February 2015 Bar Exam Forum

[redblueyellow]

WTF was that part 2 MBE bullshit?!

Morning session was at least "OK" but the afternoon was ridiculous.

Totally agree. I felt OK, but not great, about the morning. The afternoon I felt like I was wildly strafing. A few of the civ pro questions I did not feel like I had a qualified reason to eliminate a single answer choice...

There were a few questions where I was like:

"A. YES, BECAUSE 1.1
B. YES, BECAUSE 1.11
C. YES, BECAUSE 1.111
D. YES, BECAUSE 1.2"

[psteele99]

I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those people that blamed my bar prep company because I didn't adequately prepare myself, but honestly.... those questions were nothing like Themis provided. The morning was terrible and the afternoon was not much better. I'm hoping that all the passers who said to trust the process are right, otherwise, I'll be on for July. Yikes... what a cluster.

[BeachedBrit]

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.

July was definitely MUCH harder.

It sounds like a lot of it was also what areas you're good at, especially given that i've heard both ways now from people that did well on July.

[MichBar]

In the middle of the PM session I had like 11 A's out of 20 questions (not all in a row) and another person had a ton of D's and a had very few D's.

Paranoid.

[YibanRen]

In the middle of the PM session I had like 11 A's out of 20 questions (not all in a row) and another person had a ton of D's and a had very few D's.

Paranoid.

The questions are not in the same order for anyone.

[Barbarbara]

In the middle of the PM session I had like 11 A's out of 20 questions (not all in a row) and another person had a ton of D's and a had very few D's.

Paranoid.

I had huge rows of the same answer too, for whatever it's worth.

[crit_racer]

So I know there are 10 different forms for the MBE, but do we all get the same questions in the am vs. pm, or are all 200 questions mixed up. Like are my morning questions the same as everyone else, just in a diff order? Becuase everyone I talk to seems to think afternoon was way harder

[lalala21]

I thought the MBE was maybe just slightly harder in July. I passed in July in a state that doesn't release scores though, so I don't have a good foundation for my opinion.

Overall my performance felt about the same. There were some I knew without question, a decent number I was pretty confident in, a LOT that I could only get down to 2 and some where I had no idea. Hopefully that is good enough again.... fingers crossed?

[MichBar]

Do they also switch up the ordering of the answer choices?

[cooperlaserpup]

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.

July was definitely MUCH harder.

I disagree hard. And I passed July above average.

[minnbills]

Do they also switch up the ordering of the answer choices?

Yeah I only had one long stretch (like 5 at the most) so now I am worried . . .

[YibanRen]

My morning exam was noticeably harder

I've taken it three times now, twice in another jurisdiction and know that I got a 148 one of the two previous times.

The last two times, the test was backloaded. This time, the first section seemed really frontloaded. It seemed like I had tons and tons of contracts and RP questions. Like, too many for all of them to be on the test. The length of each of these was too long for me to retain complete focus. Sure, I could narrow it down to two options, but then I just moved on.

The second section was traditional MBE, although it seemed like they were testing a lot more random crappy technicalities than they had in previous years. There were also a couple on the second section that seemed to have two right/not really one right answer.

[cooperlaserpup]

Its just weird because.....as someone who passed the bar in July and was scoring consistently 60-70% before this bar....it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that I only got 40% of those questions right today. Like, I get that logic defies that. But that is how unsure I felt after the PM session. My AM session I was "eh." After PM? nope. Doom, destruction, literally not sure about anything. And it could so totally just be a disaster and a half. And the fact that it could be that way after passing it once and then studying AGAIN so hard....that makes it a terrible test. It just does. There's no way to adequately prepare, its not testing information that will in any way benefit my practice....I don't know. I'm crabby and I've had two glasses of prosecco and I go back to my job as a defense attorney tomorrow bright and early. I guess I shouldn't complain because I'm barred here pro hac vice for 18 months but I REALLY didn't want to have to take that bullshit test again. UGH UGH UGH. Feels like a waste of a month of studying to show up to a test that tests on NOTHING THAT I STUDIED. Fuck Themis, Fuck NCBE, FUCK IT ALL *pours another glass of vino*

[YibanRen]

So I know there are 10 different forms for the MBE, but do we all get the same questions in the am vs. pm, or are all 200 questions mixed up. Like are my morning questions the same as everyone else, just in a diff order? Becuase everyone I talk to seems to think afternoon was way harder

I believe we get the same base questions in each section (if not, people on lunch break will be able to compare notes and identify questions they haven't had yet). I believe we don't get the same test questions, the way they are able to vet the questions for future exams is trying them each out on a decent sample of people. I think this also contributes to why someone may think a particular section is "harder"--they either get too many test questions of a subject that they don't like, or they get too many test questions that are not really ready for the mainstream.

[cooperlaserpup]

My morning exam was noticeably harder

I've taken it three times now, twice in another jurisdiction and know that I got a 148 one of the two previous times.

The last two times, the test was backloaded. This time, the first section seemed really frontloaded. It seemed like I had tons and tons of contracts and RP questions. Like, too many for all of them to be on the test. The length of each of these was too long for me to retain complete focus. Sure, I could narrow it down to two options, but then I just moved on.

The second section was traditional MBE, although it seemed like they were testing a lot more random crappy technicalities than they had in previous years. There were also a couple on the second section that seemed to have two right/not really one right answer.

based on your description to a T, I think our AM and PM were switched. because that is exactly how I would describe my experience, except the opposite.

[cooperlaserpup]

Do they also switch up the ordering of the answer choices?

Yeah I only had one long stretch (like 5 at the most) so now I am worried . . .

I never had more than four in a row of anything.

But don't forget, if you're getting 1 or 2 wrong out of every 5, you're doing pretty spectacular.

[numbertwo88]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought there were a lot of real property questions. I should've counted them because I swear there were 47 of them. At least. Or that's what it felt like ... Followed by perhaps 37 contracts questions.

I hate that I have another day tomorrow :-/

[txsunshine]

My morning exam was noticeably harder

I've taken it three times now, twice in another jurisdiction and know that I got a 148 one of the two previous times.

The last two times, the test was backloaded. This time, the first section seemed really frontloaded. It seemed like I had tons and tons of contracts and RP questions. Like, too many for all of them to be on the test. The length of each of these was too long for me to retain complete focus. Sure, I could narrow it down to two options, but then I just moved on.

The second section was traditional MBE, although it seemed like they were testing a lot more random crappy technicalities than they had in previous years. There were also a couple on the second section that seemed to have two right/not really one right answer.

Same exact experience-my morning section was ridiculous with all those RE/Ks questions. I typically fly through MBE practice sessions with plenty of time for review, and I needed every minute of this morning's session to get done.

The afternoon was cake in comparison. Blew through those like I typically do and left like 40 min. early. Guess we'll see how it goes.

[abogadesq]

This might be a good time to ask... how does the MBE curve work?

[dueprocess14]

Its just weird because.....as someone who passed the bar in July and was scoring consistently 60-70% before this bar....it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that I only got 40% of those questions right today. Like, I get that logic defies that. But that is how unsure I felt after the PM session. My AM session I was "eh." After PM? nope. Doom, destruction, literally not sure about anything. And it could so totally just be a disaster and a half. And the fact that it could be that way after passing it once and then studying AGAIN so hard....that makes it a terrible test. It just does. There's no way to adequately prepare, its not testing information that will in any way benefit my practice....I don't know. I'm crabby and I've had two glasses of prosecco and I go back to my job as a defense attorney tomorrow bright and early. I guess I shouldn't complain because I'm barred here pro hac vice for 18 months but I REALLY didn't want to have to take that bullshit test again. UGH UGH UGH. Feels like a waste of a month of studying to show up to a test that tests on NOTHING THAT I STUDIED. Fuck Themis, Fuck NCBE, FUCK IT ALL *pours another glass of vino*

Hah. This is exactly how I feel. AM was eh. PM was doom. And I had felt pretty good going in, unless Themis seriously led me astray.

[YibanRen]

My morning exam was noticeably harder

I've taken it three times now, twice in another jurisdiction and know that I got a 148 one of the two previous times.

The last two times, the test was backloaded. This time, the first section seemed really frontloaded. It seemed like I had tons and tons of contracts and RP questions. Like, too many for all of them to be on the test. The length of each of these was too long for me to retain complete focus. Sure, I could narrow it down to two options, but then I just moved on.

The second section was traditional MBE, although it seemed like they were testing a lot more random crappy technicalities than they had in previous years. There were also a couple on the second section that seemed to have two right/not really one right answer.

Same exact experience-my morning section was ridiculous with all those RE/Ks questions. I typically fly through MBE practice sessions with plenty of time for review, and I needed every minute of this morning's session to get done.

The afternoon was cake in comparison. Blew through those like I typically do and left like 40 min. early. Guess we'll see how it goes.

I feel like the afternoon went way better, but it was replaced with questions that you don't know the answer to at a time when your mind is fried. I mean, I can't even recall some of the material. There was a crim pro question asked about something I hadn't even heard of at all.

[YibanRen]

My morning exam was noticeably harder

Test form 7's morning portion was pretty easy.

Was 50-60% of your morning session real property and contracts?

[ilovetypos]

Its just weird because.....as someone who passed the bar in July and was scoring consistently 60-70% before this bar....it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that I only got 40% of those questions right today. Like, I get that logic defies that. But that is how unsure I felt after the PM session. My AM session I was "eh." After PM? nope. Doom, destruction, literally not sure about anything. And it could so totally just be a disaster and a half. And the fact that it could be that way after passing it once and then studying AGAIN so hard....that makes it a terrible test. It just does. There's no way to adequately prepare, its not testing information that will in any way benefit my practice....I don't know. I'm crabby and I've had two glasses of prosecco and I go back to my job as a defense attorney tomorrow bright and early. I guess I shouldn't complain because I'm barred here pro hac vice for 18 months but I REALLY didn't want to have to take that bullshit test again. UGH UGH UGH. Feels like a waste of a month of studying to show up to a test that tests on NOTHING THAT I STUDIED. Fuck Themis, Fuck NCBE, FUCK IT ALL *pours another glass of vino*

This was exactly my experience. Also returning to work tomorrow. I am so sad.

[YibanRen]

Does anyone know how many of the civ pro questions were real? Has anyone said? It didn't seem like I got more than 25 or so questions.

[fslexcduck]

Quick question, is a closing date necessary in a real estate sales agreement?

Not according to my notes.

thank god.

It's cool, i just wrote a whole essay about how without a set end date, non UCC contracts could imply finishing within a "reasonable time," and if it's not a reasonable time, then it's a breach. Pulled that out of my ass due to thinking the question was too simple and trying to justify reasons to complicate it. The annoying thing is if we had had the MBE first, it would have been etched into my brain forever that contracts don't need set dates, regardless of reasons you might invent that they do. Oh well.

I think it's funny how people can vary so much in terms of how they feel. I bombed the essays due to all my worst and none of my best subjects being tested. Then I thought the AM MBE was tough because my nerves hadn't settled yet and I wasn't contextualizing well. Then I calmed down and aced the PM. I feel like that's the exact opposite of what some people here have said. It's just interesting how much there is out there to know that we're expected to know, and how much variance there is in what people really do know.