February 2015 Bar Exam Forum

[saraea]

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.

Thanks god that's how I felt too...PM was way worse. It seems like Themis had us over-focus on real property and crim and con law, and this was the weirdest MBE ever. I'm glad I didn't pay attention to their MBE workshops...

[YibanRen]

I have a way to make you dudes feel better. Make a spreadsheet. Input each subject, and how many questions there were out of 190. I don't think we know with Civ Pro, so I just estimated 24. Then, break up each section in two categories, the percent that you think you "knew," and those that you narrowed down to two answers (you probably guessed on a few, but just put them into this category anyway). Assume that you got 40% of those right that you narrowed down to two categories, and 80% right of those you "knew."

Then, sum up the raw total and multiple by 1.15 for a scaled score. It helps a bit.

[fslexcduck]

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.

I have been saying it all along, but Themis was the WORST. The worst in every way, shape, and form. Questions didn't prepare you, lectures were useless, lecture handouts had inconsistent and usually awful structures, their question answering system is a joke, etc.

Along the same vein, I saw someone reading from a book today while studying that had one side of the book with "common law rules" and the other side "NY distinctions." I feel like that would have been SUCH a better way to organize everything than Themis' method of giving you all the common law in one section, and then all the NY distinctions in another... if god forbid I ever have to take it again, I'm going to find review material that organizes it that way, so you can study thematically rather than "here's all the common law! OK great here's all the state law!

[arizzle]

I have a way to make you dudes feel better. Make a spreadsheet. Input each subject, and how many questions there were out of 190. I don't think we know with Civ Pro, so I just estimated 24. Then, break up each section in two categories, the percent that you think you "knew," and those that you narrowed down to two answers (you probably guessed on a few, but just put them into this category anyway). Assume that you got 40% of those right that you narrowed down to two categories, and 80% right of those you "knew."

Then, sum up the raw total and multiple by 1.15 for a scaled score. It helps a bit.

If you can do this from memory, you probably passed.

[fslexcduck]

I have a way to make you dudes feel better. Make a spreadsheet. Input each subject, and how many questions there were out of 190. I don't think we know with Civ Pro, so I just estimated 24. Then, break up each section in two categories, the percent that you think you "knew," and those that you narrowed down to two answers (you probably guessed on a few, but just put them into this category anyway). Assume that you got 40% of those right that you narrowed down to two categories, and 80% right of those you "knew."

Then, sum up the raw total and multiple by 1.15 for a scaled score. It helps a bit.

If you can do this from memory, you probably passed.

lol for real, WTF. I couldn't remember the topics of 2 out of 5 of my essays after the end of yesterday.

[BlueDiamond]

I have a way to make you dudes feel better. Make a spreadsheet. Input each subject, and how many questions there were out of 190. I don't think we know with Civ Pro, so I just estimated 24. Then, break up each section in two categories, the percent that you think you "knew," and those that you narrowed down to two answers (you probably guessed on a few, but just put them into this category anyway). Assume that you got 40% of those right that you narrowed down to two categories, and 80% right of those you "knew."

Then, sum up the raw total and multiple by 1.15 for a scaled score. It helps a bit.

If you can do this from memory, you probably passed.

lol for real, WTF. I couldn't remember the topics of 2 out of 5 of my essays after the end of yesterday.

Was just thinking this as well. if you showed me a random question from the 200 I answered today not only would I not recognize that I had seen it before, but I would probably choose a different answer and have different reasoning for why.

[numbertwo88]

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.

I have been saying it all along, but Themis was the WORST. The worst in every way, shape, and form. Questions didn't prepare you, lectures were useless, lecture handouts had inconsistent and usually awful structures, their question answering system is a joke, etc.

Along the same vein, I saw someone reading from a book today while studying that had one side of the book with "common law rules" and the other side "NY distinctions." I feel like that would have been SUCH a better way to organize everything than Themis' method of giving you all the common law in one section, and then all the NY distinctions in another... if god forbid I ever have to take it again, I'm going to find review material that organizes it that way, so you can study thematically rather than "here's all the common law! OK great here's all the state law!

I agree the lectures + handouts are a total absolute waste of time. Also don't care for the way they do state distinctions too much BUT I do think their MBE questions were good/sufficient. I did all of them + I had the Emanuel Strategies and Tactics book and so many of them overlapped [so I wound up not doing most of the questions from S&T] and on the test today some of the questions (maybe 10-15ish) were basically identical to a practice question in the course with a few factual tweaks.

[YibanRen]

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.

I have been saying it all along, but Themis was the WORST. The worst in every way, shape, and form. Questions didn't prepare you, lectures were useless, lecture handouts had inconsistent and usually awful structures, their question answering system is a joke, etc.

Along the same vein, I saw someone reading from a book today while studying that had one side of the book with "common law rules" and the other side "NY distinctions." I feel like that would have been SUCH a better way to organize everything than Themis' method of giving you all the common law in one section, and then all the NY distinctions in another... if god forbid I ever have to take it again, I'm going to find review material that organizes it that way, so you can study thematically rather than "here's all the common law! OK great here's all the state law!

I took Themis for bar awhile ago, and now Barbi. I think Barbri provides a nice organization and does a good job actually teaching the material. Themis covered more stuff, but it seemed like a lot of the stuff they covered wasn't in tons of depth. So with Themis I found myself learning useless information like admission of physical evidence, while with Barbri I found myself learning fewer things that were harder in more depth, like mortgages.

Barbri has a dumb approach to the MBE though. They try to teach you to add tricks and twists in the questions, where the MBE usually just trips you up by testing stuff you don't know.

[saraea]

I would highly recommend Adaptibar. Their question explanations were more helpful than Barbri and Themis combined. I basically used them exclusively for MBE.

[fslexcduck]

Barbri has a dumb approach to the MBE though. They try to teach you to add tricks and twists in the questions, where the MBE usually just trips you up by testing stuff you don't know.

I don't know - my big complaint about Themis was they went for obscurity over depth/complication as the method of making things difficult. I disagree with you here, because I thought my morning session was EXACTLY "here's a question about a relatively simple rule but there are going to be 4 or 5 tricks and twists along the way."

Then again, I probably feel that way because I knew all the obscure rules as per my Themis training and wasn't prepared for the tricks Grass is always greener I guess.

[jarofsoup]

I thought Kaplan was pretty good for the MBE.

[OklahomasOK]

Checking in. I scored 145 on July MBE, passed Texas. I thought that MBE was really tough.

Today was more of the same, largely. The AM session was actually not terrible. The PM session was difficult. I really struggled with long sets of questions this afternoon. Some questions I had a difficult time understanding in general. Some questions lacked a good answer. Property questions were MUCH more difficult than July.

I walked out feeling about the same as I did in July, terrible. Should be a good sign.

[FoxCrane]

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'm in the same boat. I answered a long set of problems, looked up and I had answered 5 Bs in a row. I thought to myself this can't be a good sign. So, it's good that everyone else had a similar experience or we each just have the same level competence.

I took the Kentucky. I thought the essays were not bad, the PM session was fair and the AM session was the last scene in Ole Yeller (horrible).

I felt when I was reading the question that I knew what the answers was going to be but when I got to the selections it was either: 1) Not there 2) could have been 2 answers or 3) there but worded weirdly as to make me second guess if it was right or not.

So, I have no clue on how I performed. It was a horrible experience.

[YibanRen]

Checking in. I scored 145 on July MBE, passed Texas. I thought that MBE was really tough.

Today was more of the same, largely. The AM session was actually not terrible. The PM session was difficult. I really struggled with long sets of questions this afternoon. Some questions I had a difficult time understanding in general. Some questions lacked a good answer. Property questions were MUCH more difficult than July.

I walked out feeling about the same as I did in July, terrible. Should be a good sign.

I didn't have long sets of questions in the afternoon. Mine were in the morning. It makes me think that we both had longer test questions.

[aquasalad]

I have a way to make you dudes feel better. Make a spreadsheet. Input each subject, and how many questions there were out of 190. I don't think we know with Civ Pro, so I just estimated 24. Then, break up each section in two categories, the percent that you think you "knew," and those that you narrowed down to two answers (you probably guessed on a few, but just put them into this category anyway). Assume that you got 40% of those right that you narrowed down to two categories, and 80% right of those you "knew."

Then, sum up the raw total and multiple by 1.15 for a scaled score. It helps a bit.

Outed as joint JD/MBA

[MichBar]

It seems that numerous MBE takers including myself either had a ton of A's or a ton of D's one of the sessions.

[TheQuietStorm86]

FWIW, I also had a significant string of As. Passed the Bar previously with a solid MBE score.

[cooperlaserpup]

It seems that numerous MBE takers including myself either had a ton of A's or a ton of D's one of the sessions.

I was more B's and D's if I recall correctly.

Its important to remember that 1 or 2 wrong answers in a string of 5 or 6 could totally throw off any trend, and if you're averaging 1 or 2 wrong out of six you have a passing score. So I wouldn't put too much stock into streaks of letters.

Its easier said than done, but we all need to take a major chill pill and relax. Its over now and nothing can be done until results are out in a couple months.

Sincerely wishing everyone the best

[DallasCowboy]

Second bar for me. 172 on MBE in 2013 July. After about ten questions, I realized they were all about trap answers this time.

I started reading the last line or two and the answers first; crossing out 2 and sometimes 3 choices that would misstate the law or clearly would not apply. Took forever. Thank god I practice real estate, or else that would have been terrible. Whiffed on some essays yesterday due to work+study and not learning state law. Hopefully this will average out.

[DallasCowboy]

Also, had 33% D's today.

[redblueyellow]

Second bar for me. 172 on MBE in 2013 July. After about ten questions, I realized they were all about trap answers this time.

I started reading the last line or two and the answers first; crossing out 2 and sometimes 3 choices that would misstate the law or clearly would not apply. Took forever. Thank god I practice real estate, or else that would have been terrible. Whiffed on some essays yesterday due to work+study and not learning state law. Hopefully this will average out.

How is real estate law? Do you have to bring in your own clients or do you have them assigned to you from your firm/company? Do you get an opportunity to double dip ethically and also manage/flip real property on the side?

[DallasCowboy]

We are digressing from BAREXAM, but I work biglaw (southern version), so it is representing commercial developers that are firm clients. As a second year, I pretty much work without supervision on most deals from signing to close, which never happens on the contract closing date . Nice mix of title/survey/leasing, negotiating, basic corporate, borrower-side finance, and 50% just making sure shit gets done. Maybe 10% helping out m&a as subject expert, which sucks and is the only thing that takes weekend time.

I love it and feel that we do way more substantive work than m&a juniors. No side deals, or capital to invest yet, lolz.

[redblueyellow]

We are digressing from BAREXAM, but I work biglaw (southern version), so it is representing commercial developers that are firm clients. As a second year, I pretty much work without supervision on most deals from signing to close, which never happens on the contract closing date . Nice mix of title/survey/leasing, negotiating, basic corporate, borrower-side finance, and 50% just making sure shit gets done. Maybe 10% helping out m&a as subject expert, which sucks and is the only thing that takes weekend time.

I love it and feel that we do way more substantive work than m&a juniors. No side deals, or capital to invest yet, lolz.

Ah, the only UCC rule that I knew without hesitation.

Job sounds fun!

[OfThriceandTen]

I thought in the middle of the test how nice it would be to have a real estate background with a ton of those questions between closings, zoning restrictions, commissions, etc.

Also totally had a lot of Ds on both, and As and Ds in the morning. Sounds like I would have preferred the July mortgage slaughterfest... mortgages are way more my bread and butter than whatever the hell yesterday was.

[wannabeapd2014]

I felt like the entire exam was about mortgages and land sale contracts. I knew nothing. And also felt that I might as well have taken a real estate course and gotten my real estate license in order to be prepared for the other property questions re: easements, zoning, etc. Can you still have marketable title if there is a tenant living on the land for three more years? Does an easement count against marketable title if its recorded? I sure didn't know.

I also feel like I didn't focus enough on the tiny distinctions (equitable redemption v. statutory redemption, title theory v. lien theory); didn't know them and guessed -- mostly based on what seemed fair, but of course my guesses were wrong.

I also thought that a lot of the criminal law questions didn't have good answers. Civ pro was easier than I expected, but I agree that Themis didn't do a good job preparing us. The questions that I know I missed involved topics that just weren't covered/emphasized in the lectures or outlines at all.