2015 February Texas Bar Exam Forum

[crit_racer]

I was just looking over the February 2014 Bar Exam for P&E. About 1/2 of the criminal questions hadn't been tested for the past 7 exams.

Anybody else experiencing this?

I went through that the other day and went "hmmm" a few times. It wasn't that bad though. However, I'm amused by the so called "answers" though that the BLE releases for Crim Pro - "The question called for examinees to demonstrate knowledge of examining trials, which most examinees did."

Really? How does that help?

Yeah it's like "how do you do X?" And the answer is like "this tested examiners ability to do X. Most examinees fucked it up."

Literally the only thing helpful about those answers is that it tells you which questions were commonly missed. I'm going to drill those questions because I imagine they will reuse questions that were able to weed out the herd with last time.

[LLB2JD]

Quick question on the essays:

So I haven't committed the rules verbatim to memory even though I know them and state them in my own words on practice exams. Would this suffice? I mean, if the examiners are expecting a mechanical list like on some of the sample answers, I certainly wouldn't be able to produce that. And is anyone else wondering how some of these guys were able to churn out some of those responses in 30 minutes? Holy cow.

I also looked at the MPT responses from July 2014, one of them was so long that you'd think he must have gotten at least 5 hours to do that.

[TxBarTaker09]

I think it's worth it to memorize certain rules for things that are likely to show up, like negotiable instruments, but outside of that, I find that if you says "The TOBC or the Texas Family Code or the DTPA says..." then generally state what the rule is, you're going to get your points.

[BeachedBrit]

I was just looking over the February 2014 Bar Exam for P&E. About 1/2 of the criminal questions hadn't been tested for the past 7 exams.

Anybody else experiencing this?

I went through that the other day and went "hmmm" a few times. It wasn't that bad though. However, I'm amused by the so called "answers" though that the BLE releases for Crim Pro - "The question called for examinees to demonstrate knowledge of examining trials, which most examinees did."

Really? How does that help?

I did the two most recent sets of the crim ones last night (which don't have Barbri answers for them) and then went to check my answers. My response on seeing the answers BLE provided included a truly impressive number of inappropriate words.

[februarybartaker]

Agreed to all of the above re: the TBE sample "answers". They were most productive in sending me on a wild goose chase through the TCCP for polygraph tests and other unlikely question repeats. A great way to waste time.

Anyway, looks like we're all in the same boat. Hopefully that's indicative that the curve will help us out if they decide to get creative tomorrow.

[LLB2JD]

Agreed to all of the above re: the TBE sample "answers". They were most productive in sending me on a wild goose chase through the TCCP for polygraph tests and other unlikely question repeats. A great way to waste time.

Anyway, looks like we're all in the same boat. Hopefully that's indicative that the curve will help us out if they decide to get creative tomorrow.

Ha. Talking about the polygraph one, I remember seeing it, looking everywhere for an answer and didn't find. My intuition is to say that Nope it isn't admissible and make up something a reason. Did you find anything on it?

[BeachedBrit]

Agreed to all of the above re: the TBE sample "answers". They were most productive in sending me on a wild goose chase through the TCCP for polygraph tests and other unlikely question repeats. A great way to waste time.

Anyway, looks like we're all in the same boat. Hopefully that's indicative that the curve will help us out if they decide to get creative tomorrow.

I think that's the key to not freaking out too badly on anything on the test: if they do something weird or really unusual or obscure, everyone else will have the same problem and it's all curved.

[BeachedBrit]

Agreed to all of the above re: the TBE sample "answers". They were most productive in sending me on a wild goose chase through the TCCP for polygraph tests and other unlikely question repeats. A great way to waste time.

Anyway, looks like we're all in the same boat. Hopefully that's indicative that the curve will help us out if they decide to get creative tomorrow.

Ha. Talking about the polygraph one, I remember seeing it, looking everywhere for an answer and didn't find. My intuition is to say that Nope it isn't admissible and make up something a reason. Did you find anything on it?

I think I remember this from my Crim Pro class, and it seems to be true in both (MBE and TX) contexts: polygraphs aren't admissible in criminal (and possibly civil?) trials because their reliability/accuracy is questionable at best. I think of it like this, you can train to beat a polygraph, so if they were admissible, then people would train to beat it then use that as evidence of their innocence.

[februarybartaker]

Yes - Here are 2 relevant links:

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/D ... /CR.15.htm

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/a ... court.html

The first is out of the TCCP. The second is a bit more informal, obviously, but states:

"The states in which polygraphs are inadmissible include New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. In these states, even if both parties wish to enter polygraph test results into evidence, it is forbidden (except in very rare scenarios).

Some states, like New York and Texas, forbid their use completely in all employment and law enforcement contexts."

[BeachedBrit]

Anyone else planning to binge watch the new season of House of Cards, which comes out on Friday at 2:01AM CT, while nursing a little hangover once this is over? Just trying to keep thinking about the other side and not get too stressed out.

[TxBarTaker09]

What a beautiful travel day it turned out to be. LOLZ.

[LLB2JD]

I just stepped out, and it is freezing beyond recognition.

[imacpa]

I passed the TX July 2014 exam last year. I want to wish everyone best wishes on your exam.

If anything, I'm only going to repeat what everyone has already mentioned. Study the prior years essays because they tend to repeat themselves with the same issues. Same is also true for civ pro/crim pro questions. About 80%-90% of the civ pro/crim pro questions tend to repeat themselves every year.

At this point I wouldn't waste any further time on civ pro/crim pro by reading outlines. I would just look at the last 3 or 4 administrations and look at the model answers for those questions. Just by doing that I think you can at least finish in the middle of the pack for that portion of the exam.

[februarybartaker]

Thanks for the good wishes imacpa.

Just to clarify - do you think the last 3-4 administrations is enough? Instead of trying to get through the past 10 administrations (tonight, no less), do you think it would be more productive to master the last 3-4 administrations (i.e. the past 2 years)?

Clearly this is a matter of opinion, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

[februarybartaker]

House of Cards is on the agenda for me. Not sure about everyone else, but I am more excited for this to be over than I am nervous for it to begin.

[BeachedBrit]

Weirdly picky computer related (possibly Mac specific) question:

The Texas BLE site says to ensure we are using the "TEXAS BAR EXAM EDITION" of SofTest. The application I have on my Mac is just called "SofTest" and when I open it, it says "License: Texas Board of Law Examiners" on the screen. Is this the same thing everyone else has and is that what they want, or did I screw something up somehow?

[februarybartaker]

SofTest is what I have. When I open it, it says "Licensed Version: Texas Board of Law Examiners" at the top of the window. Check under the "SofTest Home" bold letters.

[BeachedBrit]

SofTest is what I have. When I open it, it says "Licensed Version: Texas Board of Law Examiners" at the top of the window. Check under the "SofTest Home" bold letters.

Ok, same here. Just trying to make sure I don't screw anything up and end up having to handwrite the MPT (that sounds like a nightmare).

[LLB2JD]

Do we get our passwords tomorrow as well?

[februarybartaker]

Anybody have a guess re: what the raw to scaled conversion is like for P&E? For example, if you get 50% of the points overall (i.e. raw), what would that scale to?

[LLB2JD]

Anybody have a guess re: what the raw to scaled conversion is like for P&E? For example, if you get 50% of the points overall (i.e. raw), what would that scale to?

Not sure, but this link may provide some insight and solace.

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/ExaminationI ... 202013.pdf

[februarybartaker]

Wow, that's incredible. Thanks for the link.

Assuming a normal distribution, if we can count on getting 75% correct (as per previous estimations of using former exam answers), we are already in the top ~21% or so.

Not bad.

[TxBarTaker09]

IF YOU ARE TAKING THE EXAM IN WACO, LUBBOCK, OR FORT WORTH:

Your start time for tomorrow has been moved back an hour to 9:30 AM due to the weather. Check out the BLE website to read the full announcement.

[imacpa]

Thanks for the good wishes imacpa.

Just to clarify - do you think the last 3-4 administrations is enough? Instead of trying to get through the past 10 administrations (tonight, no less), do you think it would be more productive to master the last 3-4 administrations (i.e. the past 2 years)?

Clearly this is a matter of opinion, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts.

From my experience, I think the last 3-4 years (not necessarily administrations) worth of bar exams should be sufficient for coverage of the crim/civ pro questions because they tend to recycle the same questions on just about every bar exam. At least 70%-80% of them anyway. Just my opinion but doing more than 3-4 years definitely won't hurt you for sure. At least it worked out for me that way because the civ pro/crim pro fact patterns are so predictable that I find for me it's not worth it to go so far back to review. Especially considering it's only worth 10% of your total grade.

[LLB2JD]

Alright all, I'm calling it a night. Good luck to us all tomorrow.