Texas Bar Exam July 2014 Forum

[Grapes]

Let's use this as a resource to help each other out with questions. Does anyone know of any good outlines for the Texas essay subjects? I attended law school out of state.

[arkhamhorror]

Has anyone heard from Texas in terms of placement of test sites, character and fitness, missing documentation, etc.? It's been awhile, but I think the bars I took in other states got back to me a little quicker with all of that stuff. Now that it's June I'm starting to wonder whether or not I should contact them.

[AccidentalAggie]

Give them a call. The folks I've talked to are friendly enough. As of today, I haven't received any admission ticket or official location information, but when I spoke with them they said everything was fine for me.

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/contact.htm

[Grapes]

Still no word yet from the bar examiners. I have not booked a hotel room yet since I don't know for sure what location I'll be at. I submitted my app at the last possible minute.

[arkhamhorror]

I submitted mine right before the deadline in January. Other than the ExamSoft e-mail I've heard nothing.

[Neve]

I got my admissions ticket today for Arlington. If you don't get your ticket soon, I would give them a call (since something might be holding up your application).

I didn't hear anything from the BLE other than my ExamSoft registration. I contacted them once or twice myself over moving residences, but no news is good news from the BLE.

[Burgstaller04]

I didn't hear anything from the BLE other than my ExamSoft registration. I contacted them once or twice myself over moving residences, but no news is good news from the BLE.

same for me

[arkhamhorror]

Ticket finally arrived. Austin it is. Haven't heard a peep from character and fitness, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

[arkhamhorror]

Anyone else feeling the heat yet? I work full time so I haven't really done much yet outside of MBE review, though luckily I seem to remember a half-decent amount of it. I haven't touched the Texas essay material or MPT stuff though. Hoping the three weeks after the 4th will be enough to shoehorn that stuff into my head.

[Burgstaller04]

Anyone else feeling the heat yet? I work full time so I haven't really done much yet outside of MBE review, though luckily I seem to remember a half-decent amount of it. I haven't touched the Texas essay material or MPT stuff though. Hoping the three weeks after the 4th will be enough to shoehorn that stuff into my head.

The MPT stuff isn't hard to learn. You just have to practice it a few times.

However, the Texas essay stuff......that's a horse of a different color. It is, quite possibly, killing me right now.

[arkhamhorror]

The other jurisdiction I took had a state-specific PT, so I can't imagine the MPT is much different. As for the state law, I was hoping to rely on clarity of writing, general knowledge, and bullshitting (which worked last time) but I fear I may be in for a rough few weeks.

[jimmythecatdied6]

There must be a reason why 75-80% of folks pass the Texas bar...

[Neve]

Anyone else feeling the heat yet? I work full time so I haven't really done much yet outside of MBE review, though luckily I seem to remember a half-decent amount of it. I haven't touched the Texas essay material or MPT stuff though. Hoping the three weeks after the 4th will be enough to shoehorn that stuff into my head.

Simulated MBE today was a big wake-up call. I think it is time to start doing at least one practice set of MBE questions a day, rotating essays (4-5 essays per day on the different subjects), and doing comprehensive review of all the material, using both the CMR, lectures notes for the essays, and the Critical Pass Flashcards: http://criticalpass.refr.cc/3W6LZL6 (referral link).

I spoke to my friend after the simulated MBE who failed the Texas Bar in February, and the reason why she failed is that she spent most of her time on the MBE, blew off the Texas essays (they're 40% too!), and ended up not passing. Her friend made the same MBE score as her, but passed because the Texas essays carried her friend through. Investing time in the essays is well worth it and potentially easy points since they tend to recycle questions if you go through them in detail. I am definitely going to balance MBE and the Texas essays: equal weight, equal time.

[arkhamhorror]

However, the Texas essay stuff......that's a horse of a different color. It is, quite possibly, killing me right now.

Most of the stuff has been okay so far. Oil and gas was surprisingly easy as it mostly follows basic contract and property principles, and a lot of the other state-specific stuff you get to see in practice.

Commercial paper, however, is an absolute whore.

[Prime]

Commercial Paper can get annoying.

As for the MBE, what's the percentage we should be aiming for there?

[arkhamhorror]

I think the sweet spot is probably around 67-70%. Anything on top of that is gravy. I know people who have passed in other jurisdictions with low-60s, but they did well on the essay part of the exam.

I know Barbri sometimes does a very short lecture on the scoring of the exam (somewhere toward beginning of the course), and exactly what your targets should be on each component. I would try to find that; it helped me a lot simply from a mental standpoint.

[YYZ]

..

[jimmythecatdied6]

Does anyone have any idea how often commercial paper has been tested? Also, in which section would it appear? Thanks!

[jr8966]

Does anyone have any idea how often commercial paper has been tested? Also, in which section would it appear? Thanks!

I've seen Article 3 tested frequently in previous exams. Time to park my van down by the river.

[Grapes]

Does anyone have any idea how often commercial paper has been tested? Also, in which section would it appear? Thanks!

UCC

[Burgstaller04]

Question on the essays:

Can we lose points for saying wrong things or can we only gain points for the right things we say?

The motive behind this question is that I've been finishing my practice essays with a couple minutes left and I'm curious if, on the real test, it would be valuable to use any extra time I have at the end of the exam to go back and write about things that may/may not be relevant to the question in order to possibly add a point or two here and there. I'm weighing that against possibly pissing off my grader when making him/her read a bunch of extraneous nonsense.

[arkhamhorror]

I know for the Civ./Crim. Pro. sections that you do not lose points for wrong answers. I assume the same applies to the essays (or at least I'm hoping it does).

I think graders in general are skewed toward being generous, so I don't think adding extra stuff in would piss him off necessarily, as long as it's not something completely unfounded.

[ggocat]

Does anyone have any idea how often commercial paper has been tested? Also, in which section would it appear? Thanks!

Unless the TBLE has changed subjects since 2010, it's tested on every exam.

[aquasalad]

How are you all studying for the civ/crim exam?

I spent some time trying to memorize, but that wasn't efficient and now I'm just going through the old exams... it is terrible.

[arkhamhorror]

My co-clerk lent me their old study materials from when they took Texas. Barbri offered an extra lecture for the procedure test, which included a workbook. I'm making flashcards from that and that's going to be it.

I wouldn't worry too much. It's only 10 percent and frankly, a lot of it is simple common sense. So if you don't know exactly what to file, for example, just make a reasonable attempt at what you think gets you to the desired outcome.