Adapibar Average-looking up-and does my prep strategy sound good? Forum

[fpkjd]

Well, I'm leaving for Lancaster, PA tomorrow evening for my latest attempt at the Bar Exam.

My Adaptibar Average is now a bit above 75% correct. Would you agree with me that this bodes well for my finally passing this time? I know I can get 120+ points on my essays, easily; the MBE was the hard part. I'm going to work for 3 hours tomorrow morning, then packing for my trip to Lancaster. I have to go to work tomorrow since I have to complete a writing test at work for a promotion I've put in for at my job at the VA from Claims Examiner at GS-9 to Senior Claims Examiner at GS-11. Adapitbar is coming with me to the Lancaster Marriot on my laptop, along with my PA Essay outlines, MBE outlines, and some flashcard sets to glance over materials the night before each part of the Exam. I did some questions tonight, but am concentrating on getting to bed early to be sure I have enough rest. Will do much the same tomorrow night at the hotel.

I believe this is a good prep strategy? My biggest problem taking the Bar has been anxiety. I have tended to rush through questions-but TOO fast...and I know I've missed fact patterns and nuances in questions. I believe that purposely taking things slower and with a calm state of mind should help?

--fpkjd

[SilvermanBarPrep]

If you're consistently scoring 75%, that bodes extremely well. You just need to perform like that when it counts and you'll be good to go.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

[Smiddywesson]

Well, I'm leaving for Lancaster, PA tomorrow evening for my latest attempt at the Bar Exam.

My Adaptibar Average is now a bit above 75% correct. Would you agree with me that this bodes well for my finally passing this time? I know I can get 120+ points on my essays, easily; the MBE was the hard part. I'm going to work for 3 hours tomorrow morning, then packing for my trip to Lancaster. I have to go to work tomorrow since I have to complete a writing test at work for a promotion I've put in for at my job at the VA from Claims Examiner at GS-9 to Senior Claims Examiner at GS-11. Adapitbar is coming with me to the Lancaster Marriot on my laptop, along with my PA Essay outlines, MBE outlines, and some flashcard sets to glance over materials the night before each part of the Exam. I did some questions tonight, but am concentrating on getting to bed early to be sure I have enough rest. Will do much the same tomorrow night at the hotel.

I believe this is a good prep strategy? My biggest problem taking the Bar has been anxiety. I have tended to rush through questions-but TOO fast...and I know I've missed fact patterns and nuances in questions. I believe that purposely taking things slower and with a calm state of mind should help?

--fpkjd

Well, I hope you feel better today than I do. I had a rock solid 91% on Adaptibar and I have no frigging idea how I did. Those questions do not even remotely resemble the format for the old released questions, the OPE Exams, the Study Aids, or the Barbri questions. They shortened the fact patterns and added a whole new level of complexity to the answers. In the released questions, I spent 80% of my time on the fact pattern, 20% on the answers. During the exam, I spent at least half my time working the answers, they were that difficult. Combine that with some poor decision making in preparing for the essays, and a gliched touchpad that ate up my time, I'm not as confident as I assumed I would be today.

In respect to your position, I was at 75% a little more than month out, maybe 6 weeks, but you just run out of time. Don't be so sure the whiz kids test mojo will transfer automatically into this format. You have to have some flexibility of mind. You definitely did the right thing resting before the test, that's the only thing that will give you that flexibility and insight. I went so far as refusing to use my extra 35 minutes at the end of the am session to go over my answers because I wanted to preserve my mind for the afternoon session.

If I were you, I would be very comforted by your proficiency in the essays, and rely upon the fact that you were above the pack in the practice questions. That ratio is going to play out in the test. Don't be fooled by the 25 pretest questions, they were insanely hard and quirky enough that they had to be pretest, otherwise everybody would have been talking about them in July. Therefore, I have to conclude we all have a compromised view of the test, it wasn't as hard as we remember. Our memories are tainted by a negative bias, not remembering the easy ones (there were a few released questions that were almost verbatim on the actual test), by focusing on the insanely hard ones, and our memories are also influenced by stress. If you don't feel confident, that's a good sign. If you think you nailed it, now that's a bad sign. Five weeks to glory my friend.

[Smiddywesson]

Well, I'm leaving for Lancaster, PA tomorrow evening for my latest attempt at the Bar Exam.

My Adaptibar Average is now a bit above 75% correct. Would you agree with me that this bodes well for my finally passing this time? I know I can get 120+ points on my essays, easily; the MBE was the hard part. I'm going to work for 3 hours tomorrow morning, then packing for my trip to Lancaster. I have to go to work tomorrow since I have to complete a writing test at work for a promotion I've put in for at my job at the VA from Claims Examiner at GS-9 to Senior Claims Examiner at GS-11. Adapitbar is coming with me to the Lancaster Marriot on my laptop, along with my PA Essay outlines, MBE outlines, and some flashcard sets to glance over materials the night before each part of the Exam. I did some questions tonight, but am concentrating on getting to bed early to be sure I have enough rest. Will do much the same tomorrow night at the hotel.

I believe this is a good prep strategy? My biggest problem taking the Bar has been anxiety. I have tended to rush through questions-but TOO fast...and I know I've missed fact patterns and nuances in questions. I believe that purposely taking things slower and with a calm state of mind should help?

--fpkjd

My post was a long winded way of saying no matter how hard it was, we are all in the same boat, and it's a scaled test. That means the boat is sinking, there's only enough seats in the lifeboat for people who did the work, and your name is on one of them because you did the work. For somebody else to take your seat you have to royally choke and somebody who DIDN'T do the work got extremely lucky.

The test is formulated by a dozen PhDs to weed out the lucky. Nobody is taking shit from you, if you worked for it, it's yours.

[fpkjd]

Smiddywesson, thanks for your insights into this MBE.

I didn't feel that confident coming out, but, looking back, I know I answered many, many questions correctly. I did the work, and I'm looking forward to good news in April.

-fpkjd

[notrub14]

Well, I'm leaving for Lancaster, PA tomorrow evening for my latest attempt at the Bar Exam.

My Adaptibar Average is now a bit above 75% correct. Would you agree with me that this bodes well for my finally passing this time? I know I can get 120+ points on my essays, easily; the MBE was the hard part. I'm going to work for 3 hours tomorrow morning, then packing for my trip to Lancaster. I have to go to work tomorrow since I have to complete a writing test at work for a promotion I've put in for at my job at the VA from Claims Examiner at GS-9 to Senior Claims Examiner at GS-11. Adapitbar is coming with me to the Lancaster Marriot on my laptop, along with my PA Essay outlines, MBE outlines, and some flashcard sets to glance over materials the night before each part of the Exam. I did some questions tonight, but am concentrating on getting to bed early to be sure I have enough rest. Will do much the same tomorrow night at the hotel.

I believe this is a good prep strategy? My biggest problem taking the Bar has been anxiety. I have tended to rush through questions-but TOO fast...and I know I've missed fact patterns and nuances in questions. I believe that purposely taking things slower and with a calm state of mind should help?

--fpkjd

My post was a long winded way of saying no matter how hard it was, we are all in the same boat, and it's a scaled test. That means the boat is sinking, there's only enough seats in the lifeboat for people who did the work, and your name is on one of them because you did the work. For somebody else to take your seat you have to royally choke and somebody who DIDN'T do the work got extremely lucky.

The test is formulated by a dozen PhDs to weed out the lucky. Nobody is taking shit from you, if you worked for it, it's yours.

This is not how the Bar Exam works (well at least not how the MBE works). It is an equated test; it is not scaled. Everyone who takes a particular administration could pass or everyone could fail.

[Smiddywesson]

Well, I'm leaving for Lancaster, PA tomorrow evening for my latest attempt at the Bar Exam.

My Adaptibar Average is now a bit above 75% correct. Would you agree with me that this bodes well for my finally passing this time? I know I can get 120+ points on my essays, easily; the MBE was the hard part. I'm going to work for 3 hours tomorrow morning, then packing for my trip to Lancaster. I have to go to work tomorrow since I have to complete a writing test at work for a promotion I've put in for at my job at the VA from Claims Examiner at GS-9 to Senior Claims Examiner at GS-11. Adapitbar is coming with me to the Lancaster Marriot on my laptop, along with my PA Essay outlines, MBE outlines, and some flashcard sets to glance over materials the night before each part of the Exam. I did some questions tonight, but am concentrating on getting to bed early to be sure I have enough rest. Will do much the same tomorrow night at the hotel.

I believe this is a good prep strategy? My biggest problem taking the Bar has been anxiety. I have tended to rush through questions-but TOO fast...and I know I've missed fact patterns and nuances in questions. I believe that purposely taking things slower and with a calm state of mind should help?

--fpkjd

My post was a long winded way of saying no matter how hard it was, we are all in the same boat, and it's a scaled test. That means the boat is sinking, there's only enough seats in the lifeboat for people who did the work, and your name is on one of them because you did the work. For somebody else to take your seat you have to royally choke and somebody who DIDN'T do the work got extremely lucky.

The test is formulated by a dozen PhDs to weed out the lucky. Nobody is taking shit from you, if you worked for it, it's yours.

This is not how the Bar Exam works (well at least not how the MBE works). It is an equated test; it is not scaled. Everyone who takes a particular administration could pass or everyone could fail.

Yes, I was generalizing. You don't have to make another fail to pass. However, the analogy is correct as to the overall group. The test IS scaled according to group performance on the equators. How that sausage is made is anyone's guess, however the scale averages around 15 points, and because the majority of test takers are clustered around the cut score, the group scale has an enormous effect on who passes and who doesn't.