The "Ask @JoeSeperac" Thread Forum

[JoeSeperac]

Thanks for the followup.

I actually freaked out a little during the mpts live but then I started typing relevant sections from the question as I read and copy pasting them around as I wrote and edited my answer to save time

The mark of a true lawyer. Get ready to do this repeatedly in real life practice.

[JoeSeperac]

Hi Joe!

Was hoping to see how I compared as well and how the written portion went.

MBE score 162.4
Total score 349.

Thanks!

Congratulations! Based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4, your estimated raw MBE score was about 146/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 83.4% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 89.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 10.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 349, your written score was 186.6, which would have placed you in the 100% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 0% 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 94.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 349 (meaning that 5.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

Your written score was phenomenal. Any advice for others?

[Anon9876]

Hi Joe!

Was hoping to see how I compared as well and how the written portion went.

MBE score 162.4
Total score 349.

Thanks!

Congratulations! Based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4, your estimated raw MBE score was about 146/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 83.4% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 89.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 10.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 349, your written score was 186.6, which would have placed you in the 100% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 0% 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 94.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 349 (meaning that 5.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

Your written score was phenomenal. Any advice for others?

Honestly, I focused more on the MBE during bar prep than the essays. Overall, I looked at the essays for guidance on formatting and then during the last week to see if I identified the relevant issues, but I rarely wrote full length essays. Similar for the MPT. By focusing the majority of my time on the MBE questions I felt I learnt the law better and was able to then be more relaxed as I wrote.

[chaitealatte]

Hi Joe! Was hoping to see where I stood as well. NY, total UBE score was 328, MBE was 154. Thanks so much!

[neem518]

NY UBE - 280
MBE 141.4
MEE - whatever it was, I'm sure I didn't get any credit for my two sentences in answer to the last question on Civ Pro.

Second timer - first time NY Feb '19 UBE 265 MBE 135+, MEE 129+
Foreign JD - 1998
Licensed - 1999

I used the calculator and I should have failed with 240 in July and 250 in February.

Granting the 280 is not stellar, this employed full-time and a single mom will take it any day, but I was wondering how the 40 or 30 points disparity could be accounted for?

Thanks!

[QContinuum]

Granting the 280 is not stellar, this employed full-time and a single mom will take it any day

Huge kudos on passing! You made it.

One thing that I think often gets lost in these discussions - especially amongst passers - a pass is a pass. (Especially a 280, which is a pass in every single UBE jurisdiction, including Alaska, the state with the highest minimum score requirement.) There is no such thing as an "A" on the bar exam (reinforced by the NCBE not releasing % questions correct or relative percentiles). You do not get extra "points" for "high" passing with a 300, or 350, or whatever. No one cares - not other lawyers, not clients. You will never get asked "oh, what was your score on the UBE?" There is, after all, very little similarity between taking the UBE and actual day-to-day lawyering.

[neem518]

Granting the 280 is not stellar, this employed full-time and a single mom will take it any day

Huge kudos on passing! You made it.

One thing that I think often gets lost in these discussions - especially amongst passers - a pass is a pass. (Especially a 280, which is a pass in every single UBE jurisdiction, including Alaska, the state with the highest minimum score requirement.) There is no such thing as an "A" on the bar exam (reinforced by the NCBE not releasing % questions correct or relative percentiles). You do not get extra "points" for "high" passing with a 300, or 350, or whatever. No one cares - not other lawyers, not clients. You will never get asked "oh, what was your score on the UBE?" There is, after all, very little similarity between taking the UBE and actual day-to-day lawyering.

Trust me I would have been happy to see a 266. I'm blessed beyond measure and I did see the significance of my score when I saw the 280. More than I can ask for

[laurelcastillo]

UBE: 331
MBE: 165.8

Thank you!

[Lesion of Doom]

I seem to have had more of a split than others:

319 UBE
167.6 MBE

Thank you!

[Thegrzz]

Hey Joe - Thanks for doing this!!

UBE 337
MBE 171.3

[eclyptius]

Hello Joe,

First of all, I wanted to say your notes were a great help in preparing for the exam! I'm a foreign educated first-time taker and received the below scores - curious about how them compare.

UBE: 300
MBE: 152.9

Thank you!

[JbUKlaw]

Hi Joe,

Would you be able to help me with my score also?

Overall: 303
MBE: 149.9

I’m a foreign (UK) student and this was my second time taking the exam. Your tips and UBE essay subscription helped me loads this time so thank you!

[aaronullman1]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your work on this message board. We all appreciate it more than you think. I was wondering if you can help dissect my score since I haven't seen anything similar.

MBE Score: 163.2
Overall: 326

Thanks again!

[JoeSeperac]

Hi Joe!

Was hoping to see how I compared as well and how the written portion went.

MBE score 162.4
Total score 349.

Thanks!

Congratulations! Based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4, your estimated raw MBE score was about 146/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 83.4% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 89.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 10.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 162.4 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 349, your written score was 186.6, which would have placed you in the 100% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 0% 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 94.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 349 (meaning that 5.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

Your written score was phenomenal. Any advice for others?

Honestly, I focused more on the MBE during bar prep than the essays. Overall, I looked at the essays for guidance on formatting and then during the last week to see if I identified the relevant issues, but I rarely wrote full length essays. Similar for the MPT. By focusing the majority of my time on the MBE questions I felt I learnt the law better and was able to then be more relaxed as I wrote.

Thanks. I find it interesting how some examinees who are bad at the MBE spend 70% of their study time on the written only to score in the 130s while you focused on the MBE and scored in the 180s on the written.

[JoeSeperac]

Hi Joe! Was hoping to see where I stood as well. NY, total UBE score was 328, MBE was 154. Thanks so much!

Chaitealatte,

Congratulations on passing the J19 NY 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 328, your written score was 174, which would have placed you in the 98.7% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 1.3% 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 87.4% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 328 (meaning that 12.6% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

Were at 75% correct in practice for the MBE?

[JoeSeperac]

NY UBE - 280
MBE 141.4
MEE - whatever it was, I'm sure I didn't get any credit for my two sentences in answer to the last question on Civ Pro.

Second timer - first time NY Feb '19 UBE 265 MBE 135+, MEE 129+
Foreign JD - 1998
Licensed - 1999

I used the calculator and I should have failed with 240 in July and 250 in February.

Granting the 280 is not stellar, this employed full-time and a single mom will take it any day, but I was wondering how the 40 or 30 points disparity could be accounted for?

Thanks!

Congratulations on passing! The calculator has a lot of weaknesses in regards to predicting the performance of retakers and foreign examinees because there is little data on both. My hope is to collect enough data to overcome this, but it will take quite a while.

Based on your scaled MBE score of 141.4, your estimated raw MBE score was about 116/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 66.3% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 47.5% percentile for the MBE. This means that 52.5% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 141.4 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

FYI, based on your F19 scaled MBE score of 135, your estimated raw MBE score was about 116/175 correct so you basically did exactly the same but benefited from the J19 scale.

Based on a total score of 280, your written score was 138.6, which would have placed you in the 41.3% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 58.7% 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 44.4% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 280 (meaning that 55.6% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

[JoeSeperac]

UBE: 331
MBE: 165.8

Thank you!

Congrats! Based on your scaled MBE score of 165.8, your estimated raw MBE score was about 151/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 86.3% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 93.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 6.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 165.8 (based on national data for the past 7 years). Based on a total score of 331, your written score was 165.2, which would have placed you in the 93.3% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 6.7% 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 93.6% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 331 (meaning that 6.5% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

If you don't mind a followup question, how many questions did you answer in practice, from what sources (e.g. Barbri, Kaplan, Adaptibar, NCBE) and what was your overall % correct?

[JoeSeperac]

Hey Joe - Thanks for doing this!!

UBE 337
MBE 171.3

Congratulations on passing! That's a very solid MBE. Based on your scaled MBE score of 171.3, your estimated raw MBE score was about 158/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 90.3% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 97.6% percentile for the MBE. This means that 2.4% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 171.3 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on the 6,000+ scores I've received from examinees, you MBE of 171 is 99% percentile (only 55/6000+ scored better).

Based on a total score of 337, your written score was 165.7, which would have placed you in the 93.7% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 6.3% 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 95.7% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 337 (meaning that 4.3% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

[JoeSeperac]

I seem to have had more of a split than others:

319 UBE
167.6 MBE

Thank you!

Congrats! Based on your scaled MBE score of 167.6, your estimated raw MBE score was about 153/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 87.4% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 95.2% percentile for the MBE. This means that 4.8% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 167.6 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on the 6,000+ scores I've received from examinees, your MBE of 167 is 98.3% percentile (only 103/6000+ scored better).

Based on a total score of 319, your written score was 151.4, which would have placed you in the 70.6% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 29.4% 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 82.9% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 319 (meaning that 17.1% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

[JoeSeperac]

Hello Joe,

First of all, I wanted to say your notes were a great help in preparing for the exam! I'm a foreign educated first-time taker and received the below scores - curious about how them compare.

UBE: 300
MBE: 152.9

Thank you!

Congratulations on passing the J19 NY bar exam. In New York, over the past 8 years, for the demographic of All Takers (Foreign Educated), there were 38,952 examinees who took the exam and 13,924 examinees passed the exam for an overall pass rate of 35.7%.

Based on your scaled MBE score of 152.9, your estimated raw MBE score was about 132/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 75.4% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 73.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 26.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 152.9 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 300, your written score was 147.1, which would have placed you in the 60.8% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 39.2% 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 67.3% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 300 (meaning that 32.7% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

I'm glad the materials helped. If you don't mind my asking, what subscription did you use?

[JoeSeperac]

Hi Joe,

Would you be able to help me with my score also?

Overall: 303
MBE: 149.9

Congratulations on passing the J19 NY bar exam as it was well earned. In New York, over the past 8 years, for the demographic of Repeaters (Foreign Educated), there were 18,360 examinees who took the exam and 4,398 examinees passed the exam for an overall pass rate of 24%.

Based on your scaled MBE score of 149.9, your estimated raw MBE score was about 128/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 73.1% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 67.4% percentile for the MBE. This means that 32.6% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 149.9 (based on national data for the past 7 years). Based on a total score of 303, your written score was 153.1, which would have placed you in the 74.2% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 25.8% 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 70.8% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 303 (meaning that 29.2% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

[JoeSeperac]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your work on this message board. We all appreciate it more than you think. I was wondering if you can help dissect my score since I haven't seen anything similar.

MBE Score: 163.2
Overall: 326

Thanks again!

Congratulations on passing the J19 NY bar exam. Based on your scaled MBE score of 163.2, your estimated raw MBE score was about 147/175 correct (based on the last time an MBE scale was released in 2013). This means you answered about 84% of the graded MBE questions correctly. This places you in the 90.8% percentile for the MBE. This means that 9.2% of Jul examinees nationwide did better than you on the MBE based on your scaled MBE score of 163.2 (based on national data for the past 7 years).

Based on a total score of 326, your written score was 162.8, which would have placed you in the 90.3% percentile among examinees nationwide (meaning that 9.7% 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 90.6% percentile among examinees nationwide based on your total score of 326 (meaning that 9.5% of examinees nationwide scored better than you on the UBE). Please keep in mind this is just an estimate and may be incorrect.

In contrast, based on the 6,000+ scores I've received from examinees, your UBE of 326 is 98.2% percentile (only 98/6000+ scored better). Congrats again!

[apnh]

Hi Joe!

I was hoping to see how I compared as well.

MBE score: 165
Total score: 304
Non-UBE state (Georgia).

Thanks!

[ChangeGoinCome]

Hi Joe,

DC bar.

Written Component Scaled Score: 154.

MBE Scaled Score: 166

UBE Scaled Score: 321

Your videos were incredible! Thank you for all your help!!!

[Hopeful29clerk]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for your contribution to the legal community! Here are my numbers for the NY UBE:

UBE: 313
MBE: 151.4