July 2017 Texas Bar Exam Forum

[Pneumonia]

I'm updating my charts of past exams. If you're permitted to disclose at this point (BLE usually tells examinees when they may discuss the exam, often as an announcement at the end of the exam), please confirm the following:

Guardianship/Trusts = Trusts
UCC = UCC3 & UCC9
MPT = Objective Memo

Thanks.

This is correct.

[Estecontre]

MPT went okay since it wasn't on some obscure topic like copyright law, and the P&Es were okay except for Criminal's 5-6 questions that I had never seen before. The MBE is always a wild card, I was one of the few that thought the afternoon questions went better than the morning ones. The essays were a mixed bag. I totally made up the Commercial Law and Family Law essays, and a few individual questions on some of the remaining ones.

Time will tell. I feel like if I passed, it won't be by much.

That's exactly how I feel. The good thing is even if you pass by one point, it doesn't matter because you passed. Hahaha. It's really going to come down to the MBE for me. I feel like I did enough to get the scores I need on the MPT and hopefully the short answer(i forgot to go back and answer some of the ones I was iffy about or re-check my answer). The essays should be there as well. It's just that MBE...so hard to gauge how well you did! Doesn't help that I lost gas around question 160 and had to focus really hard on the ones I had left

[Estecontre]

MPT went okay since it wasn't on some obscure topic like copyright law, and the P&Es were okay except for Criminal's 5-6 questions that I had never seen before. The MBE is always a wild card, I was one of the few that thought the afternoon questions went better than the morning ones. The essays were a mixed bag. I totally made up the Commercial Law and Family Law essays, and a few individual questions on some of the remaining ones.

Time will tell. I feel like if I passed, it won't be by much.

I felt similar. I did decent on the barbri sim but that MBE caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting such a challenge in light of Barbri's promise that the sim was harder.

Anyways, regarding the essays, all I have been wondering is whether you can still score well in the essays if you get some subtopics within the essays wrong.

To answer your question, I believe you can. Obviously it helps if you can get every subtopic right, but I've heard you still get points for writing something and trying to make a logical conclusion.

[lovesthelaw]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

[Ketki]

When do we expect results ? Do we have a date ?

[BVest]

It's historically first Friday in November as the target and the day before as actual.

[Estecontre]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

[lovesthelaw]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

[Estecontre]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

[Thrive]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

[Estecontre]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

[lovesthelaw]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Gotcha. I missed that issue too. I felt good about my answer otherwise, and felt confident about 1 and 3 on that essay. I wish I understood more how they are graded...like I am feeling like I missed something on every single essay. I think I got a lot right, was always thorough, wrote well, was organized, used CRAC/CIRAC, etc. ...but I know I missed some issues or misstated a few rules. Is that probably okay?

[Thrive]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Exact same thought process. Rationally, they should give points for other ways of interpreting a relatively ambiguous question right?

And as for the mineral v royalty question, I didn't know what other explanation they needed! It was either one or the other and it was clearly royalty.

[Thrive]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Gotcha. I missed that issue too. I felt good about my answer otherwise, and felt confident about 1 and 3 on that essay. I wish I understood more how they are graded...like I am feeling like I missed something on every single essay. I think I got a lot right, was always thorough, wrote well, was organized, used CRAC/CIRAC, etc. ...but I know I missed some issues or misstated a few rules. Is that probably okay?

Same with missing subissues in the essays. Makes me kinda mad because I think I know someone who didn't miss even one.

[Estecontre]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Gotcha. I missed that issue too. I felt good about my answer otherwise, and felt confident about 1 and 3 on that essay. I wish I understood more how they are graded...like I am feeling like I missed something on every single essay. I think I got a lot right, was always thorough, wrote well, was organized, used CRAC/CIRAC, etc. ...but I know I missed some issues or misstated a few rules. Is that probably okay?

Is this your first time taking it? This is my understanding about the scoring, if someone knows more they can always correct me and chime in. Each essay is initially worth a total of 25 points for a total of 300 points in the essay portion. They then equate that score to the MBE score and make put it in the 200 point scale. How they do this is beyond me, but this is my understanding. For those people worried about the essays, I think this is one of the best possible places to make up points. You don't need to get every single point right, if you can then great, but lets be honest we can't know everything or memorize everything. So I've heard they give points for structure, analysis, and conclusion. So even if you're completely wrong as long as you structured it well and made a logical argument you'll get points for that. Maybe not as many points as someone who knew, but something is better than nothing. Someone on one of those forums gave some great advice regarding the essays and it went something like this...you can't expect to know everything or be ready for everything, everybody has their strengths and weaknesses with some of these subjects and chances are you'll get a question that you have no idea about. Look at what happened in July 2016, that bankruptcy question came out of nowhere and surprised many of us. I think as long as you had a structured answer, made some logical arguments, and answered the question you'll get points. Not too mention, I feel like the curve is more favorable in the July session than in February since some many more people take it. I don't not mean to pick on the person in front of me on, but I know for a fact that they did not answer like 3 question in the morning session, pretty much left them blank (they exited examsoft with like an hours left and put their head down), things didn't go so well with them on the afternoon session either. I can almost guarantee she wasn't the only person to feel like this or have this happen. That's helps other people who at least tried to answer the question. The first time I took it, I left three whole questions blank and left an hour early, on one of the questions I got points just for stating the issues and making some conclusion, sure I was still within the 1% of people who answered the question, but I at least got points.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it helps. The one great thing about the essays is that even writing something will get you points. You don't need to get everything question write, but I fell as long as you answered one or two questions correctly you'll be able to score the 135 needed in that section.

[Estecontre]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for that one, but the real property questions were pretty straight forward that I made up my time there (except for the lease question...totally fell for that trap). Same thing for the afternoon portion, I felt like the morning portion was more difficult than the afternoon. The wills and family law questions were so straightforward that I gained extra time, by the time I got to my last question I had about 45 minutes to go.

Thanks, that does help me feel better. What was the trap with the lease question though? Hopefully I got it and am just not remembering...haha

Well, truth be told this is what the person next to me told me. I had serious difficulty with that question because I wasn't quite sure what they were asking, but anyways according to them the lease wasn't valid because only one party signed and you need both parties to sign when the property involves the homestead exemption. I had no idea that's what they meant so I went on a whole different tangents about the proper clauses being there.

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption.

Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Exact same thought process. Rationally, they should give points for other ways of interpreting a relatively ambiguous question right?

And as for the mineral v royalty question, I didn't know what other explanation they needed! It was either one or the other and it was clearly royalty.

I'm in the same boat, because the question simply asked whether they had a mineral interest and the answer was no. But in talking to somebody else they told me they pointed out specifically what kind of royalty it was. While I feel like I got my point across, they may have scored a couple of points more for being more specific.

[Thrive]

One thing I am worried about on the essays is not having said enough. I felt like some of the questions were pretty narrow, and so I didn't really feel like I could "show off how much I knew" in my answer that well. I didn't want to just word dump on the page, so I tried to keep it to the point. But I am wondering now if I should have said a lot more.

Also not feeling great about the MBE. Was in the 94th percentile on the Barbri simulated and felt great about the MBE going into it. I have never been stuck between two choices on a multiple choice test so often in my life. It was really tough.

I really wouldn't worry about the essay portion. Look at the real property from the February portion...it was such a straight answer that it almost seemed too simple. Not to mention, I feel that even though they say that you're supposed to spend 30 minutes per essay, some essays are made easier to have time to respond to the more difficult ones. It took me awhile to right up that secured transactions question that I went over my "allotted" time for

What irritates me about the question is that you had to assume, at least in arguendo that there was indeed a homestead. Usually they tell you when to make an assumption
Most definitely. I had no idea what they were getting at with that question exactly for the reason you said. They usually tell you to assume an important fact like that, such as in the wills question. I kept reading the question trying to figure out what it was exactly they were trying to ask. In the back of my mind I was like "it's really weird that only party signed, but that wouldn't really matter unless it's a homestead." Completely skipped my mind to add that assuming it's a homestead...anyways that why I don't really worry about the essays. It's pretty difficult to know every point, but take that question for example I knew the first and last question, but not the second one. And I didn't go into great detail on the last one, I knew it wasn't a mineral interest, but generally speaking it was a royalty but I didn't go into the specifics of what kind.

Gotcha. I missed that issue too. I felt good about my answer otherwise, and felt confident about 1 and 3 on that essay. I wish I understood more how they are graded...like I am feeling like I missed something on every single essay. I think I got a lot right, was always thorough, wrote well, was organized, used CRAC/CIRAC, etc. ...but I know I missed some issues or misstated a few rules. Is that probably okay?

Is this your first time taking it? This is my understanding about the scoring, if someone knows more they can always correct me and chime in. Each essay is initially worth a total of 25 points for a total of 300 points in the essay portion. They then equate that score to the MBE score and make put it in the 200 point scale. How they do this is beyond me, but this is my understanding. For those people worried about the essays, I think this is one of the best possible places to make up points. You don't need to get every single point right, if you can then great, but lets be honest we can't know everything or memorize everything. So I've heard they give points for structure, analysis, and conclusion. So even if you're completely wrong as long as you structured it well and made a logical argument you'll get points for that. Maybe not as many points as someone who knew, but something is better than nothing. Someone on one of those forums gave some great advice regarding the essays and it went something like this...you can't expect to know everything or be ready for everything, everybody has their strengths and weaknesses with some of these subjects and chances are you'll get a question that you have no idea about. Look at what happened in July 2016, that bankruptcy question came out of nowhere and surprised many of us. I think as long as you had a structured answer, made some logical arguments, and answered the question you'll get points. Not too mention, I feel like the curve is more favorable in the July session than in February since some many more people take it. I don't not mean to pick on the person in front of me on, but I know for a fact that they did not answer like 3 question in the morning session, pretty much left them blank (they exited examsoft with like an hours left and put their head down), things didn't go so well with them on the afternoon session either. I can almost guarantee she wasn't the only person to feel like this or have this happen. That's helps other people who at least tried to answer the question. The first time I took it, I left three whole questions blank and left an hour early, on one of the questions I got points just for stating the issues and making some conclusion, sure I was still within the 1% of people who answered the question, but I at least got points.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I hope it helps. The one great thing about the essays is that even writing something will get you points. You don't need to get everything question write, but I fell as long as you answered one or two questions correctly you'll be able to score the 135 needed in that section.

Wait, what? You mean one or two questions per essay question, right? Even so, I'd take those odds.

[Estecontre]

Wait, what? You mean one or two questions per essay question, right? Even so, I'd take those odds.[/quote]

No I mean one or two essay question completely right or almost correctly. Not every question has subparts or subquestions.

[Thrive]

Wait, what? You mean one or two questions per essay question, right? Even so, I'd take those odds.

No I mean one or two essay question completely right or almost correctly. Not every question has subparts or subquestions.

Geez, I hope you're right. That's definitely encouraging.

[Estecontre]

Wait, what? You mean one or two questions per essay question, right? Even so, I'd take those odds.

No I mean one or two essay question completely right or almost correctly. Not every question has subparts or subquestions.

Geez, I hope you're right. That's definitely encouraging.

Its too hard to tell. There's so many factors that go behind it and beyond your personal performance.

Thought I would edit my comment to give a bit more insight. If you want I can go into more specifics, but I have a previous posts about this. Anyways, this is my third time taking it. First time I took it I failed miserably, last time around I missed it by 20 points . . . missed the score needed on the MBE by 4 points and missed the score needed on the MPT and short answer. I knew right away that the MPT would fail me and it turns out I was right. Anyways, last time around I scored a scaled 136.5 on the essay portion. Of the 12 essays on 7 of them I scored a 50% or better. Of those 7 one was in the 80th percentile another in the 77th, four were in the 60th percentile range and one in the 56th percentile. The rest I had fell in the 40th, 30th, 20th and 10th percentile. If you were to average all my percentile I was around the 50th percentile. Even though you really can't use a previous score as an benchmark, scoring in the 50th percentile for the essays might get you 135 score you need. Moreover, I didn't exactly knock each question out of the park, I did well on two with 5 others being above average. Not every essay needs to be above average. Not too mention I scored in the 19 percentile for an essay that: 1.) Was on a subject I had studied very little and 2.) I BSed through half out of it (it was the last essay I had left and knew so little about and not wanting to be stuck waiting around for the extra 15 minutes I hurried through it and answered it half-assed).

Another point I've said before, but it really plays out here, if you at least made an effort you're going to get points and you're not leaving anything on the table. I saw multiple people struggle with the commercial paper question and heard about people BSing it and even saw someone leave it blank. I can almost guarantee they weren't the only ones that struggled with it or left it blank and that was just one subject. Some people struggle with real property but excel in others. Take the real property question from the last test, I think it was super simple and it's something you should've known, but I overheard people complaining about how tough it was.

I have no proof for this, but I want to say this curve will be more favorable since more people were taking it and more people were prone to make mistakes than compared to last time. Hell, there were a couple of empty seats at my location and a couple people that showed up for the first day and then never showed up again and more people that showed up for the MBE and then didn't come for the last day. I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure there's a way to cancel your scores, some of these people will cancel and others will just say f it and keep the scores they receive.

[Estecontre]

Actually, I can't find any direction on this. Does anyone know if you can cancel your scores? Or if you don't show up you just get zeros? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on the Board's website.

[BVest]

Actually, I can't find any direction on this. Does anyone know if you can cancel your scores? Or if you don't show up you just get zeros? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on the Board's website.

Do you mean if you didn't show up entirely? If that's the case you should contact your analyst ASAP to see if you can withdraw after the fact. If you show up for any part of it, however, it counts as one of your 5 tries. And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

[Estecontre]

Actually, I can't find any direction on this. Does anyone know if you can cancel your scores? Or if you don't show up you just get zeros? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on the Board's website.

Do you mean if you didn't show up entirely? If that's the case you should contact your analyst ASAP to see if you can withdraw after the fact. If you show up for any part of it, however, it counts as one of your 5 tries. And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

Ohhh no its not for me. I was just wondering how that might affect the curve...I know it's probably not by much but, but someone getting a 0 on a portion still helps.

[BVest]

Actually, I can't find any direction on this. Does anyone know if you can cancel your scores? Or if you don't show up you just get zeros? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on the Board's website.

Do you mean if you didn't show up entirely? If that's the case you should contact your analyst ASAP to see if you can withdraw after the fact. If you show up for any part of it, however, it counts as one of your 5 tries. And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

Ohhh no its not for me. I was just wondering how that might affect the curve...I know it's probably not by much but, but someone getting a 0 on a portion still helps.

Again, though:

And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

Probably doesn't factor into the scale.

[Estecontre]

Actually, I can't find any direction on this. Does anyone know if you can cancel your scores? Or if you don't show up you just get zeros? There doesn't seem to be a clear answer on the Board's website.

Do you mean if you didn't show up entirely? If that's the case you should contact your analyst ASAP to see if you can withdraw after the fact. If you show up for any part of it, however, it counts as one of your 5 tries. And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

Ohhh no its not for me. I was just wondering how that might affect the curve...I know it's probably not by much but, but someone getting a 0 on a portion still helps.

Again, though:

And if you show up to some of it but not all of it, they won't grade your exam at all.

Probably doesn't factor into the scale.

Probably right. I ask because it's unclear whether you can cancel your scores or what happens when you show up for day one and then call it quits. It happened at my location that several people didn't show up starting day one, someone took off midway through day 2 (pretty sure they came back for day three which is weird) and a couple of people that didn't show up after day 2. I remember with the LSAT you can cancel your scores so they won't be graded, I don't know what the process is here. The Rules don't really say anything (at least I can't find anything that clearly states what happens).