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First time taker.

I'm working a non-law job (compliance) right now, don't know if I even want to try and take it again...

All of my friends passed, I graduated in the top half of my class, and I'm feeling pretty shitty.

I'm off to a wonderful day at work after getting no sleep. I just wanted to post this to let whoever else know that you're not alone and feel free to chime in if you're in the same boat.

Sorry to hijack your topic but I got 619 and would love some advices for the next february bar exam...

Also, is 619 bad or ok'ish ?

Thanks and congrats to everyone who passed, you did better than me

lol, i'm in compliance as well. i actually took it twice already. first time was Feb 2015. I was undecided about taking the exam and half-assed my studies (Kaplan). Then I started working full-time and studied primarily on my commute (morning and evening), sometimes on weekends. Evidently, it's not enough. I did far worse this time around than I did in Feb. I will be taking it one more time.

If you are in the NY/NJ area and wish to study together let me know. I'm also going to switch from Kaplan to either Themis or Barbri and actually attend the damn course. Will have to quit my job because they will not allow me to take off two months.

udonisandtrinity wrote:lol, i'm in compliance as well. i actually took it twice already. first time was Feb 2015. I was undecided about taking the exam and half-assed my studies (Kaplan). Then I started working full-time and studied primarily on my commute (morning and evening), sometimes on weekends. Evidently, it's not enough. I did far worse this time around than I did in Feb. I will be taking it one more time.

If you are in the NY/NJ area and wish to study together let me know. I'm also going to switch from Kaplan to either Themis or Barbri and actually attend the damn course. Will have to quit my job because they will not allow me to take off two months.

Could you share your global score..?

EDIT.

udonisandtrinity wrote:lol, i'm in compliance as well. i actually took it twice already. first time was Feb 2015. I was undecided about taking the exam and half-assed my studies (Kaplan). Then I started working full-time and studied primarily on my commute (morning and evening), sometimes on weekends. Evidently, it's not enough. I did far worse this time around than I did in Feb. I will be taking it one more time.

If you are in the NY/NJ area and wish to study together let me know. I'm also going to switch from Kaplan to either Themis or Barbri and actually attend the damn course. Will have to quit my job because they will not allow me to take off two months.

Unfortunately I'm not in that area. I'm sorry that you have to quit your job. I don't plan on asking for time off, but I can see why you think that would best for you, especially because I did Barbri full course, did the only lectures and it's intensive.

I think the important thing is figuring out what makes it stick. I got flash cards too late in the game. And I didn't realize how much I needed to study NY specific subjects. These were my scores FWIW:

Essay 1: 45.55

Essay 2: 40.26

Essay 3: 38.04

Essay 4: 39.61

Essay 5: 41.44

MPT: 35.55


Written Avg:40.04

MBE: 128.5

Total 608.

If you did well on mbe and essays are your issue, I would get a private tutor.

If you didn't do well on MBE, do what me and a bunch of other people on TLS advocate which is get adaptibar. It raised my MBE score a lot.

If you need a $50 off coupon pm me your email address.

It's worth it. And make sure you monitor your statistics so if UCC is your weak spot, do UCC questions, if product liability is your weak spot, filter in product liab questions.

Although I have never taken the NY bar exam, I have failed before. I have a pretty good idea of how you feel and what you are going through right now from my own personal experience. It is, without a doubt, a very difficult and painful experience.

With that being said, you can over come this. You need to be able to buckle down and grind this thing out. You can even do it working full-time, although I admit it is hard and makes for long, long hours. For me, I didn't view it as much as "studying" as I did that I needed to work my ass off to pass this exam. I was able to pass and everything has worked out just great.

I know how each of you that didn't pass feels right now and the only silver lining is the feeling your will experience when you find out you passed the exam. I would argue that it feels even better than if you passed the first time around.

Hang in there.

124.5 MBE scaled (660 total)

essays:
1: 49.73
2: 55.23
3: 57.20
4: 50.89
5: 34.88
MPT: 57.52

mbe: 124.5

nymc (common scaled score): 632.8
written avg: 694.5
MBE: 622.5

i obviously sucked at MBE. and am surprised at essay 1! i knew all the issues and sub-issues and thought i fleshed them out completely! i knew the NY distinctions to adverse possession, and the divorce crap.

btw is it true it's harder to pass in Feb? I was looking at the Separac calculators and my scores (tweaked) for a july exam would be passing but not at all for a feb exam...

I'm really sorry to hear guys, but hopefully you have a good idea of how to study for February. If any of you guys want Adaptibar, let me know. I re-purchased it after thinking I failed the NY bar. I've only done 350 questions (mostly contracts & civ pro, and a little property). I kept all my Barbri books too because I was that sure of failure. Just trying to provide some resources. Good luck, and please don't give up.

As someone who failed February and passed July, here's the most basic advice I can give (take it with a grain of salt but they are things that worked for me)

1) Send your score into Seperac.
They did an 8 page report breakdown on my score and it gave a lot of really good insight into where I screwed up and how I could improve

2) MBE MBE MBE MBE
Some of you might have bombed the Essays but a lot of you likely failed in large part due to low MBE scores. The MBE is the one part of the test that you can 'predict' the most. It's 27 torts, 27 contracts, 27 etc.... While the questions will be different obviously, you know what to study. Do as many practice questions that you can. I had a 124 MBE in February and got it up at a 135 for July. Not a huge jump, but enough to get me over the hump.

3) Focus on procedural failings
Think about what you messed up on the test in terms of time management or strategy. For me, I had about 15 MBE questions that I had to completely guess on during the 2 sessions because I ran out of time. I also spent too much time on the NYMC which only gave me 15 minutes for one of my essays. To the surprise of no one, I got a 34 on the essay which I had 15 minutes to work on at the expense of maybe 1 or 2 extra NYMC questions that I got right as a result of wasting my time. These were little things but in the end definitely had an impact on my score. Fix errors like this and leave the passing or failing of the next test rest on your knowledge, not your time management skills.

3) Be honest with yourself about your study habits for the failed exam.
This one is tough but vital. Be brutally honest with how you spent your time preparing for the test. What I found was that I simply didn't spend enough time studying. There were plenty of days where I'd finish around 3pm and figure screw it, I'm good for the day, time to enjoy the night with my wife. I cut a lot of corners on weekends, I didn't do all the required assignment from Barbri, etc. In the end I simply didn't study enough to pass this exam and I took that knowledge with me and made the time commitment adjustments I needed to make to pass the next time around.

4) Start studying now
You still probably have most of your bar prep materials left over, it doesn't hurt to slowly get back into the groove of studying right away. Just a few hours a week at first can help get your mind ready for the grind that's going to ensue

5) Remember what failing feels like
Any time you find yourself slacking with studying or thinking you can skip a night, just remember what you feel like right now. Remember that feeling of failure and dread that is sitting in your stomach as you think about all the studying you have to do over again. You DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS A THIRD TIME, so make sure you put enough into the test the second time around to make sure that doesn't happen.

You feel like shit right now, you're staring at another 3 months of prep and studying and another 12 hour exam. But the only thing that will make this feeling go away is passing in February. I hovered over my e-mail last night 99% convinced that I failed again, I couldn't even imagine a world in which I passed. But sure enough, I clicked open that PDF and saw the passing letter and it was one of the best feelings of my life. Things suck right now but you have the power to make them right. Good luck.

starryski wrote:btw is it true it's harder to pass in Feb? I was looking at the Separac calculators and my scores (tweaked) for a july exam would be passing but not at all for a feb exam...

As i'm already super anxious I already googled it today.

Feb has a lower pass rate because :

-Most of the candidates are re-takers because people who graduate en May usually pass the July bar exam.
-There are a lot of foreigns candidates.


Basically, first time takers rate is always high but as for retakers, the rate is very shitty, this is why the feb bar has a lower pass rate stats, but the questions are not harder.

I'll see you around on the Feb 2016 bar exam thread, it could be nice to share a bit of information and stuff like that. I'm pretty isolated in europe !

I believe so. It's a smaller pool of test takers so the grading curve won't be as generous. I performed better in Feb than I did in July.

Took the New York bar for the first time last July and found out that I failed last night. It has been rough going for the past couple of hours. Not really sure what to do.

I know NY is implementing the UBE system from next July and it sounds A LOT easier. Should I wait until July to retake the bar?

Or is taking the UBE in another state in February and waiving into NY worth trying?

Or should I just suck it up and take another swing at the original NY bar in February?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you!

iwantmybar wrote:

starryski wrote:btw is it true it's harder to pass in Feb? I was looking at the Separac calculators and my scores (tweaked) for a july exam would be passing but not at all for a feb exam...

As i'm already super anxious I already googled it today.

Feb has a lower pass rate because :

-Most of the candidates are re-takers because people who graduate en May usually pass the July bar exam.
-There are a lot of foreigns candidates.


Basically, first time takers rate is always high but as for retakers, the rate is very shitty, this is why the feb bar has a lower pass rate stats, but the questions are not harder.

I'll see you around on the Feb 2016 bar exam thread, it could be nice to share a bit of information and stuff like that. I'm pretty isolated in europe !

from separac:

The February exam itself is not more difficult, but the examinees generally score lower, particularly on the MBE. These lower MBE scores negatively affect the scale that is applied to arrive at a final score. Scaling is done to increase the reliability of the exam. Your individual score on a particular exam doesn't affect your final score - if you had the 50th best MBE score and 90th best Essay score before scaling, you will still have the 50th best MBE score and 90th best Essay score after scaling. However, to account for the lower reliability of the non-MBE components of the exam, these components are scaled to the mean MBE for that administration. For example, nationally, the average MBE scaled score on July exams (from 1974-2012) was 142.1 while the average MBE on February exams (from 1974-2012) was 136.7. For scaling, the lower the mean MBE, the lower the scale. To cite an example, although NY MBE mean scores are no longer available, the July 2009 mean MBE score in New York was approximately 143.7. If you had an average scaled score of 50 on the Essays/MPT on the July 2009 exam, your Essays/MPT Common Scaled Score would have been 708.5. The February 2009 mean MBE score in New York was approximately 128.7. If you had an average scaled score of 50 on the Essays/MPT on the February 2009 exam, your Essays/MPT Common Scaled Score would have been 650.4. This is a difference of 58.1 points. Since the Essays/MPT are 50% of your final score, this results in a 29 point difference in final score. This is why the February pass rates are lower. Put simply, the essays/MPT scores are scaled to the MBE because an examinee that scores a 50 in July is more knowledgeable than an examinee who scores a 50 in February (as demonstrated by the higher MBE average in July versus February) and deserves a higher essay grade. According to NCBE, "caling the essays to the MBE is an essential step in ensuring that scores have a consistent meaning over time. When essay scores are not scaled to the MBE, they tend to remain about the same: for example, it is common for the average raw July essay score to be similar to the average February score even if the July examinees are known to be more knowledgeable on average than the February examinees. Using raw essay scores rather than scaled essay scores tends to provide an unintended advantage to some examinees and an unintended disadvantage to others." The Bar Examiner May 2005. (emphasis added)



so its not a harder test, but the scaling is f'ed up and you can do as well as you did in july but still fail?!

I'm reading this thread where NJ screwed up the essay grading:
http://all4jds.com/forums/aft/18667

NY lost them another year.

From what I understand, you almost have to leave the essay blank to get a scaled score in the 30s.

I think something is wrong.

That's how I'm reading it, but that is some real legalese right there so I can't say for sure,

I failed the NY Bar exam. I am devastated. My issue is timing. I did not finish the MPT because I got tripped up on the law, but all of my essays were above average. My MBE score could have been better too, but it was better than I had expected. This feeling is the worst; I feel like a failure.

Worthless1 wrote:I failed the NY Bar exam. I am devastated. My issue is timing. I did not finish the MPT because I got tripped up on the law, but all of my essays were above average. My MBE score could have been better too, but it was better than I had expected. This feeling is the worst; I feel like a failure.

You're NOT a failure. You just failed this one time. Can't breeze through life. Failures here and there are good for you in the long run. Find that inner strength and destroy the next bar exam.

udonisandtrinity wrote:

Worthless1 wrote:I failed the NY Bar exam. I am devastated. My issue is timing. I did not finish the MPT because I got tripped up on the law, but all of my essays were above average. My MBE score could have been better too, but it was better than I had expected. This feeling is the worst; I feel like a failure.

You're NOT a failure. You just failed this one time. Can't breeze through life. Failures here and there are good for you in the long run. Find that inner strength and destroy the next bar exam.

I know it isnt directed at me. Ive been going through a whole range of emotions. Sad defeated and angry. I will pass in February. I failed by only 5 i can pass.

Trust me, I'm feeling all of what you all are feeling - failure, defeat, incompetent. What is it about me that made me not pass while most everyone I personally know did? This question has been spinning around my head.

Constantly trying to remind myself that a bar exam ≠ determiner of self-worth

texas2dclawchick wrote:Trust me, I'm feeling all of what you all are feeling - failure, defeat, incompetent. What is it about me that made me not pass while most everyone I personally know did? This question has been spinning around my head.

Constantly trying to remind myself that a bar exam ≠ determiner of self-worth

im going through a funny phase. where i think this is kinda funny but im so pissed off i am not failing ever again. im starting next week . i failed by only 5 points and next time im passing with a 30 pt overage. f this test. i got this.

So I was an out-of-stater, and I got a 625 just studying via BARBRI while also working full time. I had no idea about Seperac. Obviously I will avail myself of this resource for February, but did any of you use it and also fail?

Failed the NY bar by 10 points. I'm a May 2015 graduate of a T10 and spent my 3L living at home, commuting 1.5 hours each way to school 2X week for classes because I was the caregiver for my terminally ill mom. She passed away a few weeks after the bar exam and about a week before I started work.

Life is rough! I'm in the grieving process for my mom...I am devastated, exhausted mentally/physically/emotionally from being a caregiver (it takes a toll) and holding down a full-time job. Everyone I know studied more and passed but they weren't going through hell like I was. If I could've studied more, I would have, but my mom came first. It sucks. I really thought karma owed me one. Life's a bitch that apparently keeps kicking you while you're down.

I am planning to retake in February. I started studying last night because I knew if I didn't, I'd get too demoralized to take the exam ever again. I did BARBRI the first time (listened to all the lectures, filled out handouts, made flashcards) but really didn't have time to do many practice questions. And it showed on the MBE (my essays were fine). Anyway, for those that did BARBRI, they let you do a free retake (just click on the enroll link, put in your old username/password, and it will automatically re-enroll you for free).

I know I can pass, but some words of encouragement from you guys would be appreciated. I have no one to talk to (I know of no one who failed or had a parent dying during what was supposed to be "3LOL"). I know I should focus on myself, keep my head down and not look around me to others. But I'm frustrated! I had such a tough year while I saw everyone having fun during their last year of law school, then taking nice vacations after the bar, and now celebrating passing. It's hard not to feel crushed.