Real MBE Scores Forum

[fmrez]

Passed NY - Barbri
Simulated - 114
Actual: 152.6
Finished ~85% of course

[hangingtree]

Course completion: 100%
Barbri simulated: ~160 (raw)
Barbri midterm: ~140 (raw)
Actual MBE: 173
UBE: 322

Also want to say a few words about my Barbri experience. I came here to write a fairly negative review, but after further thought I suppose it clearly did its job. Barbri taught me Evidence, CrimPro, most Real Property, and Secured Transactions. Barbri also taught me most black letter--didn't focus on that in law school.

Yet, Barbri is for the masses, and they're unabashedly only working towards their goal of achieving the highest pass rates. I saw this as I was studying, but see it even more clearly now after receiving my score. Lectures weren't helpful, nor were their material's extraordinarily tricky answer choices. They screwed us on the LLC question because they were too concerned with making sure everyone touches on areas most likely to be covered.

It works, and it worked for me. But Barbri is not optimal. Imagine a bar prep company that would have a candid, 30-minute consultation with you before you begin your prep where you discussed what the bar exam is, how to succeed, what your weaknesses and strengths are, and how committed you are to studying. Then, you would develop a targeted study plan and follow it while always considering whether there is something you need to tweak. The company would always be available to discuss your plan and progress, but you are essentially on your own.

Not everyone would like this, but I studied my ass off for the bar because I didn't want to have to take it again. The most frustrating thing with Barbri is that there is sort of a cap on how well you can do. After like six weeks I was hitting the raw MBE score I seem to have received on the actual MBE. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but I am confident that, instead of covering the exact same subject matter in 10 different MBE questions but with varying misleading answer choices, I could have touched on more material (possibly the LLC stuff or the market share liability nuance) and felt more comfortable spending a lot of time covering the areas of law I was always kind of hazy on (TFB or Crim Pro). Given the time I had and effort I put in, under an optimal program I know I could have gotten 10 or so more points on each part. Instead, 3 weeks of my studying offered no return and I was left with a lot of post-exam anxiety as I only felt confident on 1 of the 6 essays.

I know this seems like a lot of negativity for a very solid score. I don't mean to come off that way. I also see a lot of the arguments against the points I make. Did want to offer my experience and some thoughts though, for the record. Barbri did its job, but it has its limits.

[tfapa]

Barbri: Completed 90% of the program
Barbri Simulated: 145
Refresher: 62
MBE scaled: 146.6


I did more than 3,000 questions studying for the bar exam and practice also the MPT and essays. I practiced questions from different books ( Kaplan, barbri and Emanuel). On the first day of the exam I felt ok about the MPT. The first MPT i am pretty sure that i did well, but the second was not that good. For the essays part I felt horrible, because I left an entire question in blank (didn't right anything because I ran out out time.) When I left the exam I knew that i would have to give my best on the MBE to pass and i tried not to think about the first day.

On the second day when I finished the exam I felt that I did a good test, but didn't feel confident that I would pass. Thanks god I end up passing the bar. My advise to anyone studying for the bar is that just give your best for the two months prior the exam, work hard, practice many questions for the MBE and for the ones you get wrong just right a flash card with the rule. Also, practice the MPTS, it will make you feel more confident to organize yourself on the day of the exam.


Good luck to all bar takers!

[mvp99]

Barbri: Completed 90% of the program
Barbri Simulated: 145
Refresher: 62
MBE scaled: 146.6


I did more than 3,000 questions studying for the bar exam and practice also the MPT and essays. I practiced questions from different books ( Kaplan, barbri and Emanuel). On the first day of the exam I felt ok about the MPT. The first MPT i am pretty sure that i did well, but the second was not that good. For the essays part I felt horrible, because I left an entire question in blank (didn't right anything because I ran out out time.) When I left the exam I knew that i would have to give my best on the MBE to pass and i tried not to think about the first day.

On the second day when I finished the exam I felt that I did a good test, but didn't feel confident that I would pass. Thanks god I end up passing the bar. My advise to anyone studying for the bar is that just give your best for the two months prior the exam, work hard, practice many questions for the MBE and for the ones you get wrong just right a flash card with the rule. Also, practice the MPTS, it will make you feel more confident to organize yourself on the day of the exam.


Good luck to all bar takers!

You must have miss bubbled a few multiple choice q

[lawschoolwoohoo]

Barbri supplemented by adaptibar: completed 90%+ of Barbri, don't remember how much adaptibar I did because I shared it with a friend
Barbri simulated: 132
Barbri refresher: 64 (I think? somewhere between 62 and 68...I really don't remember)
Final MBE: 163

PASSED.

I felt absolutely terrible taking the exam and made myself sick in the weeks leading up to results. I was a complete wreck. I cried in my car between sessions on the essay/MPT day. That said, I am a great multiple choice test taker and have a history of over-performing on multiple choice tests. I still felt terrible about the MBE after I took it, and really was convinced I failed. I think adaptibar really made the difference for me. Barbri was good but I don't think I would have been ready without adaptibar. I am so thankful that I passed.

[Hmasterflex]

Texas Bar - Pass

Prep: Themis - 98%
Simulated MBE: 150
MBE Scaled Score: 155

Finished both MBE sections with a few minutes to review, and I estimated between 150-160 when I finished based on how I felt on test day compared to how I felt with the sim.

[sawyercb]

Texas Bar - passed.

BarBri - 99% complete. Relied exclusively on BarBri because I trusted it after July 2014 exam.
Can't remember simulated MBE, but I was scoring fairly well on practice questions
Actual MBE: 170.8.

First time taker in TX, passed MA in 2014, studied for TX full time while moving, starting a new job, and working full time. It can be done.

I thought BarBri did a terrible job this year of preparing students for the MBE and was shocked that I passed. I was 100% convinced that I failed after the exam - felt like I guessed on the entire PM portion and did ok on the AM portion. (Note - this is very different from my July 2014 experience - I felt very confident and thought BarBri did a great job.) It literally seemed like I had studied for the wrong test, based on the questions BarBri had in its materials. Turns out I was more well prepared for the July 2016 MBE than I thought, but I wish I had supplemented BarBri with other material (like AdaptiBar, Critical Pass, etc.). It would have been nice to not have been completely convinced that I failed for the past few months.

[tx0910]

Texas Bar- passed.

Prep Course: Barbri
Simulated MBE: 108
Exam MBE: 142.9
Overall Score: 747

I also used Strategies and Tactics book for the MBE.

[fly_lawy3r]

-Completed 100% of Barbri
-Also used CriticalPass cards and Emanuel's Strategies & Tactics
-Barbri Simulated: 126
-Barbri Refresher: 68
-Generally was scoring 65-70% on my MBE practice questions toward the end
-Final MBE: 166.5
-Passed in Texas
-Couldn't decide how I felt about MBE after taking it; thought I could have scored anywhere between 120 and 160. Finished AM and PM sessions with ~15 minutes to review my answers. Thought Barbri focused entirely too much on the MBE and not enough on the essays.

[texas1100]

130 Simulated.
72/100 final.
169 Scaled

Passed

Buy Emmanuels

[Nebby]

Did 98% of Themis
Simulated MBE: 148/200 (taken 3 weeks before exam)
MBE score: Passed (IL doesn't give score unless you fail)

[lawstoodent]

Passed in DC. Took Barbri and supplemented with Critical Pass, Adaptibar and LeanSheets.

Barbri Simulated MBE: 138
Barbri Refresher: 64
Actual MBE: 151.9
Writing: 165.7
Total: 318

This was an incredibly difficult exam. Had I only done Barbri , I probably would have felt incredibly unprepared. However, I wouldn't necessarily hang my hat on any, or all, of the above supplements. After the MEE, I felt I had failed for sure . I recall going home that night after the first day and crying. I did not prepare nearly as much as I probably should have for the MEE. The Barbri program is so MBE-heavy (and for good reason), and I had anticipated completely different MEE topics based on predictions (DON'T FOLLOW PREDICTIONS), but do not neglect the MEE/MPT.

In large part, the bar exam is a psychological game. Make sure you do everything to feel confident going in to the exam because that can matter as much as your preparation.

[ArtistOfManliness]

Passed in DC. Took Barbri

Barbri Simulated MBE: 145-ish
Barbri Refresher: 75
Actual MBE: 180
Writing: 160
Total: 340

[Learning9]

Texas Bar - Passed

Barbri simulated - 115
Barbri refresher - 58
Actual MBE - 145

Completed 84% of Barbri. Did not use any other sources. For third day Texas essays, I created a word document and started putting in answers for every essay asked in previous exams. The book Barbri gives with all the essay questions going back to 2003, I finished that entire book and covered July 2015 and Feb. 2016 from BLE site. BLE repeats questions and if you finish that book, you'll see patterns. The only essay that surprised me during the actual bar exam was bankruptcy. Same with P&E. I simply did all the questions from previous exams.

Felt like I failed the MBE after exam. Guessed on tons of questions. My total score was 768 so it looks like I did really well on the first and third day since my MBE was ok.

[john_brown]

New York Bar - Passed

Barbri simulated - 118
Barbri refresher: 60-ish
Actual MBE - 155.6
Total Score: 295

I passed, but not by a mile and only after months of feeling convinced that I had failed. In retrospect, I did not take the bar seriously enough. For the first month or so I did the bare minimum: a few hours a day watching the lecture and doing a few practice questions. I never did a practice essay or MPT. I was generally .500 or so in the practice questions, but I didn't do nearly enough of them. At some point in early July, I realized the enormity of my situation and kicked into gear. I basically started from scratch, focusing on the MBE subjects and omitted some essay subjects entirely (hello secured transactions!). The last few weeks were some of the worst of my life.

Anyway, test day #1 rolls around and I feel nowhere near prepared. This apparently is a common experience but it was particularly acute in my case. The MPT was fine -- if, like me, you did well in legal writing, you probably won't have much difficulty with it. You should probably do a few practice runs, but I wouldn't say it's essential. The essays, however, were a completely different story. For about half of them, I had perhaps the two or three sentences' worth of knowledge on the subject. The rest was BS. For the others, I was shaky at best. I felt confident with only one of my answers. I left the exam site that day in complete despair.

The next day wasn't much better. Although I could reduce most of them to two answer choices, I felt that I was guessing on far too many. The property, contracts and civil procedure questions in particular did not resemble the practice questions. There were wildcard topics in every subject that never came up in the Barbri lectures, handouts or mini-review. By the end of the MBE, I thought I had improved from the previous day but possibly not by enough to pass. And that's how I felt until last week: passing was at best a 50/50 proposition. And if I did fail, what then?

It turned out that I was prepared enough to pass, but not enough to *feel* that I had passed. That is a crucial difference you probably won't appreciate until after the exam. But trust me: the hopeless what-ifs can drive you crazy until results day.

My advice is this: take it seriously. It doesn't have to consume your life, but treat completing the program like your job. Don't neglect the essay subjects, and certainly don't buy into any internet wisdom about which subjects are and are not likely to appear on your exam. Do as many practice questions as you can and, when you get them wrong, focus on the explanation as much as the correct answer. Figure out what trap you fell into so that you will recognize it on the exam. Figure out your weaknesses early and address them. If you wait until July, it may not be too late but it will certainly suck for you.

Good luck.

[Zero99]

Passed MA with Themis
MBE Practice- 160/200
MBE scaled- 173

[illusion1024]

Passed non-UBE jurisdiction that does not release essay scores, and still waiting on a second jurisdiction:

BarBri Simulated: 184
BarBri Refresher: 92
Actual MBE: 183

Passed MA also:

BarBri
Simulated: 184
Refresher: 92
Actual MBE: 183
Essay: 176

[Avian]

Passed New York with a 315.

Barbri Simulated: 137
Barbri Refresher: 71
Actual MBE: 160.6

Completed 100% of Barbri, but only outlined the essays past about the 70% mark.

I actually felt fine about the MBE on test day. A lot of people seemed to think it was harder than the Barbri questions, but I thought it was about the same level of difficulty. In some subjects they didn't cover the same topics as heavily as Barbri, but I felt pretty much everything was in the outline except for a couple totally random questions. Given that Barbri's estimates of what will be tested have been shown to be unreliable, insomuch as you have time, I would advise to simply study everything in the outline and not skip things just because Barbri says they're only going to make up a few questions on the test. I finished about 50 minutes early for both 100 question sections as I had been doing in practice.

[squiggle]

If you've received your July 2016 scores, please consider posting both your real and practice MBE scores here.

Please indicate
-which bar prep company's practice test you took and any practice test score,
-real MBE score,
-how you felt post-MBE,
-the state you took, and
-anything else you think is notable

If you're a UBE taker, feel free to also post your overall UBE score here too. If you'd prefer to keep your scores/state private, you can DM them to me and I can post them.

Last year, someone created a google doc with people's real and practice MBE scores. Seeing real v. practice MBE score is great for both future takers and those patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for their own July 16 results.

Here's the google doc from last year: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

Here's the 2015 thread: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9&start=50

Now that result season is upon us, maybe those who now have results can share the above info? Anything you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated!

[jtp191]

Bump

[andersonxc13]

Bump

Passed Florida, but not because of my MBE. Failed the MBE by one point but passed overall.

FL Part: 153
MBE: 135
Barbri Simulated: 122

I was averaging around a 55%-65% on the questions. This was my second time taking the bar exam.

The first time I had a 98 on Barbri simulated and my exam score was a 130 on the MBE.

[jtp191]

Bump

Passed Florida, but not because of my MBE. Failed the MBE by one point but passed overall.

FL Part: 153
MBE: 135
Barbri Simulated: 122

I was averaging around a 55%-65% on the questions. This was my second time taking the bar exam.

The first time I had a 98 on Barbri simulated and my exam score was a 130 on the MBE.

Glad to hear! I'm a re-taker myself waiting on results from Mass and RI scoring anywhere between 60-70% on Adaptibar, but I'm not sure how that would translate with 25 getting tossed.

[squiggle]

Congrats to everyone who passed the NY bar! Please share:

-which bar prep company's practice test you took and any practice test score,
-real MBE score,
-how you felt post-MBE,
-the state you took, and
-anything else you think is notable

[cnk1220]

Congrats to everyone who passed the NY bar! Please share:

-which bar prep company's practice test you took and any practice test score,
-real MBE score,
-how you felt post-MBE,
-the state you took, and
-anything else you think is notable

-barbri plus adaptibar, plus i bought lean sheets, barbri simulated was 133
-real mbe was 150
-felt awful
-took NY
-first time taker, studied for about 3 months full-time, used jd advising's mee one sheets for the MEE materials since I didn't take many of the MEE classes in law school.

[bar_is_killing_me]

Congrats to everyone who passed the NY bar! Please share:

-which bar prep company's practice test you took and any practice test score,
-real MBE score,
-how you felt post-MBE,
-the state you took, and
-anything else you think is notable

-Kaplan 133 Midterm, Themis - there was a 200 set practice test, of which, I got 127 correct
-143 MBE
-As a repeat taker, I felt better particularly with the MBE. I just felt like there were less questions I had to guess between two choices.
-NY
-I had 6 weeks to study for F2016 and failed by 5 points (old test format). MBE 138. I used Adaptibar and Kaplan and used condensed Kaplan outlines. I retook it for J2016 but I worked full-time and did not take any days off. I tried studying at night and thought I could retain enough from my previous studies. I used the same materials but it did not work. MBE 128. I still worked full-time and studied a little in the evenings beginning in January for F2017. I was able to take off 3 weeks from work to study. I skipped Adaptibar and wanted something more difficult in terms of practice questions. I stuck with Kaplan since I did not complete all the available practice questions and also did about 300 Themis questions which I found very difficult and helpful. I also used Critical Pass FlashCards to refresh my memory and updated my outlines. I did about 1300 practice questions in those three weeks and was woefully unprepared for the MEE but somehow did enough in a one week span. For those who are interested and can study full-time, you need really solid outlines. Don't waste time with video lectures. Read your outlines/flashcards, do MBE questions, review every questions - right or wrong, write down the issue and rule for the questions you missed, review that list, then repeat. Save yourself about 3 weeks for the MEE/MPT.