Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread Forum

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(Be Honest) What are your thoughts about the Florida portion and MBE portion?

Poll ended at Fri Sep 15, 2017 1:25 pm

Florida and MBE: Much harder than expected.
3
19%
Florida and MBE: Somewhat harder than expected.
3
19%
Florida & MBE : It was about what I expected.
3
19%
Florida: Much harder than expected;MBE: Somewhat harder than expected.
4
25%
Florida: Somewhat harder than expected; MBE: Much harder than expected.
3
19%
 
Total votes: 16

remainderman

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Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by remainderman » Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:25 pm

Here's my take on the 2017 Florida Bar Exam and MBE.

The Florida Bar and the MBE were both difficult, there's no doubt about it. If anyone tells you different, then they are not being honest.

Florida Essays: (1) Family Law/Juvenile Dependency, (2) Florida Constitutional Law/Ethics, (3) Secured Transactions/Commercial Paper.

Florida MC: (1) Florida Procedure, (2) Business Entities (a lot of questions), and (3) Wills and Administration.

MBE: AM & PM, 25 questions or so from each section as the NCBEX website states.

I took Barbri, and it did NOT help much. I would suggest going with another company. The commercial questions provided by Barbri weren't even close to the Florida nor was it close to the MBE. I believe Barbri has lost its touch. What's sad is that they charge so much more than the other programs out there. They provide you with so much information that you don't know what is and what is not important. Furthermore, they do not teach you test taking strategies for when you get stuck and do not know the answer.

I hear AdaptiBar is good for MBE. I didn't purchase it, but I hear nothing but good about it. If I have to take the MBE portion a second time, I will be going with AdaptiBar. It was highly recommended by Phil Sandon (Florida Bar Prep King), and John with http://www.whatstheissue.org (MBE King of Florida).

I heard Kaplan and Themis were not on point this year as well. Is it time to move away from the nationalized bar prep course?

Phil Sandon a traveling Florida Bar prep coach who has taught at FSU, UF, UM, Stetson and more... Phil Sandon is dead accurate. I am thankful that my school hired him this past summer to teach several sessions. It was well worth it. I would not have known the answer to the majority of the questions if it wasn't for him. He substantially increased my chances of passing the Florida portion.

The key with both of the teachers is that they boil it down for you and provide you with the areas of the law that you MUST know, and it's not overwhelming.

In sum, my advice to any future Florida Bar applicants is to sit in on these guys sessions and get your moneys worth.

On another note, I'm interested to hear:
How did you feel after taking the 2017 Florida Bar?
How did you feel after taking the 2017 MBE (as part of the Florida Bar)?
What prep company did you go with?
Was it worth it and how prepared did you feel?
Was the company accurate when it came to information and similarity of practice questions?
Last edited by remainderman on Thu Jul 27, 2017 4:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

cats

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017)

Post by cats » Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:28 pm

are we allowed to talk about this? don't want to get banned

remainderman

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017)

Post by remainderman » Thu Jul 27, 2017 1:33 pm

I think so. I don't see what issues would arise from talking about how you felt on the exam, and if your prep course helped you. Please let me know if I'm missing something.

not guilty

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017)

Post by not guilty » Thu Jul 27, 2017 2:17 pm

Nucci wrote:I think so. I don't see what issues would arise from talking about how you felt on the exam, and if your prep course helped you. Please let me know if I'm missing something.
There is a bunch of discussion in the Florida thread on this forum.

remainderman

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by remainderman » Thu Jul 27, 2017 4:31 pm

Thanks! It seems like the discussion on that forum isn't very informative for Florida Bar purposes. Additionally, the comments went off into left field about unrelated topics. I'm here to listen to others perspectives about the Florida Bar. This should also serve as a way to inform future generations about what prep courses work and what courses they should avoid.

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not guilty

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by not guilty » Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:22 pm

Nucci wrote:Thanks! It seems like the discussion on that forum isn't very informative for Florida Bar purposes. Additionally, the comments went off into left field about unrelated topics. I'm here to listen to others perspectives about the Florida Bar. This should also serve as a way to inform future generations about what prep courses work and what courses they should avoid.
huh? it's a thread completely about the exam

here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... start=1000

sgd19

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by sgd19 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:48 pm

well i took themis and i felt unprepared not on the law but on how to tackle the problems. feels the bar doesn't test minimum competence anymore. it's more about knowing all the different tricks...it's sad. minimum competence in knowing the tricks really
Last edited by sgd19 on Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

lavarman84

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by lavarman84 » Thu Jul 27, 2017 5:48 pm

Nucci wrote:On another note, I'm interested to hear:
How did you feel after taking the 2017 Florida Bar?
How did you feel after taking the 2017 MBE (as part of the Florida Bar)?
What prep company did you go with?
Was it worth it and how prepared did you feel?
Was the company accurate when it came to information and similarity of practice questions?
I felt bad after taking the essays. The topics they chose were brutal. I felt good after the FL MC (FL Evidence was my weakest of the FL MC subjects). I felt like I knew a lot of it and had prepared well for it. But my preparation was always geared more towards the FL MC and the MBE.

I thought the first half of the MBE was easy. I thought the second half was difficult. Overall, I felt okay about it. It was about what I expected. I felt like my bar prep company prepared me well for it.

Themis.

It will be worth it if I pass. I felt unprepared for the essays but prepared for everything else. However, that was always my strategy.

The information and practice questions were accurate enough. I didn't expect perfection, but they prepared me decently well.

remainderman

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by remainderman » Thu Jul 27, 2017 7:57 pm

Thanks for sharing! I just thought it was crazy to see three of the worst essays the exam could give. Looked at first essay and thought, "oh no"... looked at second essay.. "you've got to be kidding me" and finally looked at secured transactions and thought "we're screwed."

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RB78

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by RB78 » Thu Aug 03, 2017 3:48 pm

9 days later and I still find myself depressed about essay#1 and essay #3. I cannot see myself getting that passing number of 40/100 on either of those essays, but think I was solid on Essay #2 (FL Con Law). I was confident about passing beforehand but those essays have me struggling to come up with scenarios where I still pass despite essay #1 and #3.

If a 40/100 average on the essays is passing for FL day 1 I think that my only hope is luckily getting 20/100 on essay #1 (some how a TPR only question...), 70+/100 on essay #2 and somehow pulling off a 10-20/100 on essay 3 (only felt decent about half of the secured transaction part and completely blew the commercial paper part). This would leave me only at a 10 point or so deficit below passing on the essay portion and then hopefully the FL multiple choice will save me (was averaging roughly 60-65/100 on the practice tests and felt average leaving the actual test). Next, if I fail the Florida side, hopefully its only by a small margin and a 150 or so on the MBE could save me with the average to pass the overall, but I thought MBE afternoon was really hard so I'm not overly confident about the MBE giving me a major boost.

My bar passage rides on the question of how many points will a half correct secured transactions answer get me on essay #3 because I don't see myself gaining any points on the commercial paper portion of essay #3 or the consignment BS portion of the secured transaction part of essay #3...

Mbeezy561

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by Mbeezy561 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:29 pm

RB78 wrote:9 days later and I still find myself depressed about essay#1 and essay #3. I cannot see myself getting that passing number of 40/100 on either of those essays, but think I was solid on Essay #2 (FL Con Law). I was confident about passing beforehand but those essays have me struggling to come up with scenarios where I still pass despite essay #1 and #3.

If a 40/100 average on the essays is passing for FL day 1 I think that my only hope is luckily getting 20/100 on essay #1 (some how a TPR only question...), 70+/100 on essay #2 and somehow pulling off a 10-20/100 on essay 3 (only felt decent about half of the secured transaction part and completely blew the commercial paper part). This would leave me only at a 10 point or so deficit below passing on the essay portion and then hopefully the FL multiple choice will save me (was averaging roughly 60-65/100 on the practice tests and felt average leaving the actual test). Next, if I fail the Florida side, hopefully its only by a small margin and a 150 or so on the MBE could save me with the average to pass the overall, but I thought MBE afternoon was really hard so I'm not overly confident about the MBE giving me a major boost.

My bar passage rides on the question of how many points will a half correct secured transactions answer get me on essay #3 because I don't see myself gaining any points on the commercial paper portion of essay #3 or the consignment BS portion of the secured transaction part of essay #3...

Dude if it makes you feel better you probably did wayyyy better than me. I took BE 2L year but could barely remember anything on it, because I was counting on them testing evidence over Corporations especially when it's tested 80% that seriously messed up my MC bracket. Essays *Knock on wood* I think I was ok on 2 & 3 but from what I see everybody BS'd essay 1.

remainderman

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by remainderman » Wed Aug 09, 2017 2:31 pm

Well, I think the wait is worse than taking the exam.. we have one month and 8 days to go... :/

RB78

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by RB78 » Wed Aug 09, 2017 3:16 pm

RB78 wrote:
Flo2017bartkr wrote:
RB78 wrote:
lapin wrote:I am in a very similar boat as you RB78, especially with Essay 3. I completely blew off the Article 3 portion due to time constraints, more than anything else. I wrote a good enough answer to the Article 9 portion involving Uncle. Other than that, really nothing. I wonder how many points that is worth.

Another thing that I can't get off of my mind is that I used strict scrutiny with age instead of rational basis in Question 2. I knew age was rational basis on the Federal level, but for some reason incorrectly thought it was strict scrutiny in Florida. I knew I was wrong with about 2 minutes left and there was nothing I could do at that point. I haven't stopped thinking about it since last Tuesday.

I feel better about the Florida multiple choice and the MBE... hopefully, I am right about that feeling and can overcome the absolute trash I wrote on Tuesday morning.

I still can't believe how horrible my essays were.

Sigh.
Disclaimer: I am not typing out any of this because I think that these are the correct answers, I'm just looking for point worthiness opinions and scaling opinions

For essay #3, the Uncle was the only part that I felt alright about (Uncle attached and perfected by possession plus properly noted his interest on the title to the car and so Uncle had priority in the car over the bank). For the Bank's portion I felt that I picked up a couple points but was not killing it by any means. I felt that the description of the collateral in the Bank's security agreement was too generic as it listed "all personal items". I know this might work for commercial items and that you can have description that covers all of one category of collateral (i.e. "all inventory" or "all equipment") but their security agreement did not do this. Therefore, I felt that the Bank's security agreement was invalid and that its security interests might fail entirely, but I went on to describe what I thought would happen if the security agreement was valid and attached, which was basically that they would have priority in everything but the consignment items and the car that the Uncle had priority in.

Then the consignment stuff was a complete no-go other than I said that a person cannot give another person a security interest in goods that they do not own themselves. I said maybe the bank was entitled to her 25% cut of any sale of that merchandise that was consigned to her by the other guy but I put that they cannot foreclose on the unsold consigned items as the lady did not have the right to put those items up as collateral in the first place. (I could be completely wrong about all of this, but maybe a charity point or two? haha) Like I said, hopefully good for a 10/100 before scaling and maybe because some people left question 3 completely blank, a 20/100 after scaling or something?

For essay #1, I described some stuff about shelter hearings and dependency adjudications and "case plans" hoping that would at least get me some charity points. Then I talked about how parental rights are fundamental due process rights, but that these rights are balanced with the state's compelling interest in protecting the welfare of children. I put that DCF may act to shelter/terminate parental rights where a child has been abused, abandoned or neglected and here the child had been abandoned. Then I put that DCF was required to do a diligent search for the identity of the parents using postal/law enforcement info and at least one online database. (not sure if this is right)

I basically put that this stuff required them to give notice to the mother because they had her name on the birth certificate (would not have been hard for DCF to notify her) and so she should have had the right to be notified of the TPR proceeding and also the right to an attorney, to call witnesses etc. This being the case, I put that she may have been able to successfully challenge the TPR proceedings, although I have heard that the 13 month delay may be a problem... (Also, spoke to others who put that this was not the case because she impliedly consented to the adoption by dropping the baby off at the fire station = no notice required)

For the Father, I basically put that he denied paternity, did not have any connection to the baby within the first year of the baby's life, and his name was not on the birth certificate so he was not entitled to notification of the TPR proceedings because a diligent search would not have led the DCF to him anyway. Therefore, I put that father was not entitled to notice.

Put that grandparents were not entitled to notice because only parents have fundamental due process parenting rights and grandparents have been held to not have such rights.

For the adoption I put that the fact that it was a same sex couple does not matter and that DCF would do a thorough home study and background check on all potential adopters and persons in their home over the age of 12. I put that reunification is the primary goal but after TPR proceedings adoption becomes the primary goal. Then I put that the parents or grandparents may petition the court to allow some sort of contact with the child but that the adopted parents can block that simply by not consenting as parents lose all rights after TPR and grandparents had no rights to begin with. (again not sure if any of this was 100% correct was just fishing for points haha)
.......Except Essay1 was about the legal surrender of the infant under Florida's Safe Haven Law, not an abandoned infant...
As I said in my original post, I was not saying that what I put was correct (essay #1 and #3 were shit shows for me). I have never heard of "Florida's Safe Haven Law" (thanks a lot Barbri), but what I was wondering was if I'd get any points for putting what I did put, despite the fact that my answer made no mention of "Florida's Safe Haven Law".

Furthermore, after looking up Florida's Safe Haven Law just now, what I put was almost exactly correct under Florida's Safe Haven Laws before they were amended in 2008 (complete luck). I wonder if I will get any credit for at least being kinda correct under an outdated version of the law (the law was amended in 2008 making my answer wrong....sigh) ?
I'll repost this on here because I did not get any useful feedback on the other thread and I am looking for real opinions.

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remainderman

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by remainderman » Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:41 pm

Opinions on what? You want us to grade your essay for you? Lmao. Just relax, there's nothing any of us can do at this point.

RB78

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by RB78 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 1:05 pm

remainderman wrote:Opinions on what? You want us to grade your essay for you? Lmao. Just relax, there's nothing any of us can do at this point.
I passed both parts, but thanks anyway for your super snarky comment....

Tony48

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by Tony48 » Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:56 pm

How did you feel after taking the 2017 Florida Bar? Like everyone else: that I failed! :)
How did you feel after taking the 2017 MBE (as part of the Florida Bar)? The essays? I felt good on the Florida Con Law, OK on the Family Law/Dependency, and completely blindsided by the Secured/Commercial Paper. I spent a great deal of the exam thinking, "Wait...is this an actual Secured/Commercial Paper essay?" I basically just went on what I remembered in law school (Secured; I didn't have a Commercial Paper course) and what little I remembered from the practice essays. I do feel that the guy who did the Secured lectures was pretty good (at least for Florida). He was extremely memorable. As for Commercial Paper, I literally blanked out. Again: I literally couldn't believe that I had to write out some Commercial Paper law (even though I knew enough for a half-way decent essay)
What prep company did you go with? BarBri
Was it worth it and how prepared did you feel? I'd say it was worth it. I mean, I did pass after all. I just felt like they could have focused more on MC. I ended up doing way more MC than was assigned.
Was the company accurate when it came to information and similarity of practice questions? The MC was a complete blur for me, so I can't even say for sure.

Pass302

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Re: Florida Bar and MBE (2017) -Official Thread

Post by Pass302 » Wed Sep 20, 2017 10:45 am

RB78 wrote:
remainderman wrote:Opinions on what? You want us to grade your essay for you? Lmao. Just relax, there's nothing any of us can do at this point.
I passed both parts, but thanks anyway for your super snarky comment....

Yasssss!!! 8)

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