Tag Archives: Bar examination

Tips & Advice for the Bar Exam

30 Nov

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Bar Exam Passage Rates (July 2015 and July 2016)

19 Nov
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July 2016 Results Compared to July 2013

The following Statistics are Comparing July 2016 to July 2015

Alabama (58.4% – down 1.6%)
Alaska (45% – down 15%)
Arizona (53% – down 4%)
Arkansas (Unknown)
California (43% – down 3%)
Colorado (73% – up 1%)
Connecticut (69% – down 6%)
Delaware (66% – Same)
DC (62% – up 18%)
Florida (68.2% – up 6.2%)
Georgia (65.8% – down 2.2%)
Hawaii (Unknown)
Idaho (72.5% – up 4.2%)
Illinois (72% – Fall 0f 4%)
Indiana (61% – down 13%)
Iowa (71% – down 15%)
Kansas (78% – up 3%)
Kentucky (65% – down 6%)
Louisiana (64.9% – up 3.1%)
Maine (Unknown)
Maryland (63% – Same)
Massachusetts (70.8% – down 1%)
Michigan (Unknown)
Minnesota (73.22% – down 4.3%)
Mississippi (Unknown)
Missouri (79.4% – down 4.6%)
Montana (77% – up 15%)
Nebraska (Unknown)
Nevada (51% – down 9%)
New Hampshire (Unknown)
New Jersey (65.35% – down 5.3%)
New Mexico (62% – down 8%)
New York (64% – up 3%)
North Carolina (Unknown, but believed to have dropped)
North Dakota (63% – Fall of 9%)
Ohio (70.4% – down 4%)
Oklahoma (68% – Same)
Oregon (58% – down 2%)
Pennsylvania (69% – down 2%)
Rhode Island (63% – down 1%)
South Carolina (Unknown)
South Dakota (Unknown)
Tennessee (63% – down 1%)
Texas (70.45% – up 4%)
Utah (Unknown)
Vermont (66% – up 13.6%)
Virginia (73% – up 2%)
Washington (70% – down 6%)
West Virginia (71% – up 2%)
Wisconsin (Unknown)
Wyoming (Unknown)

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July 2014 Results compared to July 2013

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July 2015 Results Compared to July 2014

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July 2016 Results Compared to July 2015

 

 

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Georgia Bar Examination – Reported Students Failed, but they Actually Passed (2015-2016)

9 Sep

Just found this on Georgia’s Bar Examination website.  According to their report, “errors” were made when grading the February 2016 and July 2015 bar examinations.  90 people were told that they had failed, when in fact they actually passed the exam!

OMG! 

I cannot imagine how I would feel if I got a copy of their letter in the mail.  What do you think would outweigh the others? – Anger? Excitement? Annoyance?  Lawsuit-waiting-to-Happen?

Talk about infliction of emotional distress – maybe not intentional, but still. That’s a pretty HUGE error.  Gross Negligence if nothing else.  Their offering is that they will reimburse those people for any expenses they paid for taking the bar again since then.  But what about lost income? Lost time? What about the fees of the screwed-up bar exam?That seems like it’s going a bit under for reimbursement. I fully expect there will be arguments over that, what do y’all think?

Y’all can read the full report here.  But this is the letter they are sending out:

“September 6, 2016

The Board of Bar Examiners has determined that you are one of 90 people who passed the Georgia Bar examinations administered in July 2015 or February 2016, despite prior notification that you had failed to pass. As Board members, we take full responsibility for these errors and offer our sincerest apologies to you.

Having taken the Bar examination ourselves, we recognize the distress that this mistake has caused you. As members of the Board, we are charged with upholding the integrity of the Bar examination.

We have conducted a thorough investigation and have confirmed the causes of the errors in the scoring process.  Those have been corrected and we are establishing procedures to ensure we will not make the same errors going forward. Credibility is our certification system’s greatest asset and we must restore the public trust.

The Board is prepared to reimburse you for fees associated with any subsequent exams taken as specified in the letter you have received from the Office of Bar Admissions, although we know your investment of time and effort greatly outweighs the additional cost of the examination.

Again, we offer our most sincere apology.

Sincerely,
John Sammon
Chair, Board of Bar Examiners”

How would you feel about this situation:

A. Relief

B. Fear that it will Happen to Your Score

C. Excitement

D. Anger

E. No Big Deal – It Can Happen to the Best Bar Examiners.

Let me know in the comments below!

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Bar Exam: MEE Review

26 Feb

MEE (9:00-12:00 & 1:30-4:45) on Day 3

Meh, mixed reviews here people.  

It started out the same way as before, they read us the rules and handed out the tests.  You had to have the white card especially today, since the NCBE # and your Applicant # had to go on the bubble answer sheets. We filled that out, and the process started.

You’re given 100 questions for both 3 hour tests, resulting in 200 questions over all. They are all multiple choice, and covered Property, Evidence, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Contracts, and Torts.  They were fairly well divided, although I though a lot of the questions were repeats of subjects (you know, repeat the same question in a different format?).  I think I did better on this portion.

The worst part was the tediousness–by question 80, I was bored out of my mind with those types of questions.  Reading the answers and questions over and over, you fall into a rut. Some people worked until the very end, but everyone in my row and the rows in front of me were done well ahead of time.  I finished 20 minutes ahead of time for the first portion and 30 minutes ahead of time for the second portion. Of course, I never gave it a second run-through.  I hate second guessing myself, I generally second guess wrong.  😛  I gave it my best shot the first time and then sat and tried to cool down.  

Best Method of Answering

Follow Barbri’s recommended method. Read the answers first, mark the ones you know are wrong. Next read the call of the question, can you check off anything else? Finally read through the facts.   The hardest part is falling into a rut and moving too quickly when you realize time is disappearing. It can be easy to start moving faster and missing things when you have this many questions. I try to stop and take a 1 minute break every hour. Sit back, breathe, and re-focus your mind, then tackle the next 34 questions.  

Ease Measure: Medium

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Bar Exam: MBE Review

25 Feb

MBE (1:30-4:45) on Day 2

Okay. . . this was MUCH worse than I had hoped.  We had one hour for lunch and then we went through the same intro process again.  FYI, to go to the restroom, you have to raise your hand, hide your test in Examsoft, put your files at the front, and go one at a time. Once again they give you all of the questions at once for the exam. All together you have 3 hours to do 6 essay questions.  They can cover any number of topics; the list is fairly broad. I was a little upset on this one–it seemed like almost everything showed up.  It seemed like most of the questions were on obscure subjects from the law.  Not my favorite exam; I definitely was prepared less for this than for the MPT.

I’ll go on the record with saying that I was unaware of the answer to the first 4 essays at all. I had to get to Question 5 before I recognized anything.  But it wasn’t that bad. If you read through the questions and think about what problem they are suggesting arises, you’ll hit quite a few points even if you lack the law. Think back to the original principles!

Best Method of Answering

Read all the questions (not the facts), and guess where the essay is going to fall. Then approach your best ones with 30 minutes each. Then hit up the harder ones with 20 minutes each. This leaves you time at the end to pick and choose which ones to flesh out. Honestly, you write a lot less than  you think from the practice exams. The questions are 1-1 & 1/2 pages, so reading can take a while.  Don’t bother with code sections; just run with what you have. If you don’t know the answer, go with common sense.  WATCH YOUR TIME

Ease Measure: Very Difficult

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Bar Exam: MPT Review

25 Feb

MPT (9:00-12:10) on Day 2

Definitely not as bad as I was afraid of.  We arrived for the morning section and filled out the little signature cards. The room opened at 8:30 for those with laptops, so I went ahead and set up.  They gave out the instructions and began; don’t forget that by the time they finish instructions, you will be starting a little late.

The MPT rules explain the many different ways that the exam can be structured; however there is a general format. Traditionally, there will be two parts–the file and the library. The file has the facts; the Library has the law.  This is just a test on your writing skills; can you write an intelligent, well-thought response to the question. The questions come in many forms, and often a rarer form is thrown in to trip you up.  But it seems from the state’s list of “percentage likelihood that something shows up” information that some form of brief or memorandum are the most common.  The law can contain cases or code sections; often one of each. Each document has something worth noticing.  The facts will have a short summary with the question, followed by supporting documents.

One came with instructions on the layout of the test, but the other did not. In general, I’d say remember to always add the To, From, Date, RE section.  DON’T FORGET THAT YOU DO NOT USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW.  Any statutes will be provided; it is set in a fake jurisdiction.

Best Method of Answering

My recommendation is to start with the law.  Type it up verbatim on your computer along with citations.  Then read the call of the questions. Lay out the law out in the pattern of the issues raised in the questions.  Then fill it in with facts as you read about them. Save 5 minutes for smoothing out the sentences.

Easy Measure: Very Easy

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Bar Exam Review: Orientation

24 Feb

Woot! Day 1 of the Bar Exam is officially over!

As most of you already know, I’m taking the Iowa Bar Exam. It’s officially scheduled for the 24th through the 26th, but day one is just orientation. They required that we arrive by 12:45, and then orientation started at 1:00.  I kind of expected more of a meet & greet, but it was actually just rules and regulations.

I arrived a little early, and there was a lovely group of girls waiting around. We all chatted about the exam and our strengths/weaknesses. Amusingly, we were all dreading the essays, but on different subjects. I freely admit that BA is worrying me a bit. I rock at contracts, but BA is a little weaker right now.  Still, rumor has it that Family Law is the most common arrival, so I’ll be preparing extra for that one in review tonight. 

Upon entering the room, it was pretty packed. Apparently there is enough space for us all to be together taking the MBE, but I think it’ll be around 80-120 students?  I’m kind of a bad judge on that stuff.  

Upon arrival, they went through three different speakers. Two were mostly motivational speakers; telling us to eat and quit stressing. They only took up about 15 minutes. The third went over all of the rules–what to bring (pencils, highlighter, wallet); what not to bring (anything electronic; bags; purses; hoodies; mechanical pencils); when to arrive (30 minutes for laptopers; 15 for handwritten exams).  That took another 20 minutes, and really covered the material in the pamphlet sent to us in the mail.  Funny how they trust us to pass an exam, but not to read the directions.  

The worst & most tedious was registration.  They went row by row, and I was at the back, so I waiting another 30 minutes. You had to have 2 forms of identification, including one with a picture.  They handed each of us a small white post-card with a number on it. That is our ticket; required for each exam.  Apparently, tomorrow we’ll have to sign another card upon arrival and bring both into the room with us.

That really was the end. All in all, it took an hour and was pretty boring.  Still nice to meet people! Saw some from Florida and Minnesota getting their second bar licenses, and some 10 year grads just getting their first. 

 

 

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Bar Exam Arrival

24 Feb

Lafayette I am here!  I was a little worried about getting here in the first place, with all the snow that keeps dropping on us. I’m getting a little tired of promises for no snow and sunny skies, then 6 inches in a neat pile 😛  Anyway, we got a pretty strongly worded warning this past week about anyone who fails to arrive on the basis of weather excuses. Apparently if you miss due to weather, they “will in fact be reporting your absence to any other bar you attempt to take, and it will have negative connotations.”  I kid you not. . . They’re just lucky no one died trying to drive in dangerous conditions just to save their career. Surely there is liability somewhere in there?

Anyway, we arrived safely!  Apparently that was a godsend, since I found out where I arrived that the vehicle was “unfit” for driving!  Talk about a stressor; the mechanics failed to tighten the lug nuts last time they rotated the tires and it ruined 4 tires, a rim, and the sensor.  Not the happiest of moments 🙂 The wheels are so bad, that the new mechanic said it was technically illegal to drive on them.  Who knew there was a law about that?  This doesn’t bode well for the test! 😛

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Map of States Requiring Standardized Law Tests

10 Dec

The NCBEX offers the map of the US states and territories that use the NCBE exams. These include the MPRE, MBE, MPT, and MEE.  You can see which of these tests are used in which locations. Kind of helpful when choosing which state to bar into.

 

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