*JULY 2015-- OHIO EXAM* Forum

[3LOL]

Anyone else from Ohio feeling that they absolutely failed? I failed to study 3 subjects (Secured Transactions, Agency and Partnership, Commercial Law) and feel DOOMED. Although I cannot remember every essay subject that was tested (I pretty much blacked out all 3 days) I am quite sure that I remember feeling like crap after half of them.

Anyone from OH care to share their study schedule (be real) and thoughts about the test in general??

[SophieLou]

I've basically cried every day for the past two weeks just thinking about results coming out tomorrow.

I used Themis but because I worked full-time while studying, I started early around the second or third week of April. While I studied for all of the subjects, I felt that some of the essays questions were from left field. That civ pro essay- seriously?!? I was really putting a lot of eggs in the "do really well on the essays to make up for the MBE" basket as I consistently struggled with the MBE but was getting very good scores on my practice essays. Not sure it's going to work out that way... 17 hours, 26 minutes and counting

[charlesxavier]

Anyone else from Ohio feeling that they absolutely failed? I failed to study 3 subjects (Secured Transactions, Agency and Partnership, Commercial Law) and feel DOOMED. Although I cannot remember every essay subject that was tested (I pretty much blacked out all 3 days) I am quite sure that I remember feeling like crap after half of them.

Anyone from OH care to share their study schedule (be real) and thoughts about the test in general??

If I remember correctly, they tested secured transactions and agency on the essays.

I left feeling okay. It's not like I felt great but at the same time I didn't feel like I underprepared. Morning MBE felt like crap but similar to how I felt doing practice questions. I did Barbri and completed over 75%. I probably did 6-8 hours M-F throughout the whole process and a few hours on the weekend. I focused on the MBE through early July and then really focused more on essays after that. I used the model answers provided by the state to make sure I knew what they were looking for. To me, it seemed like two of the essays were almost identical to those given a few years ago. I'm nervous about the results but I haven't truly thought that I failed, if that makes sense. It's not like in high school where I left a test knowing that I had no idea what I was talking about and prayed that my teacher didn't realize that.

[charlesxavier]

I've basically cried every day for the past two weeks just thinking about results coming out tomorrow.

I used Themis but because I worked full-time while studying, I started early around the second or third week of April. While I studied for all of the subjects, I felt that some of the essays questions were from left field. That civ pro essay- seriously?!? I was really putting a lot of eggs in the "do really well on the essays to make up for the MBE" basket as I consistently struggled with the MBE but was getting very good scores on my practice essays. Not sure it's going to work out that way... 17 hours, 26 minutes and counting

Maybe it was exhaustion but the essay I struggled with the most was the last one (professional responsibility). I just had so little to say for 2 of the sub-questions.

[Ohiobumpkin]

Thankfully I have been able to be pretty zen about the whole thing. I have a job that does not require a Bar license, but I want my Bar license so I can get a better job.

I think everyone I spoke to said the Civ Pro essay this past July was crazy, and I definitely agree with them. The curve on that essay should be pretty forgiving.

As to study schedule, I took Themis and started it a week after the recommended start date. My study schedule/tactics was so:

- 4-5 hours the first three weeks
- 6-8 the next few weeks
- last two weeks 10+ hours a day
- I only did three graded essays
- did about 50% of the MBE practice questions
- watched all the lectures and filled out the outlines on normal speed
- never completed a whole MPT, but I did read instructions and prompt and outlined answers to 4-5 practice MPTs
- completed upwards of 70% of the practice essays and read the model answers to any that I didn't do
- Made flash cards for the most dense subjects or trouble spots (contracts+UCC, property, crim law/procedure)
- Read the outlines for only the distinctions.

Good luck to everyone. This terrible wait will be done one way or the other in just a few hours.

[SophieLou]

[quote="charlesxavier"][quote="3LOL"]
If I remember correctly, they tested secured transactions and agency on the essays.quote]

Our essays were:

Day 1:
Torts
Evidence
Con Law
Civ Pro
Crim Pro
Contracts

Day 2:
Agency
Con Law
Secured Transactions
Wills
Property
PR

[charlesxavier]

Honestly, I can't even remember the Civ Pro essay. I probably blocked it out. Going into the bar the Civ Pro essays were giving me the most trouble. I looked through all of the past essays and it seemed like it was either going to be a basic jurisdiction question or some obscure procedural one. IIRC, it was the latter.

Also, there were a few that I had trouble formatting neatly. I felt like the first con law and crim pro were messy. However, contracts, wills, secured trans, and property seemed to focus on the "big ticket" items, which was nice.

[cmc_jd]

I was feeling pretty good leading up to this week. But now after being reminded of some of the essays I am feeling less and less confident. Just ready for this to be over.

[cmc_jd]

Here was my study schedule. Many of you may think that it was a little extreme but hey, I was motivated by fear. I'd rather go crazy studying once than have to retake this thing again.

I did Barbri. I started Barbri on the recommended start date and stuck to the schedule. I completed 100% of Barbri. When I was given extra homework on a particular subject, I did the extra assignments and whatever else was assigned for the day. I did every single practice essay that was assigned. I did not outline the essays even if Barbri told me to outline. I wrote every single one out in its entirety. I think I counted over 50 practice essays completed. I also did over 10 MPT's. Yeah it may sound extreme but I was having a hard time finishing some of the MPT's on time. One time, I absolutely could not finish an MPT so I sat down at my desk and did 5 of them back-to-back until I could finish with time to spare. Like I said, it may sound extreme but this is what worked for me. And it worked because the day of MPT's on the bar I was able to finish both with at least a couple minutes to proofread for typos. My barbri MBE scores were average. I always scored at the recommended score or slightly above. Never good enough to completely give up doing the practice MBE's so i practiced up until the day of the exam. On the Barbri Midterm I scored a 126/200.

2 weeks before the exam I hand wrote flashcards for every single subject. A week before the exam I had every flash card memorized. I continued to test myself via flash cards while still completing the daily barbri assignments.

Those 10 weeks were hell and although I lived in the same house with my husband and daughter I never saw them. I watched every single barbri lecture no matter how worthless i thought they were. I was determined to walk into the test knowing that there was absolutely nothing else I could have done to prepare for the exam.

Despite all of that work the exam was hard for me. I felt really really good about the MPT's. The first day of essays I also felt good. I was shaken up by the crim pro essay the first day. I spoke to many people who felt the same about that essay.

The MBE is the MBE. Who the hell knows how I did on that. I do not feel as if the Barbri MBE's were representative of the real thing. I can name 10 questions I was 100% confident on. The rest came down to two possible choices and knowing me, I chose the wrong one of the two. The AM portion was more difficult for me than the PM portion. On the AM portion I had a string of D's (yes I know there are different versions of the exam).

The last day is why I feel so horrible. The agency question was a shit show. I spent probably 10 minutes trying to figure out what they were testing. Agency?? No wait was it commercial? no wait this is contracts?!? Okay eff it- im doing agency. This was my thought process.

I was so flustered from the agency question that i majorly bombed the con law one. Why tf are you asking me about equal protection when clearly due process would be the better route? I bombed that one.

I was fine on the rest until Professional Responsibility. Literally had two sentences--- wtf else could i say?

Either way by this time tomorrow i will be incoherent.

[3LOL]

I only wish that MPT was weighted more..... pretty much the only part that I felt confident about.

[3LOL]

Here was my study schedule. Many of you may think that it was a little extreme but hey, I was motivated by fear. I'd rather go crazy studying once than have to retake this thing again.

I did Barbri. I started Barbri on the recommended start date and stuck to the schedule. I completed 100% of Barbri. When I was given extra homework on a particular subject, I did the extra assignments and whatever else was assigned for the day. I did every single practice essay that was assigned. I did not outline the essays even if Barbri told me to outline. I wrote every single one out in its entirety. I think I counted over 50 practice essays completed. I also did over 10 MPT's. Yeah it may sound extreme but I was having a hard time finishing some of the MPT's on time. One time, I absolutely could not finish an MPT so I sat down at my desk and did 5 of them back-to-back until I could finish with time to spare. Like I said, it may sound extreme but this is what worked for me. And it worked because the day of MPT's on the bar I was able to finish both with at least a couple minutes to proofread for typos. My barbri MBE scores were average. I always scored at the recommended score or slightly above. Never good enough to completely give up doing the practice MBE's so i practiced up until the day of the exam. On the Barbri Midterm I scored a 126/200.

2 weeks before the exam I hand wrote flashcards for every single subject. A week before the exam I had every flash card memorized. I continued to test myself via flash cards while still completing the daily barbri assignments.

Those 10 weeks were hell and although I lived in the same house with my husband and daughter I never saw them. I watched every single barbri lecture no matter how worthless i thought they were. I was determined to walk into the test knowing that there was absolutely nothing else I could have done to prepare for the exam.

Despite all of that work the exam was hard for me. I felt really really good about the MPT's. The first day of essays I also felt good. I was shaken up by the crim pro essay the first day. I spoke to many people who felt the same about that essay.

The MBE is the MBE. Who the hell knows how I did on that. I do not feel as if the Barbri MBE's were representative of the real thing. I can name 10 questions I was 100% confident on. The rest came down to two possible choices and knowing me, I chose the wrong one of the two. The AM portion was more difficult for me than the PM portion. On the AM portion I had a string of D's (yes I know there are different versions of the exam).

The last day is why I feel so horrible. The agency question was a shit show. I spent probably 10 minutes trying to figure out what they were testing. Agency?? No wait was it commercial? no wait this is contracts?!? Okay eff it- im doing agency. This was my thought process.

I was so flustered from the agency question that i majorly bombed the con law one. Why tf are you asking me about equal protection when clearly due process would be the better route? I bombed that one.

I was fine on the rest until Professional Responsibility. Literally had two sentences--- wtf else could i say?

Either way by this time tomorrow i will be incoherent.

Your experience day 1 through 3 mimics mine to a tee. Felt great day one with the exception of one essay... who knows on day two... and day three felt like crap (while also feeling amazing due to the fact that it was finally OVER).

[charlesxavier]

Here was my study schedule. Many of you may think that it was a little extreme but hey, I was motivated by fear. I'd rather go crazy studying once than have to retake this thing again.

I did Barbri. I started Barbri on the recommended start date and stuck to the schedule. I completed 100% of Barbri. When I was given extra homework on a particular subject, I did the extra assignments and whatever else was assigned for the day. I did every single practice essay that was assigned. I did not outline the essays even if Barbri told me to outline. I wrote every single one out in its entirety. I think I counted over 50 practice essays completed. I also did over 10 MPT's. Yeah it may sound extreme but I was having a hard time finishing some of the MPT's on time. One time, I absolutely could not finish an MPT so I sat down at my desk and did 5 of them back-to-back until I could finish with time to spare. Like I said, it may sound extreme but this is what worked for me. And it worked because the day of MPT's on the bar I was able to finish both with at least a couple minutes to proofread for typos. My barbri MBE scores were average. I always scored at the recommended score or slightly above. Never good enough to completely give up doing the practice MBE's so i practiced up until the day of the exam. On the Barbri Midterm I scored a 126/200.

2 weeks before the exam I hand wrote flashcards for every single subject. A week before the exam I had every flash card memorized. I continued to test myself via flash cards while still completing the daily barbri assignments.

Those 10 weeks were hell and although I lived in the same house with my husband and daughter I never saw them. I watched every single barbri lecture no matter how worthless i thought they were. I was determined to walk into the test knowing that there was absolutely nothing else I could have done to prepare for the exam.

Despite all of that work the exam was hard for me. I felt really really good about the MPT's. The first day of essays I also felt good. I was shaken up by the crim pro essay the first day. I spoke to many people who felt the same about that essay.

The MBE is the MBE. Who the hell knows how I did on that. I do not feel as if the Barbri MBE's were representative of the real thing. I can name 10 questions I was 100% confident on. The rest came down to two possible choices and knowing me, I chose the wrong one of the two. The AM portion was more difficult for me than the PM portion. On the AM portion I had a string of D's (yes I know there are different versions of the exam).

The last day is why I feel so horrible. The agency question was a shit show. I spent probably 10 minutes trying to figure out what they were testing. Agency?? No wait was it commercial? no wait this is contracts?!? Okay eff it- im doing agency. This was my thought process.

I was so flustered from the agency question that i majorly bombed the con law one. Why tf are you asking me about equal protection when clearly due process would be the better route? I bombed that one.

I was fine on the rest until Professional Responsibility. Literally had two sentences--- wtf else could i say?

Either way by this time tomorrow i will be incoherent.

Since you did so many practice essays did you notice that a few of them were VERY similar to past questions? Honestly, I think half of the property essay was testing the same rule as the property essay that barbri graded? Secured transactions also seemed similar to an essay from 2-3 years ago. Anyways, PR definitely left me feeling bad. I wrote a decent amount for part one but I could only write a few sentences for the other questions. There wasn't much to work with.

[cmc_jd]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

[3LOL]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

I cannot remember the first essay question for the life of me but feel like I may have been one of the people who thought it was a property essay. This test is messing with my head!

[Ohiobumpkin]

At least none of you had a brain fail and talked about due process instead of equal protection as was asked for in the second con law question. Oh well, at least I feel confident about the free speech con law question went well.

[charlesxavier]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

Wow. It took me a second to figure out the first essay. I was expecting it to be a little more straightforward but I got it. My biggest issue was making sure I followed the directions on the torts essay. I think it said something like "Do Not Discuss X or Y" and I wanted to make sure I hit everything without crossing that line. That's a bummer about the agency one. I felt like I was rushing to get through all of the subquestions and I definitely would have run out of time if I started writing anything about secured transactions. I didn't enjoy the questions with 6-7 parts where I feel like there is a lot of repetitive issues or saying "As discussed above..." over and over again.

[cmc_jd]

Oh trust me-- I did more due process on that question than equal protection. That is why i feel so horrible about it. I was so shaken up after agency that I just couldn't focus on that second con law one. I literally could not think straight.

[cmc_jd]

Yeah thankfully I did not talk about secured for the agency question. I got through all of the subparts too but I just remember it being hell.

[charlesxavier]

At least none of you had a brain fail and talked about due process instead of equal protection as was asked for in the second con law question. Oh well, at least I feel confident about the free speech con law question went well.

Man, I hated that first con law question. I felt like it was really vague (like a lot of the past con law essays). I think I discussed/analyzed well but it seemed like you could argue almost anything for parts of that essay. It reminded me a lot more of law school essays than bar exam essays.

[SophieLou]

At least none of you had a brain fail and talked about due process instead of equal protection as was asked for in the second con law question. Oh well, at least I feel confident about the free speech con law question went well.

No worries- I answered the agency question as a commercial paper question- did this huge analysis about a holder in due course yadda yadda. With about 10 minutes left I thought, "Maybe this isn't commercial paper?" Too late anyway. Then, the next set of questions had a secured transaction question and I lost it. Could barely concentrate on the rest of the test.

[SophieLou]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

I also had a few friends who did property instead of torts for the first essay

[3LOL]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

I also had a few friends who did property instead of torts for the first essay

what was the scenario of the first (torts) question?? I want to say I vaguely remember landlord/tenant?

[charlesxavier]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

I also had a few friends who did property instead of torts for the first essay

what was the scenario of the first (torts) question?? I want to say I vaguely remember landlord/tenant?

Basically. I don't think we can go into much detail on here about specific questions, though. The fact pattern incorporated property law issues and torts elements but the questions focused on torts (or at least attempted to). If I remember correctly the question was very broad but then said to not discuss certain issues.

[barpanic]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

Wait, you actually know a bar exam grader? Tell us more! (For instance: if half of the people bomb a particular question, like agency or civ pro, do they somehow accommodate that when scoring?)

[barpanic]

The property question and the secured question were both very similar to a couple of the practice essays. I was pretty happy about secured (i really wanted them to test commercial) and I remember being very happy about the property question. I know a few friends who mistakenly thought that the first essay (torts) was a property essay instead. Many people didn't have a lot of time left after realizing their mistake. I was actually just speaking to the person who graded the agency question and she said that more than half of the essays she graded were all written about secured transactions instead of agency. That gave me some hope that I did not completely bomb that question

Wow. It took me a second to figure out the first essay. I was expecting it to be a little more straightforward but I got it. My biggest issue was making sure I followed the directions on the torts essay. I think it said something like "Do Not Discuss X or Y" and I wanted to make sure I hit everything without crossing that line. That's a bummer about the agency one. I felt like I was rushing to get through all of the subquestions and I definitely would have run out of time if I started writing anything about secured transactions. I didn't enjoy the questions with 6-7 parts where I feel like there is a lot of repetitive issues or saying "As discussed above..." over and over again.

Agreed on the agency question (i.e. asking the same thing over and over). Made me feel like I was missing something. Helps to know that others experienced the same thing.