California Bar Exam (July 2014) thread Forum

[2807]

If I read those answers before I learned that I passed I would be absolutely convinced that I did not pass. They seem just plain wrong in some ways and miss stuff in others.

Specific performance awarded on a service contract? No talk of how he had no actual plans in place to get the magazine shoot/certainty?

No mention of the confession used as impeachment?

I dunno.

+1. I didn't write about half the issues mentioned in those "model" answers.

I purposely avoided ALL model answers.
Never read one of them while studying.
In law school, a teacher did have us read a few for a class and he pointed out how many things in this published/released answer were flat out wrong.
That was when I knew I would never study from those. EVER.

Just learn the law and an approach to essays that shows the grader you know what you're doing.
This is about SHOWING the grader you know the material.

This is not about just "knowing" it.

You are better off if your essay CLEARLY SHOWS what you know.

If not, it may clearly show what you do not know

[LAWYER2]

**Way off topic** . . . but can anyone point me in the right direction to search for California law that essentially estops fathers who denied paternity in court from inheriting from intestate estate of deceased child?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[scrowell]

**Way off topic** . . . but can anyone point me in the right direction to search for California law that essentially estops fathers who denied paternity in court from inheriting from intestate estate of deceased child?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

see 6452: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displ ... =6450-6455

[LAWYER2]

**Way off topic** . . . but can anyone point me in the right direction to search for California law that essentially estops fathers who denied paternity in court from inheriting from intestate estate of deceased child?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

see 6452: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displ ... =6450-6455

Absolutely solid! THANK YOU!!!!

[scrowell]

**Way off topic** . . . but can anyone point me in the right direction to search for California law that essentially estops fathers who denied paternity in court from inheriting from intestate estate of deceased child?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

see 6452: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displ ... =6450-6455

Absolutely solid! THANK YOU!!!!

YOU GOT IT BRO!

[charcop]

I was fortunate to pass the first time July 2014 thanks to help from some fellow TLSers, so will give away some of my no longer needed study guides (all or none please, i'm running low on shipping boxes and packaging) to whoever responds first and will pay for shipping (which would most likely be around $15 or so):

1. Essay Exam Writing for the CA Bar Exam
http://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writin ... ay+writing

2. Strategies and Tactics for the MBE (it's missing the Contracts section though)
http://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Tactic ... or+the+mbe

3. Critical Pass MBE Flashcards
http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Pass-MBE ... l+pass+mbe


EDIT: Materials have been spoken for

[AMCD]

Just PM'd you. I would love the materials!

[tearsforbeers]

First time taker last July. I remember thinking when I left that I probably did just enough to pass.

It turns out I missed by less than 1%. I was surprised I did so poorly on #6. It seemed pretty straightforward. Essay 3 was what did me in. My 10b-5 analysis sucked and I remember not pointing out the ABA/ CA distinctions.

IF ANYONE CAN SPOT A MATH ERROR I WILL BUY ROUNDS FOR ALL OF US.

TOTAL SCALED SCORE: 1432.4894


ESSAY 1: 55/60 | OPERANT GRADE = 57.5
ESSAY 2: 75/65 | OPERANT GRADE = 70.0
ESSAY 3: 50/45 | OPERANT GRADE = 47.5
ESSAY 4: 65/75 | OPERANT GRADE = 70.0
ESSAY 5: 65/60 | OPERANT GRADE = 62.5
ESSAY 6: 55/55 | OPERANT GRADE = 55.0
PT A: 65/65 | OPERANT GRADE = 65.0
PT B: 55/55 | OPERANT GRADE = 55.0

RAW WRITTEN: 602.5
SCALED WRITTEN: 1404.2145
SCALED MBE: 1485.000

[pineapple99]

Long time lurker and first time poster. Did Barbri, wrote out about 80 practice essays, timed. Also took a class at my school just on performance exams (did about 13-15 PTs). Also, had my essays graded from tutors at school. Performance tests I was hitting around 75 (with one 90). Essays I was getting around 70-75. Barbri MBE I scored 124 on the final.

Putting all of this together, I went in pretty confident. I knew I didn't do well on remedies or the first performance test but I felt that my other scores would carry me through. Surprise surprise...lol.



essay 1 55-55 : 55
essay 2: 60-60 : 60
essay 3: 60-55 : 57.5
essay 4: 60-60 : 60
essay 5: 65-60 :62.5
essay 6: 65-60 :62.5

pt a: 55-55: 55
pt b: 70-65: 67.5

raw written: 602.5
scaled written: 1404
MBE scaled: 1368


total:: 1391.5


Not sure what happened.

Anyways, I don't even know if a 1391 is considered "close" to passing.

Does anyone know what a 1368 scaled mbe translates to? I'm guessing around 120?

Were you incredibly stressed out? Pressed for time? When you practiced your essays and PTs were they timed and closed book? I was always surprised whenever friends would tell me that they spent extra time on the PT or looked at notes for the essays as if that would be a good indicator of how they did on the actual exam. it just seems really odd to have such a drop in your essay +PT scores on the day of the exam-your scores are consistently low between 1st and 2nd read-was your tutor just a very easy grader?

I mean I was stressed but it was not something that I thought paralyzed me. I've done so many essays that I got time management down pretty well (about 10-20 min outlining) then go for the remaining hour, then go to the next. Almost all of the essays (except a few at the beginning) I did under time conditions. Similarly, most of the PT's I did in a classroom with a proctor under timed conditions.

In regards to grading, I had a couple of graders. The program my school ran had a few teachers that graded the essays. I also know a former bar grader who too gave me feedback. Lastly, I had Barbri grade a few of my essays.

I am pretty certain it was not lenient grading because some of my friends that passed were getting lower scores than me and used the same people for feedback. I mean Barbri gave me a 75 on the PT and they have a reputation of being really tough graders.


I guess something really did happen during the exam and I'm just oblivious at this point. We get the essays in the mail by end of December? It's just seems difficult to figure out a strategy before receiving my essays. I think doing another 80 practice essays is a waste of time. Perhaps it was just a weird day.

[lmr]

Idk it's one thing if all your essays were in the 55-60 range and you did well on the PTs bc the skills being tested are so different. I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues. What happened during PTA? I thought that was very straightforward. Were you normal test day stressed like how you'd get during any final exam or were you stressed to the point of distraction? It is definitely odd considering how you practice scored-maybe you should devote more time to MBE and def figure out what happened w those PTs bc those two areas can give you a passing score w average essays. Also, I got a 75 on the barbri PT and know a few friends who also did too-based on my graded essays i didn't think barbri's grading was as harsh as i was led to believe.

your mbe raw is prob 116-119 based on last year's chart-which imo is kinda low. What percentile were you in for the barbri midterm? Did you use adaptibar too?

[pineapple99]

Idk it's one thing if all your essays were in the 55-60 range and you did well on the PTs bc the skills being tested are so different. I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues. What happened during PTA? I thought that was very straightforward. Were you normal test day stressed like how you'd get during any final exam or were you stressed to the point of distraction? It is definitely odd considering how you practice scored-maybe you should devote more time to MBE and def figure out what happened w those PTs bc those two areas can give you a passing score w average essays. Also, I got a 75 on the barbri PT and know a few friends who also did too-based on my graded essays i didn't think barbri's grading was as harsh as i was led to believe.

your mbe raw is prob 116-119 based on last year's chart-which imo is kinda low. What percentile were you in for the barbri midterm? Did you use adaptibar too?

I was 52 percentile on Barbri midterm (green zone). PTA I just could not understand. I'm not sure what happened I just couldn't figure out how to apply the given case law/statutes to the facts. I spoke to some friends who too had trouble on it. One of my friends said he wrote about 100 words yet ended up passing.

I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues

That's the thing, the issues that have been discussed since the exam I'm pretty certain I covered. I even covered stuff that a lot of people seemed to have missed such as the impeachment issue on the Crimpro question.

The only real explanation I can derive from all of this without seeing my essays is that I did cover all of the major issues but was rushing and did not go into in depth analysis. Also possible that after doing so many practice essays I was just on autopilot and was not reading the facts closely.

The scores I received were the scores I was getting on practice essays before Barbri so this is all very strange to me.

[james11]

I posted this in the Feb 15 thread and I'll post again here. I failed last July and I passed last Feb. I want to chime in to those who did not pass this July not to give up. Whatever is holding you back, you can correct it. The first few days after I found out that I failed I wanted to crawl into a hole. Then I picked myself up and figured out what I needed to work on and fixed it. The bar does not test what type of lawyer you will be or what type of person you are. It tests your ability to pass the bar, nothing else. I'm posting below my post from last May after I found out I passed and talking about what I did, hopefully it will help you.

-----

I passed. It was my second time. The nightmare is over for me. I've avoided my friends/family for months. I had thoughts of quitting or moving out of state after the first time, but I gritted my teeth and gave it another go. For those of you who were not successful, I encourage you to keep at it. Eventually you will pass.

The first time I did well on the MBE but failed every single essay. My essay scores were 55, 55, 55, 60, 62.5, 55.

I hired a tutor and also heavily used BarEssays.com at the advice of Murph and several other posters on this board.

My daily schedule was as follows: wake up, 20 MBEs (I had mbe material from kaplan, barbri, and strategies+tactics), review subject, lunch, practice essay, spend some time and compare my essay to the examples on baressays.com, 20 more MBEs and/or more review and/or speak with tutor.

Through this process I realized that I failed every essay the first time for three reasons- 1) my formatting was all wrong. I did not have a good grasp on irac and my review course did not teach this to me; 2) I did not memorize the rule statements enough; 3) I did not hit enough subissues.

The final couple weeks before the bar exam I made flashcards with all the rule statements and memorized like crazy.

I can tell you that failing the bar was worst academic experience of my life but I learned a lot about self discipline and getting through a major set back.

Good luck to all.

[a male human]

Should you get a tutor? I mentioned posting a Q&A with repeaters who hired a tutor. I posted their thoughts in the new Feb topic: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 2&start=25

[2807]

Well, I am not a salesman, but I am a satisfied customer.
This is who I went to for bar prep.
http://www.bestbarsuccess.com

He is awesome, but you will have to do a lot of work.
This is not for the weak.

92% pass rate for 1st timers in the top 3/4 of the class.

100% pass rate for repeaters who took a different bar review course than his.

Need I say more ?

Find the money. Take the course.
Have the best summer of your life.

[2oldfts]

I'd also really like to know if you haven't passed character and fitness yet, but passed the bar do they still send you something??

I guess you found out the answer to this question by now but yes they do. You get a letter saying Congrats, it was a big accomplishment to pass. You have not completed all the requirements for admissions. check the website

[Carryon]

Idk it's one thing if all your essays were in the 55-60 range and you did well on the PTs bc the skills being tested are so different. I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues. What happened during PTA? I thought that was very straightforward. Were you normal test day stressed like how you'd get during any final exam or were you stressed to the point of distraction? It is definitely odd considering how you practice scored-maybe you should devote more time to MBE and def figure out what happened w those PTs bc those two areas can give you a passing score w average essays. Also, I got a 75 on the barbri PT and know a few friends who also did too-based on my graded essays i didn't think barbri's grading was as harsh as i was led to believe.

your mbe raw is prob 116-119 based on last year's chart-which imo is kinda low. What percentile were you in for the barbri midterm? Did you use adaptibar too?

I was 52 percentile on Barbri midterm (green zone). PTA I just could not understand. I'm not sure what happened I just couldn't figure out how to apply the given case law/statutes to the facts. I spoke to some friends who too had trouble on it. One of my friends said he wrote about 100 words yet ended up passing.

I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues

That's the thing, the issues that have been discussed since the exam I'm pretty certain I covered. I even covered stuff that a lot of people seemed to have missed such as the impeachment issue on the Crimpro question.

The only real explanation I can derive from all of this without seeing my essays is that I did cover all of the major issues but was rushing and did not go into in depth analysis. Also possible that after doing so many practice essays I was just on autopilot and was not reading the facts closely.

The scores I received were the scores I was getting on practice essays before Barbri so this is all very strange to me.

ves

This link has the model answers. I was surprised that there was no discussion on impeachment for essay 4. Though i am not sure specifically what points I missed. I am thinking about using bargrader.com or bar doctor.com to practice and get graded essays

[Carryon]

Idk it's one thing if all your essays were in the 55-60 range and you did well on the PTs bc the skills being tested are so different. I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues. What happened during PTA? I thought that was very straightforward. Were you normal test day stressed like how you'd get during any final exam or were you stressed to the point of distraction? It is definitely odd considering how you practice scored-maybe you should devote more time to MBE and def figure out what happened w those PTs bc those two areas can give you a passing score w average essays. Also, I got a 75 on the barbri PT and know a few friends who also did too-based on my graded essays i didn't think barbri's grading was as harsh as i was led to believe.

your mbe raw is prob 116-119 based on last year's chart-which imo is kinda low. What percentile were you in for the barbri midterm? Did you use adaptibar too?

I was 52 percentile on Barbri midterm (green zone). PTA I just could not understand. I'm not sure what happened I just couldn't figure out how to apply the given case law/statutes to the facts. I spoke to some friends who too had trouble on it. One of my friends said he wrote about 100 words yet ended up passing.

I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues

That's the thing, the issues that have been discussed since the exam I'm pretty certain I covered. I even covered stuff that a lot of people seemed to have missed such as the impeachment issue on the Crimpro question.

The only real explanation I can derive from all of this without seeing my essays is that I did cover all of the major issues but was rushing and did not go into in depth analysis. Also possible that after doing so many practice essays I was just on autopilot and was not reading the facts closely.

The scores I received were the scores I was getting on practice essays before Barbri so this is all very strange to me.

ves

This link has the model answers. I was surprised that there was no discussion on impeachment for essay 4. Though i am not sure specifically what points I missed. I am thinking about using bargrader.com or bar doctor.com to practice and get graded essays

Oops here is the link
http://www.dailyjournal.com/public/Pubm ... vId%3Dtab3

[PMan99]

Idk it's one thing if all your essays were in the 55-60 range and you did well on the PTs bc the skills being tested are so different. I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues. What happened during PTA? I thought that was very straightforward. Were you normal test day stressed like how you'd get during any final exam or were you stressed to the point of distraction? It is definitely odd considering how you practice scored-maybe you should devote more time to MBE and def figure out what happened w those PTs bc those two areas can give you a passing score w average essays. Also, I got a 75 on the barbri PT and know a few friends who also did too-based on my graded essays i didn't think barbri's grading was as harsh as i was led to believe.

your mbe raw is prob 116-119 based on last year's chart-which imo is kinda low. What percentile were you in for the barbri midterm? Did you use adaptibar too?

I was 52 percentile on Barbri midterm (green zone). PTA I just could not understand. I'm not sure what happened I just couldn't figure out how to apply the given case law/statutes to the facts. I spoke to some friends who too had trouble on it. One of my friends said he wrote about 100 words yet ended up passing.

I feel like the 55-60 range means you are missing major issues

That's the thing, the issues that have been discussed since the exam I'm pretty certain I covered. I even covered stuff that a lot of people seemed to have missed such as the impeachment issue on the Crimpro question.

The only real explanation I can derive from all of this without seeing my essays is that I did cover all of the major issues but was rushing and did not go into in depth analysis. Also possible that after doing so many practice essays I was just on autopilot and was not reading the facts closely.

The scores I received were the scores I was getting on practice essays before Barbri so this is all very strange to me.

ves

This link has the model answers. I was surprised that there was no discussion on impeachment for essay 4. Though i am not sure specifically what points I missed. I am thinking about using bargrader.com or bar doctor.com to practice and get graded essays

Those aren't actual bar-supplied model answers, just "model answers" someone wrote after seeing the question posted online.

[Carryon]

I think that they are the answers posted by the various bar review courses ( e.g. baressays, bar doctor etc.)

[75007l]

I am a fortunate one time passer for the July 2014 CBX, and am now offering to sell all the materials I have used to pass the bar at a discounted rate:

1. Full Set Kaplan 2014 Bar prep materials, i.e., all 11 books.
2. Barbri Outlines.
3. Barbri MBE Exercises Books, Vol 1 &2.
4. Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam. (E-book) http://www.amazon.com/Essay-Exam-Writin ... bar+essays
5. California Performance Test Workbook: Preparation for the Bar Exam (E-book)http://www.amazon.com/California-Perfor ... a+Bar+Exam

All the above sold at $300. Please PM me or shoot an email to 75007L@gmail.com if interested!

[jurisfailure]

Failed the July 2014 bar exam. Here is a quick blurb about what I did to prepare and why I failed. First it's worth mentioning that I am an out of state bar exam taker so I had to learn all the state specific material from scratch. I decided to go lone wolf status and buy a used set of Kaplan books to study from. I made about 1,000 flash cards of the substantive law on all 17ish topics. They are amazing flash cards but, I got so carried away with them, I didn't spend enough time working on my essay formatting, FORMATTING. The content of my essays were amazing (as I recall), however I did not break down the answers into sub headings like every single bar prep course tells you to do. Accordingly here were my scores on the essays:
1. 50
2. 50
3. 55
4. 50
5. 50
6. 55
PT-A. 55
PT-B. 55
accordingly the raw written was 530, which scaled to a 1178.
my MBE score was in the 1200's (which was also junk)

I literally was punished for not breaking down the essays into sub headings... For example, in the evidence essay, I only talked about hearsay and failed to mention the "relevance" sub heading and also the "business document rule" sub heading and such. Those were free points for the taking that I blew because I didn't take a bar prep program. I hope that everyone can learn from my mistakes (including me) and pass the bar this February!

PS- I got a subscription to baressays.com and it is INCREDIBLY useful to see what a great essay looks like and to see why other essays got failing scores. ITS ALL ABOUT THE HEADINGS AND SUB HEADINGS.

[2807]

Failed the July 2014 bar exam. Here is a quick blurb about what I did to prepare and why I failed. First it's worth mentioning that I am an out of state bar exam taker so I had to learn all the state specific material from scratch. I decided to go lone wolf status and buy a used set of Kaplan books to study from. I made about 1,000 flash cards of the substantive law on all 17ish topics. They are amazing flash cards but, I got so carried away with them, I didn't spend enough time working on my essay formatting, FORMATTING. The content of my essays were amazing (as I recall), however I did not break down the answers into sub headings like every single bar prep course tells you to do. Accordingly here were my scores on the essays:
1. 50
2. 50
3. 55
4. 50
5. 50
6. 55
PT-A. 55
PT-B. 55
accordingly the raw written was 530, which scaled to a 1178.
my MBE score was in the 1200's (which was also junk)

I literally was punished for not breaking down the essays into sub headings... For example, in the evidence essay, I only talked about hearsay and failed to mention the "relevance" sub heading and also the "business document rule" sub heading and such. Those were free points for the taking that I blew because I didn't take a bar prep program. I hope that everyone can learn from my mistakes (including me) and pass the bar this February!

PS- I got a subscription to baressays.com and it is INCREDIBLY useful to see what a great essay looks like and to see why other essays got failing scores. ITS ALL ABOUT THE HEADINGS AND SUB HEADINGS.

So, you are saying format is helpful?
Follow the Harley logo and the dialogue we had.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9&start=50

Start at page 3

[catinthewall]

Hey guys,

I took and passed California as a first-timer and as an out-of-stater this year (after graduating from law school in Colorado, I moved to Texas because my clerkship started three days after the bar exam). I also never took coursework in Corporations, Agency & Partnership, Wills, and Trusts, or learned Community Property (went to law school in a non-CP state), so I took everything that Barbri said on those subjects as gospel.

I thought maybe I could offer something to others that I did in my essays. In addition to using headings and subheadings (e.g., a heading for each call of the question, a subheading for each issue within each call of the question), I underlined buzz-phrases within rule statements. (I wrote short paragraphs with no more than four sentences each and used IRAC.) For example, in the Crim Pro question when talking about the Terry Stop, I would write, "requires a reasonable, articulable suspicion," or when discussing Miranda, I underlined "custodial interrogation" and then went on to define what that meant.

My thinking was that the essay graders are reviewing hundreds if not thousands of essays, so they want to move quickly and efficiently -- so why not make their jobs a little easier by drawing their attention to what I knew? Sure, I probably missed a couple of issues in my essays. I also thought that I bombed the MBE. Now that I've passed, I thought maybe this could be helpful to people taking the exam, either for their first time or as a repeater.

Go out there and fight like hell. I'm rooting for you.
catinthewall

[jurisfailure]

Thanks to both of you guys, very helpful tips! I think i got so wrapped up in the analysis of IRAC, i forgot to break down the little sub headings like "custodial interrogation" and "search" and "seizure" etc.

[adonai]

Hey guys,

I took and passed California as a first-timer and as an out-of-stater this year (after graduating from law school in Colorado, I moved to Texas because my clerkship started three days after the bar exam). I also never took coursework in Corporations, Agency & Partnership, Wills, and Trusts, or learned Community Property (went to law school in a non-CP state), so I took everything that Barbri said on those subjects as gospel.

I thought maybe I could offer something to others that I did in my essays. In addition to using headings and subheadings (e.g., a heading for each call of the question, a subheading for each issue within each call of the question), I underlined buzz-phrases within rule statements. (I wrote short paragraphs with no more than four sentences each and used IRAC.) For example, in the Crim Pro question when talking about the Terry Stop, I would write, "requires a reasonable, articulable suspicion," or when discussing Miranda, I underlined "custodial interrogation" and then went on to define what that meant.

My thinking was that the essay graders are reviewing hundreds if not thousands of essays, so they want to move quickly and efficiently -- so why not make their jobs a little easier by drawing their attention to what I knew? Sure, I probably missed a couple of issues in my essays. I also thought that I bombed the MBE. Now that I've passed, I thought maybe this could be helpful to people taking the exam, either for their first time or as a repeater.

Go out there and fight like hell. I'm rooting for you.
catinthewall

I second this. But I would also break things down into further sub headings to make them even easier to read and grade. For custodial interrogation, do separate headings for custody and interrogation. For hearsay, make subheadings out of court statement and another subheading for the truth of matter asserted (you can also break those down further too if you want). When in doubt, do a new subheading. Indent each subheading under the main heading so it shows the grader it belongs as an element or sub element of the element.

I don't think the graders will scour your essay to find whether you analyzed something. You might have written about several issues, but didn't receive credit for it because it wasn't immediately apparent to the grader. That might be why so many people felt good about their essays but ultimately didn't get the score they deserved.