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Has anyone dealt with this or have any insight on how this works? I know there are only some jurisdictions where this is possible.

In Kentucky, you can pass the essays and fail the MBE (most common type of failure) or vice versa. When this is the case, you only have to retake the part you failed. That is currently how it is in Kentucky, but they're considering changing it. I was just wondering if this has happened to anyone and if anyone could provide me with how you'll be notified about which part you passed and which part you failed.

Thanks for any insights!

In (I think) every jurisdiction, unsuccessful takers are given their essay and MBE scores by mail when results are released. In Kentucky, in order to pass, an applicant must receive a scaled score of 132 on the MBE and receive 75% on the essay section. Thus you'd just have to compare your scores with those cutoffs.

DC has a similar thing that allows people who have failed the exam (in any jurisdiction) to keep their old MBE score and take only the essays.

In Florida, you can fail one part and pass overall because they go on the law of averages. A bunch of people on my page failed Florida Portion but had Killer MBE and passed.

Florida is interesting in 2 respects: you can pass one part and fail the other and fail the exam. In that case you only need to take the part of the exam that you failed; you need not sit again for the part that you passed. Or you can pass one part, fail the other, and pass the exam. This actually happens quite a lot. You need a 136 to pass the exam. So if you score a 145 in one part of the exam, and a 130 on the other, you'll pass the first part, fail the second part but pass the exam because your average on the 2 parts will be (145+130)/2=137.5

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

In Kentucky, you have a minimum score in both the essay portion and the MBE portion.

I'm really hoping that I at least knocked out one part and will only have to take one part in February. Obviously passing both would be better, but I think I could destroy the MBE on a second round. My problem this time around was I stopped drilling MBE questions to focus on essays for the last two weeks and so my MBE game was weak. Hopefully it was strong enough to pass. But if not, if I don't have to worry about the essays, I'll be fine in February.

I felt the EXACT same on KY. If I failed, it’s because of the MBE and not the essays. I would be shocked if I didn’t pass the essay portion. The MBE is a different story though. Guess we will know soon as the pass list comes out tomorrow.

Rhiannon17 wrote:I felt the EXACT same on KY. If I failed, it’s because of the MBE and not the essays. I would be shocked if I didn’t pass the essay portion. The MBE is a different story though. Guess we will know soon as the pass list comes out tomorrow.

Best of luck to you.