2017 July California Bar Forum

[mcmand]

FYI:

https://www.law.com/therecorder/sites/t ... 1017224817

"Leah Wilson, executive director of the state bar, said she was pleased by the results. 'We look forward to studying the factors that may have resulted in the increase,' Wilson said in a prepared statement

I don't think Leah Wilson is being forthright with this information about an increased pass rate. As can be viewed from the summmary of results PDF, the total number of examiners put into the pass rate equation changed drastically as of this year.

(http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/docu ... 201707.pdf)

In the July 2017 administration of this exam, only those "completing the examination" were included, compared to the July 2016 administration, which included all applicants.

Thus, instead of the 8,545 number used to derive the July 2017 pass rate, the total applicant number, 9,837 applicants should have been used (which is applicants minus those who were found ineligible or who dropped).

Comparing apples to apples:
July 2017: 9,837 applicants, 4,236 passed = 43.06% pass rate
July 2016: 7,737 applicants, 3332 passed = 43.07% pass rate

So, there effectively is NO evidence of an increase in pass rate. Instead, there is actually a very slight decrease.

Gotta massage those stats to justify an artificial barrier to entry with no redeeming value.

[FinallyPassedTheBar]

Just made hotel reservations for Feb 18 CBX...sigh.

Haven't seen you in a while! (but was wondering what happened to you) Did you take this exam?

Thank you. I just found I passed

[boxinggirl]

I passed my second time around. I used Jay Chavkin's Bar Prep course to give me guidance and focus. There is no one way to study for the bar exam, but for me personally, I needed the small group setting to keep me on track. What kept me going was that idea about Michael Jordan losing all those games, missing all those shots, and still being considered one of the greats.

Practice. Practice. Practice. You will find a way to win.

PM me if you need any information.

[PorscheFanatic]

Any idea when those of us that failed will get a score report?

[NYC2012]

Just want to say congrats to everyone who passed and condolences to those who did not. I really feel for you. The anxiety has been awful the last several months, it is a fucking hard exam.

Also: for those retaking, this post helped me a lot: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6#p9987596

[maxmartin]

Any idea when those of us that failed will get a score report?

4-6 weeks later if I remember correctly by USPS priority mail.

[FinallyPassedTheBar]

Personally, I suck at essays. My mind just goes blank once I read the bar question. I get so flustered trying to assemble a coherent essay within an hour. I find myself copy/pasting/editing/deleting entire paragraphs during the writing process.

So my best advice is to nail the MBE. I don't know what my MBE score was from the last exam, but I am confident that I only passed because I did well on the MBE. I highly recommend Adaptibar. I completed 2000+ questions with slightly above 70% correct. I think if you perform similarly, you have a very good chance at passing even with 50-55 scores on your essay (I never received a 65 or higher score on any essay/PT on my past exams. Most of my essays were below 60)

PM me with your email address if you would like an Adaptibar discount code.

[Rap Genius]

I've been in these forums awhile... finally passed!

[maxmartin]

Personally, I suck at essays. My mind just goes blank once I read the bar question. I get so flustered trying to assemble a coherent essay within an hour. I find myself copy/pasting/editing/deleting entire paragraphs during the writing process.

So my best advice is to nail the MBE. I don't know what my MBE score was from the last exam, but I am confident that I only passed because I did well on the MBE. I highly recommend Adaptibar. I completed 2000+ questions with slightly above 70% correct. I think if you perform similarly, you have a very good chance at passing even with 50-55 scores on your essay (I never received a 65 or higher score on any essay/PT on my past exams. Most of my essays were below 60)

PM me with your email address if you would like an Adaptibar discount code.

Yes, 50% definitely favors strong MBE performers. I failed first time by by less than 5 points with 159 MBE under the 35% format last July. This time I passed without even much studying and totally bombed the PT.

[Legallywoke]

You’ll get your scores in a letter tomorrow or on Monday if you’re in CA. The scores will be broken down by individual essay scores, Pt, and the mbe. The mbe score is now broken down by the percentile in each of the 7 topics (which is new). Finally, you’ll get your actual essays in packet form in a month. Hope this helps.

Any idea when those of us that failed will get a score report?

4-6 weeks later if I remember correctly by USPS priority mail.

[LockBox]

You’ll get your scores in a letter tomorrow or on Monday if you’re in CA. The scores will be broken down by individual essay scores, Pt, and the mbe. The mbe score is now broken down by the percentile in each of the 7 topics (which is new). Finally, you’ll get your actual essays in packet form in a month. Hope this helps.

Any idea when those of us that failed will get a score report?

4-6 weeks later if I remember correctly by USPS priority mail.

This is correct.

For those of you who didn't pass this weekend will suck. But once you pass it will be a distant memory. Take the weekend, regroup next week and figure out how to beat this thing.

Congrats to the peeps who passed. Welcome to the profession.

[Totalwreck]

I studied my ass off during bar prep and did pretty well in my practice tests (I used Barbri). The friends I studied with all passed but I didn’t. I feel devastated and heart broken. I guess I’ll have to wait till the results to arrive to see what I did wrong? What can I do from now on to increase my chance of passing in February?

[happybar]

Just found out I passed. I am a foreign LL.M student (top US law school) and this was my third time taking the CA bar exam.
I am happy to share my lessons with all of you who didn't pass. Believe me I totally understand your frustration and disappointment. But don't be discouraged and apply again!.

For essays - if you took Barbri - while I think their books and lectures are generally good - with regard to essays, their model answers are not a good source I would recommend for hacking the CA essays I noticed that they miss a lot of issues that you can find in the CA bar model answers that naturally represent what the examiners are looking for. You could look online and find bar model answers that date back to 2001.

For MBE - what really did things differently this time for me was to go back to questions I already completed. I noticed that sometimes I could go back to a question and get it wrong again which shows I didn't really learn from it. So every morning I started learning by doing 20-50 questions. Before going to sleep at night I got over the questions I completed in the morning again to see that I remember the answer and understand. This was something I didn't do in the past. Back then after finishing up with a question I never went back and just continued doing more and more questions.

For PT - as a foreigner and non-native English speaker this was my biggest challenge. Now that this part got shorter, what I did this time was just reading one PT every 2 days - meaning just reading the library and facts and right after that the model answer. I tried to read at list 3 model essays per week (and fully completing one PT per week under time constrain). Reading those (in addition to actually taking one PT) helped me a lot to get a sense of the writing and style, the way to approach different types of assignments etc.

I hope these tips can help!

[apm290]

I studied my ass off during bar prep and did pretty well in my practice tests (I used Barbri). The friends I studied with all passed but I didn’t. I feel devastated and heart broken. I guess I’ll have to wait till the results to arrive to see what I did wrong? What can I do from now on to increase my chance of passing in February?

Hey, just wanted to let you know, I studied my ass off (with barbri) the first time I took the NY bar exam a couple years ago and was a very good student; I ended up failing it by less than 1% and was devastated... it was the first time I had ever "failed" any exam or class in my life. I took the NY bar again in February and when I showed up at the exam center, one of the top 5 ranked members of my law school class was there to take the bar again. We were both surprised to see each other had failed but it turns out we both passed the second time. You will too!
I recently quit a financially great job at corporate law firm in NYC to move to California and pursue public interest law, and am very thankful that I passed the July exam. Now.... I am not at all second guessing my decision, CA has been great! Please know that failing the bar is just a temporary bump in the road, and it will only provide you with motivation to not let it happen again. I wish you the best!

[LastTimePls]

Long time lurker here! Checking in because I still can't sleep after the results.

I finally made it after 5 times! I do not know how I made it because I'm pretty sure I bombed the Torts question. I'm honestly still in disbelief and felt like melting into a puddle when I found out I made it.

For my fellow passers, congrats are in order to you!

For those of you who are down in the dumps right now, take the time to pick yourself up, collect yourself, and prepare to keep fighting. The fight is not over, and you've been knocked down, but are not out. You must live, breathe, and eat with a mantra that you have the will to keep fighting - no matter what.

The advice that's been given on this board are invaluable and will certainly point you in the right direction.
(For example: amalehuman's posts are an invaluable asset! I signed up for his email newsletters and they offered helpful advice and words of encouragement.)

Know that if you truly want this, then you must get it into your head that you will do whatever it takes to reach the end goal, even if it takes years. (Shoutout to 6TimeFailure for finally making it!)

Ignore what all the naysayers will tell you. You must be willing to shoot for the stars and keep working at it because there is always room for improvement.

I always struggled with MBE's, and what I did differently this time around was to use CriticalPass cards for a quick and dirty review while drilling NCBE released questions from Adaptibar.

As for essays, if you can swing it, find an essay grader who can help you spot what you need to do differently. At the end of the day, practicing essays day-in-day-out will benefit you far more than sitting in a bar prep study course.

YOU CAN DO THIS.

[CAnow]

Passed!

Congratulations to all who passed. For those who didn’t, don’t give up! I failed the California bar exam in July 2003 - that’s right, 14 years ago. I was so frustrated I gave up. I went on to do other things. Although I eventually passed the bar and became a lawyer in another state, I still carried in the back of my mind the fact that I gave up on CA’s bar exam many years ago, not knowing if one of the administrations between then and now would have had a more favorable outcome (and as we have seen during the past few weeks, not knowing the results can be torture). Don’t give up, pick yourself back up and do everything in your power to try to conquer this beast.

[JoeSeperac]

You’ll get your scores in a letter tomorrow or on Monday if you’re in CA. The scores will be broken down by individual essay scores, Pt, and the mbe. The mbe score is now broken down by the percentile in each of the 7 topics (which is new). Finally, you’ll get your actual essays in packet form in a month. Hope this helps.

To anyone that failed, if you let me know your MBE subscores, I can tell you your % correct for each MBE subject:
http://seperac.com/subscoreform.php

Some failing reports (e.g. California, NY, Washington, Missouri) contain the MBE subscore percentiles. This tells you how you did compared to examinees nationally. Once I receive enough scoresheets to cover the majority of permutations, I can figure out each examinee's % correct for each MBE subject. For example, right now I have the following for J17 Civ Pro MBE scores:

0.2 6
1.4 8
3.1 9
5.9 10
10.5 12
16.7 13
25.1 14
35.2 15
46.4 16
58.3 17
69.9 18
80.1 20
88.2 21
97.4 23

This means if your Civ Pro %tile was 46.4, you probably got 16/25 Civ Pro MBE questions correct (64% correct). With this % correct, you can compare how you did in practice versus the actual exam. For example if you were getting 40% correct on Civ Pro MBE practice questions but got 64% on the MBE, your Civ Pro outline/study materials were probably more helpful to your Civ Pro MBE score than the Civ Pro MBE practice questions you used, and so you should focus on those Civ Pro outlines/study materials on your next attempt while replacing the Civ Pro MBE practice questions with a better source of Civ Pro MBE practice questions. The stats aren't earth-shattering but they can definitely help you fine-tune your studies after you do a post-mortem of your failing attempt.

[logical seasoning]

I passed!

For those that didn't My tips:

--Do every Adaptibar question and keep a notebook of one liner facts of law for questions that you missed. For example: "truth is a defense to defamation"

-- Essays: Organization + Timing.

PT: Timing. Practice reading a lot of information and gleaning as much as you can from it quickly. Then write a short outline (should take you no more than 2 minutes) then write

[barjamie8]

Just want to say congrats to everyone who passed and condolences to those who did not. I really feel for you. The anxiety has been awful the last several months, it is a fucking hard exam.

Also: for those retaking, this post helped me a lot: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6#p9987596

100% agree with this. I did something similar. No lectures to waste time, just 50 MBEs every day and practice the essays like CRAZY. I used adaptibar, BarEssays.com, and my review books/outlines. The key is practicing as many MBEs/essays as possible and then figuring out what you are doing right and wrong on the essays by comparing your practice essays to real ones on BarEssays.com and/or using a reputable tutor (if you can afford one). Do not skimp on spending quality time analyzing your essays. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[barjamie8]

Just want to say congrats to everyone who passed and condolences to those who did not. I really feel for you. The anxiety has been awful the last several months, it is a fucking hard exam.

Also: for those retaking, this post helped me a lot: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6#p9987596

100% agree with this. I did something similar. No lectures to waste time, just 50 MBEs every day and practice the essays like CRAZY. I used adaptibar, BarEssays.com, and my review books/outlines. The key is practicing as many MBEs/essays as possible and then figuring out what you are doing right and wrong on the essays by comparing your practice essays to real examples on BarEssays.com and/or using a reputable tutor (if you can afford one). Do not skimp on spending quality time analyzing your essays. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[a male human]

Just made hotel reservations for Feb 18 CBX...sigh.

Haven't seen you in a while! (but was wondering what happened to you) Did you take this exam?

Thank you. I just found I passed

Wow! Congrats! Any quick thoughts for fellow repeaters?

[a male human]

Long time lurker here! Checking in because I still can't sleep after the results.

I finally made it after 5 times! I do not know how I made it because I'm pretty sure I bombed the Torts question. I'm honestly still in disbelief and felt like melting into a puddle when I found out I made it.

For my fellow passers, congrats are in order to you!

For those of you who are down in the dumps right now, take the time to pick yourself up, collect yourself, and prepare to keep fighting. The fight is not over, and you've been knocked down, but are not out. You must live, breathe, and eat with a mantra that you have the will to keep fighting - no matter what.

The advice that's been given on this board are invaluable and will certainly point you in the right direction.
(For example: amalehuman's posts are an invaluable asset! I signed up for his email newsletters and they offered helpful advice and words of encouragement.)

Know that if you truly want this, then you must get it into your head that you will do whatever it takes to reach the end goal, even if it takes years. (Shoutout to 6TimeFailure for finally making it!)

Ignore what all the naysayers will tell you. You must be willing to shoot for the stars and keep working at it because there is always room for improvement.

I always struggled with MBE's, and what I did differently this time around was to use CriticalPass cards for a quick and dirty review while drilling NCBE released questions from Adaptibar.

As for essays, if you can swing it, find an essay grader who can help you spot what you need to do differently. At the end of the day, practicing essays day-in-day-out will benefit you far more than sitting in a bar prep study course.

YOU CAN DO THIS.

Thanks for the shoutout and congrats on making it out!

[laballermvp9]

Congrats to everyone who passed! I was fortunate to have passed as well. To those who didn't, you got this in Feb!

Some tips for future bar takers:

Definitely work on the MBEs. I was only in the 20 percentile after the first BarBri practice exam. But if you keep doing 50 Q's a day and reviewing your
incorrect answers one by one, you'll see an improvement.

Review past essays for issue spotting and structure. IRAC and organization is key. Use headings, subheadings, italics, whatever. Because graders only
have 3-5 minutes to review each essay, presentation is important. I personally did very few practice essays (mainly just tried to see if I could issue
spot and that's it).

Study hard but smart as well. I worked hard but maybe not as hard as others. Review each topic thoroughly but try to study harder for those essay subjects that are more likely to appear on the exam. Although you shouldn't heavily rely on predictions, they are a good indicator of what essays you
should expect (Bar Secrets was big time for me).

Good luck everyone. And congrats to passers!

[PorscheFanatic]

Anyone that failed work in Biglaw? Not sure what the next couple months of studying will be like while working at my firm, if they even want me to "work."

[nsv]

As others have mentioned it, definitely work on your MBEs. I didn't do too well on the writing portion the first time, but scored a 1540 on the MBE. However, that was not enough to pass. This time around I focused on doing 50+ questions each day for about 2 months on AdaptiBar. The great thing about AdaptiBar is that you can review the question after completing them, regardless whether you get them wrong or right. This really helps with learning BLL and working on your MBEs. Additionally, I reviewed past essays (baressays.com) to get a sense of what the bar graders are looking for. Lastly, I spent far less time preparing this time around than I did the first, I just focused on my strengths. A week before the exam, I was scoring 80%+ (set of 50s) on most MBE subjects.

To those who have failed, I know how it feels. What worked for me was taking a few days off and then figuring out an attack plan on how to improve my probability of passing. I waited until I got the package from the bar and saw what my weaknesses and strengths were. The second time around I focused on the strengths and improved my weaknesses, and that was enough to show that I was minimally competent.