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I'm signed up for the Mass bar this July and have been doing Barbri. The problem is, the class is an hour away, so I thought I'd be disciplined enough to study and watch the lectures from home...I was wrong. I don't know if it's burnout from law school or what, but I've basically squandered the last couple months. I've done like 10% of the Barbri prep so far. I'm positive I'll fail at this point. I called to ask about deferring to February, which I can technically do by withdrawing, but I will still have to pay the full exam fee again. So is it better to go take it an certainly fail, or just lose the money and take it in February?

Also, if I do take it in February, should I keep studying now? Is it pointless, will I just forget everything?

How are you doing on the MBE questions?

And what's your employment situation?

Why would you withdraw if it won't save you any money? There are legitimately people who have done zero studying, will start now, and will pass.

Mass is 50% MBE right? Focus completely on the MBE subjects, and phone in the essays. 3 weeks is probably enough time to get a 145-150 on the MBE if you go hard. Check out this thread. If you manage a 150 on the MBE, you'll literally be able to get in the bottom 1st percentile on the essays and pass! You can do this.

I haven't even done any practice questions. I've just been watching lectures and looking at outlines very minimal studying. I'm not employed nor will I be in the Fall (finances are not an issue).

If it makes you feel better I'm taking both NY and MA and am only planning to do MA-specific studying the night of the 29th. I've heard the MA essays have a pretty low bar

mrs_featherbottom wrote:If it makes you feel better I'm taking both NY and MA and am only planning to do MA-specific studying the night of the 29th. I've heard the MA essays have a pretty low bar

That is bold, and I love it.

LAW813FL wrote:

mrs_featherbottom wrote:If it makes you feel better I'm taking both NY and MA and am only planning to do MA-specific studying the night of the 29th. I've heard the MA essays have a pretty low bar

That is bold, and I love it.

Let's see how it plays out, Cotton...

I guess I should also mention that I live in NH and my original plan was to take the full NH bar and just the essay portion of Mass. NH already let me defer to February, so I will for sure be doing the bar and prep again anyway.

Don't they call Massachusetts, Passachusetts

I really don't understand what situation you're in where you don't have a job and it seems like no big deal to postpone to February, but if it's no big deal and you're taking NH then anyway, then, sure, why not.

Elston Gunn wrote:I really don't understand what situation you're in where you don't have a job and it seems like no big deal to postpone to February, but if it's no big deal and you're taking NH then anyway, then, sure, why not.

...yeah.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks and I messed up horribly. I can't believe I wasted this summer, I'm really so depressed and mad at myself. I just meant my parents will continue to (begrudgingly) pay for my living expenses until I'm employed. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if withdrawing looks better than failing, because it's $900 down the drain anyway.

And then part two of my confusion is, should I start studying for February now?

I don't think there's any difference between withdrawing and failing, so I tend to think that you should just study in the time left and give it a shot, on the off chance that it saves you time and money in February.

If you do withdraw, I wouldn't start studying till December or maybe November. You don't really need extra studying time, you just need actually to study in the normal amount of time.

Febby wrote:Don't get me wrong, it sucks and I messed up horribly. I can't believe I wasted this summer, I'm really so depressed and mad at myself. I just meant my parents will continue to (begrudgingly) pay for my living expenses until I'm employed. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if withdrawing looks better than failing, because it's $900 down the drain anyway.

And then part two of my confusion is, should I start studying for February now?

Elston Gunn wrote:Why would you withdraw if it won't save you any money? There are legitimately people who have done zero studying, will start now, and will pass.

Mass is 50% MBE right? Focus completely on the MBE subjects, and phone in the essays. 3 weeks is probably enough time to get a 145-150 on the MBE if you go hard. Check out this thread. If you manage a 150 on the MBE, you'll literally be able to get in the bottom 1st percentile on the essays and pass! You can do this.

Seriously, if you get your ass in gear right now there's no reason you can't pass.

Dude you need a wake-up call. Stop wasting your parents money and your youth - if I were your parents you would be on the street. There really is no reason why you can't pass if you bust your ass now, and also no reason why you can't already have a full-time job doing something by the time next Feb rolls around.

Don't be a b***h - There are tales of people passing Cali with 3 weeks of study.

Wake up tomorrow at 7:00am, make some eggs and some black coffee and drive to the f***ing library - Spend the next week doing like 500 MBE questions, and then re-read all the outlines two or three times. This will give you a good shot of passing in your easy-ass state.

If you can't get your sh*t together now, what makes you think you'll get it together in Feb? You want this hanging over your head for the next year?

Worst comes to worst, you will take a practice test and get a feel for what its like to take the bar, and then you will get your scores back and see that you almost passed with just three weeks of hard work.

preach

s1m4 wrote:Dude you need a wake-up call. Stop wasting your parents money and your youth - if I were your parents you would be on the street. There really is no reason why you can't pass if you bust your ass now, and also no reason why you can't already have a full-time job doing something by the time next Feb rolls around.

Don't be a b***h - There are tales of people passing Cali with 3 weeks of study.

Wake up tomorrow at 7:00am, make some eggs and some black coffee and drive to the f***ing library - Spend the next week doing like 500 MBE questions, and then re-read all the outlines two or three times. This will give you a good shot of passing in your easy-ass state.

If you can't get your sh*t together now, what makes you think you'll get it together in Feb? You want this hanging over your head for the next year?

Worst comes to worst, you will take a practice test and get a feel for what its like to take the bar, and then you will get your scores back and see that you almost passed with just three weeks of hard work.

damn

Is that linked thread talking about the strong MBE = auto pass legit?

I see the author of that thread quoted Illinois, which also requires a 264 and is 50% MBE like my state. If I'm reading that link correctly, it pretty much says with that breakdown, if you get roughly 70% of the MBE's right, you only have to beat the bottom 1% on essays to pass?

Am I reading that right? That seems....too easy?

diowad wrote:Is that linked thread talking about the strong MBE = auto pass legit?

I see the author of that thread quoted Illinois, which also requires a 264 and is 50% MBE like my state. If I'm reading that link correctly, it pretty much says with that breakdown, if you get roughly 70% of the MBE's right, you only have to beat the bottom 1% on essays to pass?

Am I reading that right? That seems....too easy?

It's not 100% clear that the essay percentiles will be the same outside of Illinois, but yes, I believe it is legit. The bar exam isn't necessarily hard to pass.

Elston Gunn wrote:

diowad wrote:Is that linked thread talking about the strong MBE = auto pass legit?

I see the author of that thread quoted Illinois, which also requires a 264 and is 50% MBE like my state. If I'm reading that link correctly, it pretty much says with that breakdown, if you get roughly 70% of the MBE's right, you only have to beat the bottom 1% on essays to pass?

Am I reading that right? That seems....too easy?

It's not 100% clear that the essay percentiles will be the same outside of Illinois, but yes, I believe it is legit. The bar exam isn't necessarily hard to pass.

True and upon further review, Illinois' breakdown is 43% on Essays and 7% on the MPT, while mine is 30/20. Even so, an interesting bit of information. Probably means I won't be giving much attention to non-MBE subjects.

Febby wrote:Don't get me wrong, it sucks and I messed up horribly. I can't believe I wasted this summer, I'm really so depressed and mad at myself. I just meant my parents will continue to (begrudgingly) pay for my living expenses until I'm employed. I guess I'm just trying to figure out if withdrawing looks better than failing, because it's $900 down the drain anyway.

And then part two of my confusion is, should I start studying for February now?

Just look at it like an expensive practice test.

diowad wrote:

Elston Gunn wrote:

diowad wrote:Is that linked thread talking about the strong MBE = auto pass legit?

I see the author of that thread quoted Illinois, which also requires a 264 and is 50% MBE like my state. If I'm reading that link correctly, it pretty much says with that breakdown, if you get roughly 70% of the MBE's right, you only have to beat the bottom 1% on essays to pass?

Am I reading that right? That seems....too easy?

It's not 100% clear that the essay percentiles will be the same outside of Illinois, but yes, I believe it is legit. The bar exam isn't necessarily hard to pass.

True and upon further review, Illinois' breakdown is 43% on Essays and 7% on the MPT, while mine is 30/20. Even so, an interesting bit of information. Probably means I won't be giving much attention to non-MBE subjects.

Isn't that even better? Much easier to "study" for the MPT than master all the essay subjects...

Febby wrote:I'm signed up for the Mass bar this July and have been doing Barbri. The problem is, the class is an hour away, so I thought I'd be disciplined enough to study and watch the lectures from home...I was wrong. I don't know if it's burnout from law school or what, but I've basically squandered the last couple months. I've done like 10% of the Barbri prep so far. I'm positive I'll fail at this point. I called to ask about deferring to February, which I can technically do by withdrawing, but I will still have to pay the full exam fee again. So is it better to go take it an certainly fail, or just lose the money and take it in February?

Also, if I do take it in February, should I keep studying now? Is it pointless, will I just forget everything?

So I'm going to say everything I had to tell myself. I'm kinda in the same boat. I had some family things come up end of June and basically wasted two weeks and I am just now trying to finish the MBE subjects. I'm taking NY/NJ. I kept freaking out about failing NY, which who fucking knows what will happen. But this is what I had to tell myself, and it helped me calm down. Hopefully you can take something from this.

The reality is that I've already spend so much money registering for both those exams and paying barbri. I can either spend the rest of the time stressing out about failing NY or I can realize that I have enough time to get my MBE together and work on NJ then focus on getting as many points as I can in NY by studying the high priority stuff. If I fail, I fail. but I've already paid the money and I might as well take the damn thing for experience. I have nothing to lose by trying.

So, that helped me. I just took the option of withdrawing out of my head. You have nothing to lose now. Just try. Who knows what will happen. And leave it at that. nothing but good vibes.

Febby wrote:I'm signed up for the Mass bar this July and have been doing Barbri. The problem is, the class is an hour away, so I thought I'd be disciplined enough to study and watch the lectures from home...I was wrong. I don't know if it's burnout from law school or what, but I've basically squandered the last couple months. I've done like 10% of the Barbri prep so far. I'm positive I'll fail at this point. I called to ask about deferring to February, which I can technically do by withdrawing, but I will still have to pay the full exam fee again. So is it better to go take it an certainly fail, or just lose the money and take it in February?

Also, if I do take it in February, should I keep studying now? Is it pointless, will I just forget everything?

It would be better to fail it and then retake, if you're not getting any money back. If you're getting money back then apply that money to the February bar (will they do that for you on your bar account?).

Sitting for this thing in July will give you an advantage in Feb., no doubt.

Febby, I need a bar study buddy to basically go through everything from the top starting Monday. Wanna jam?