty - I'll be doing some light work this weekend to make up for it

Also, outlining the MBE subjects is really time consuming! There is so much information. It's painful. Particularly contracts and the UCC & damages/remedies whether or not the buyer/seller has the goods and etc. blah, blah, blah.

[Bearlegdairy]

Just fyi...for anyone who does not believe that MBE results are down....

https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/38 ... ct-2014pdf

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/ ... rdmemo.pdf

Hell, I passed and found the MBE questions to be significantly more difficult than any of the Themis practice sessions. I was consistently scoring around 80% correct and ended up guessing around 25-30% of the time on the actual exam.

[1234567888]

Seeing pictures of friends/colleagues getting sworn in.....killing me inside.

[sparty99]

Seeing pictures of friends/colleagues getting sworn in.....killing me inside.

IMAGINE THAT WILL BE YOU IN 7 MONTHS.

[mouse89]

Seeing pictures of friends/colleagues getting sworn in.....killing me inside.

That honestly hurt me more than seeing my bar results did.

[nvbar2015]

How many hours a day have you guys been studying?

Are you guys going hard with the studying yet?


I've been doing about 4-5 hours per day, 5 days a week. Just working on MBE subjects (got a 140 scaled on my failure, goal for next time would be 160 scaled so I have some essay slack) until I get my essays back and have a tutor for the essay portion.

[Carryon]

A bit early but...I'm taking it. Again. For the THIRD freaking time.
Anyone have any tutors they can suggest?

I hear that bar doctor has unlimited grading of essays and pts for around $1200. I am looking for a service or tutor that grades essays and pts as well. Anybody have any thoughts?

[BroncoPasser]

I have the name of a good tutor. PM if you are interested.

[numbertwo88]

Is anyone feeling better about studying the second time around?

[Elms]

Hey all, does anyone know offhand if bar max MBE stuff includes civ pro?