The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread Forum

Discussions related to the bar exam are found in this forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about bar exam prep. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:22 pm

Hi Joe,
Thanks for the reply! I actually didn’t expect to do nearly as well. I felt pretty neutral about the MBE — like it either went fine or pretty well. However, I found the first day quite rough and felt like I’d dropped the ball many times during the written section (specifically on the second MPT and on probably 4 of the 6 essays).
JoeSeperac wrote:
Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:05 pm
I10attorney wrote:
Wed Sep 15, 2021 4:09 pm
Hi Joe. According to NCBE the J21 mean is 140.4. It doesn't seem too far off. Do you have enough data to give those of us still waiting an idea what the curve looks like? Also since I'm in TX (270), which calculator should I use to estimate my score? Thanks for all you do!

Sorry for the delayed follow up, but belated congratulations on passing the J12 IL bar exam!

Based on your scaled MBE score of 177.8, your estimated raw MBE score was about 168/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 96% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 99.5% percentile for the MBE. This means that 0.5% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 177.8 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 355, your written score was 177.2, which would have placed you in the 99.4% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 0.6% of examinees nationwide would have scored better than you on the MEE/MPT).

Did you expect to do so well on the exam?

Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:24 pm

Hey Joe, thought I'd post here to give you some stats:

TN July 2021 Bar- 287 UBE. No idea on score breakdown.
T1 school, median grades, spent about 40 hours a week studying for 8 weeks or so. Used Barbri for first 6 weeks exclusively (finished about 85% or so overall). Used Studicata vids and essay outlines and JD for essays as well as Barbri.
Hope that helps for future breakdowns.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:56 pm

Hi Joe,
I was wondering if it would be possible to look at the percentages for my score. I passed Massachusetts with a 175.7 for the MBE and a 173.8 for the written, which they rounded to a 350 total.
And to anticipate the most common follow-up question(s): I did about 90% of Barbri and supplemented with ~800 Qs from their new "real MBE" question bank. Scored 173/200 on the first MBE sim, and 92/100 on the final MBE sim. My predicted score was 343, so really close!
Thank you for all the time you give to the community!

Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:39 am

Hi Joe, curious about how my score stacks up. I passed in MA with a 363 UBE/182.1 MBE/180.7 written.

For those who are interested, my study plan was pretty standard: Basically did 100% of Barbri and around 1500 Adaptibar questions (not counting repeated questions).

Thanks!

JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by JoeSeperac » Wed Nov 17, 2021 12:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:24 pm
Hey Joe, thought I'd post here to give you some stats:

TN July 2021 Bar- 287 UBE. No idea on score breakdown.
T1 school, median grades, spent about 40 hours a week studying for 8 weeks or so. Used Barbri for first 6 weeks exclusively (finished about 85% or so overall). Used Studicata vids and essay outlines and JD for essays as well as Barbri.
Hope that helps for future breakdowns.

Congratulations on passing the J21 TN bar exam! Although NCBE does not release percentiles for total UBE scores, based on the MBE and written percentiles, I would expect you to be in the 52.4% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 287 (meaning that 47.6% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect. Congrats!

Want to continue reading?

Register now to search topics and post comments!

Absolutely FREE!


JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by JoeSeperac » Wed Nov 17, 2021 12:42 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:56 pm
Hi Joe,
I was wondering if it would be possible to look at the percentages for my score. I passed Massachusetts with a 175.7 for the MBE and a 173.8 for the written, which they rounded to a 350 total.
And to anticipate the most common follow-up question(s): I did about 90% of Barbri and supplemented with ~800 Qs from their new "real MBE" question bank. Scored 173/200 on the first MBE sim, and 92/100 on the final MBE sim. My predicted score was 343, so really close!
Thank you for all the time you give to the community!

Congratulations on passing!

Based on your scaled MBE score of 175.7, your estimated raw MBE score was about 165/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 94.3% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 99.2% percentile for the MBE. This means that 0.8% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 175.7 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 350, your written score was 173.8, which would have placed you in the 98.6% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 1.4% of examinees nationwide would have scored better than you on the MEE/MPT).

Although NCBE does not release percentiles for total UBE scores, based on the MBE and written percentiles, this would place you in the 98.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 350 (meaning that 1.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

Based on your BARBRI practice scores, I would have predicted an MBE score between 172-182 on the J21 exam. To pass with the exact score of 270, with an score of 176 on the MBE, you would need a 94 on the written to pass, which would place you in basically the 0% percentile among examinees nationwide for a July exam (based on the last 7 July exams), meaning about 99.2% of examinees nationwide could score better than you on the J21 MEE/MPT and you would still pass.

JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by JoeSeperac » Wed Nov 17, 2021 12:55 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Nov 13, 2021 12:39 am
Hi Joe, curious about how my score stacks up. I passed in MA with a 363 UBE/182.1 MBE/180.7 written.

For those who are interested, my study plan was pretty standard: Basically did 100% of Barbri and around 1500 Adaptibar questions (not counting repeated questions).

Thanks!

Congratulations! I don't need to trouble you with the percentiles because they are all off the charts, but I will post them anyways.

Based on your scaled MBE score of 180.7, your estimated raw MBE score was about 172/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 98.3% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 99.9% percentile for the MBE. This means that 0.1% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 180.7 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 363, your written score was 182.1, which would have placed you in the 99.9% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 0.1% of examinees nationwide would have scored better than you on the MEE/MPT).

Although NCBE does not release percentiles for total UBE scores, based on the MBE and written percentiles, this would place you in the 99.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 363 (meaning that 0.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

In case you are curious, based on about 7,000 examinees who have sent me their scores, the highest total UBE score I've seen is 370. The highest MBE score was 186 (one TLS’er posted he scored a 194 but I haven’t confirmed it). The highest written score was 189.3 (previously 187 was the highest).

TLS'ers really live up to their name. As you are probably aware, 25 of the 200 MBE questions are experimentals. Prior to F07, none of the MBE questions were experimental, and then from F07-J16, a total of 10 of the 200 questions were experimental (then it was increased to 25/200 in F17). I have a “conspiracy theory” that the bar examiners gauge the appropriateness of the experimental questions by seeing how the high LSAT/LGPA examinees do on them. Put simply, if high LSAT/LGPA examinees do well on an experimental question and low LSAT/LGPA examinees do not, the question is regarded as a good question and is added to future MBE exams. Quite honestly, I know of no better way of determining whether a newly created MBE question is an appropriate question than by seeing how high LSAT/LGPA examinees score on it. Over the past few years, there have likely been hundreds of experimental questions tested. Accordingly, I believe that as time goes on, high LSAT/LGPA examinees will be more and more likely to score high on the MBE since the questions are essentially being designed for them.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:41 am

Hi Joe!

Wanted to post my stats and see how I measured up. Took DC July 21 and passed with a 294.6.

MBE: 154
MEE: 140.6

Did themis and completed about 45%. did about 800 u-world questions as well. Was shocked when I got my score because I was certain I did much better on the essay portion

JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by JoeSeperac » Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:15 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Nov 19, 2021 10:41 am
Hi Joe!

Wanted to post my stats and see how I measured up. Took DC July 21 and passed with a 294.6.

MBE: 154
MEE: 140.6

Did themis and completed about 45%. did about 800 u-world questions as well. Was shocked when I got my score because I was certain I did much better on the essay portion

Congratulations on passing the J21 DC bar exam.

Based on your scaled MBE score of 154, your estimated raw MBE score was about 134/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 76.6% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 76.1% percentile for the MBE. This means that 23.9% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 154 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 295, your written score was 140.6, which would have placed you in the 45.7% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 54.3% of examinees nationwide would have scored better than you on the MEE/MPT).

Although NCBE does not release percentiles for total UBE scores, based on the MBE and written percentiles, this would place you in the 60.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 295 (meaning that 39.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

FYI, in the District of Columbia over the past 26 years, the February ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 54.5% while the July ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 77.5%. The February ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 35.4% while the July ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 35%. In contrast, nationally over the past 24 years, the February ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 72.7% while the July ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 81%. The February ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 44.7% while the July ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 31.1%.

Want to continue reading?

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?


Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:43 pm

Hi Joe,

I recently took and passed the NY Feb ' 22 Exam, and was curious if you could help me calculate my percentages? I got a 165 written scaled score and a 155.7 MBE scaled score, for a total of a 321 UBE total scaled score.

I have been a practicing attorney in a big law firm for several years in a different jurisdiction, so I barely had time to study this time around (took it in 2017, and passed). I am, frankly, very surprised I passed and want to know how well I actually did.

As to studying -- I took about two weeks to do Barbri (which my firm paid for, thankfully). I completed the lectures for the required MBE topics and also lectures for the six MEE topics I thought would likely show up (the ones I didn't guess would show up, but did, were Corporations and Secured Transactions; however, I remembered enough from the '17 bar and my actual practice to put together what I thought were OK essays on those). For practice, I also outlined several essays and took one 200 question practice MBE, but did not have time to do more.

Thank you for all the time you give to the community, and for indulging this stilly request.

JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by JoeSeperac » Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:36 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Apr 14, 2022 3:43 pm
Hi Joe,

I recently took and passed the NY Feb ' 22 Exam, and was curious if you could help me calculate my percentages? I got a 165 written scaled score and a 155.7 MBE scaled score, for a total of a 321 UBE total scaled score.

I have been a practicing attorney in a big law firm for several years in a different jurisdiction, so I barely had time to study this time around (took it in 2017, and passed). I am, frankly, very surprised I passed and want to know how well I actually did.

As to studying -- I took about two weeks to do Barbri (which my firm paid for, thankfully). I completed the lectures for the required MBE topics and also lectures for the six MEE topics I thought would likely show up (the ones I didn't guess would show up, but did, were Corporations and Secured Transactions; however, I remembered enough from the '17 bar and my actual practice to put together what I thought were OK essays on those). For practice, I also outlined several essays and took one 200 question practice MBE, but did not have time to do more.

Thank you for all the time you give to the community, and for indulging this stilly request.

Congratulations on passing the F22 NY bar exam!

Based on your scaled MBE score of 155.7, your estimated raw MBE score was about 135/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 77.1% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 89.9% percentile for the MBE. This means that about 10.1% of Feb examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 155.7 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 321, your written score was 165.3, which would have placed you in the 97.7% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 2.3% of examinees nationwide would have scored better than you on the MEE/MPT).

Although NCBE does not release percentiles for total UBE scores, based on the MBE and written percentiles, this would place you in the 93.8% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 321 (meaning that 6.2% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

FYI, when the California bar exam studied the reliability of its essay grading in 1977, the bar examiners gave the same essay to multiple graders to see how consistent their grading was. The study found that the PASS/FAIL determination between the graders was consistent only 67% of the time. This means for every two graders that thought an essay was a PASS, a third grader thought it was a FAIL. Meanwhile, because of the reliability of the MBE, you should score within 85% of your prior score if you put the same amount of time into it (meaning you should study for the MBE the exact same way that brought you success on your prior attempt).

Anonymous User
Posts: 428116
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:50 am

I guess I’ll be the one to start this season off. I scored a 184.1 on the MBE, and a 351 overall, on the July NYBE. I am incredibly grateful for my scores - but was curious if you could help me get a better sense of where I landed percentile-wise. Thanks so much!

(For those curious, my study of more or less completing the Barbri course, and doing ~1000 Adaptibar questions iirc).

Register now!

Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.

It's still FREE!


Post Reply Post Anonymous Reply  

Return to “Bar Exam Prep and Discussion Forum”