REPEAT TAKER NEEDS ADVICE- Should I take exam in UBE jurisdiction instead? Forum

[ashleymdbartaker]

I am very much in need of advice!! I failed MD bar twice mostly due to the MBE. I need to be barred anywhere within the US, I was looking at recent and latest 2016 pass rates in the country and it seems that Missouri and Iowa seem to have the highest passage rates in the country, granted there are less ppl taking the exams there, additionally, their cutoff scores are lower. I am thinking about taking it either one of these states they are both UBE jurisdictions. However, I struggle with the MBE which is weighed at 50 % in both of these states, and I am concerned about whether I will make it. Should I stay in MD (which is not a UBE juris) or do you recommend going to Iowa or Missouri and taking it there?

Please help! I have family and friends frustrated at me, it is very disheartening so i need solid, constructive advice. Also, if anyone has taken the bar in any these states or a UBE jurisdiction in general any dos/donts would be extremely helpful.

[ndbigdave]

I am very much in need of advice!! I failed MD bar twice mostly due to the MBE. I need to be barred anywhere within the US, I was looking at recent and latest 2016 pass rates in the country and it seems that Missouri and Iowa seem to have the highest passage rates in the country, granted there are less ppl taking the exams there, additionally, their cutoff scores are lower. I am thinking about taking it either one of these states they are both UBE jurisdictions. However, I struggle with the MBE which is weighed at 50 % in both of these states, and I am concerned about whether I will make it. Should I stay in MD (which is not a UBE juris) or do you recommend going to Iowa or Missouri and taking it there?

Please help! I have family and friends frustrated at me, it is very disheartening so i need solid, constructive advice. Also, if anyone has taken the bar in any these states or a UBE jurisdiction in general any dos/donts would be extremely helpful.

Do you know what your MBE scores have been? How close are you in MD? What is it that you want to do that you merely have to be licensed in any state?

Need a bit more information to help appropriately.

[yuzu]

Since it's the same exam, the cut score is most important. AL, MN, MO, NM, and ND all have a cut score of 260 (Iowa is 266), so go for one of those.

Take a look at your scores and see how close you were to 260. That will give you some idea of whether it is worthwhile.

[SilvermanBarPrep]

Having taught both the UBE and a few state-specific exams, one difference that strikes me as significant is that there are no state-specific distinctions to the MBE subjects that need to be learned for the UBE. It may not seem like much but it's a bit easier to wrap your head around the required law when you don't have to deal with all that. There are 16 subjects to learn (8 MBE subjects, if you count Crim Law and Crim Pro as 2 subjects) and 8 subjects that can potentially be tested on the essays that are not tested on the MBE. Of course, that's still a lot, but it's just a bit easier to organize and tackle not having to deal with all the state-specific distinctions.

The MBE is an important aspect of the test though, so you'd want to certainly work on improving there should you go the UBE route.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

[barReady]

MD Seems to weigh essay twice as much as MBE.

1. To pass the Examination, an applicant must achieve a Total Scale Score of 406 or higher.
2. The Board computes each applicant’s Total Scale Score for the Maryland Bar Examination using the
following formula:
Total Scale Score = (Written Scale Score x 2) + MBE Scale Score
This formula weights the Written Test Score twice as much as the MBE Score. Written Test and MBE
scale scores will be rounded to the nearest integer value and reported as whole numbers.

http://www.mdcourts.gov/ble/pdfs/gbtips.pdf

So if you are struggling with MBE you should stick to MD as it is essay heavy.

UBE weighs 50% MBE and MD seems to weigh it only 33%. (please correct me if I am wrong)

If you specify your scores last two attempts, that would be helpful. Good luck.

[barReady]

If you are taking the MD bar, PM me.My friend sent me good MD material, I will forward to you.

[squiggle]

I am very much in need of advice!! I failed MD bar twice mostly due to the MBE. I need to be barred anywhere within the US, I was looking at recent and latest 2016 pass rates in the country and it seems that Missouri and Iowa seem to have the highest passage rates in the country, granted there are less ppl taking the exams there, additionally, their cutoff scores are lower. I am thinking about taking it either one of these states they are both UBE jurisdictions. However, I struggle with the MBE which is weighed at 50 % in both of these states, and I am concerned about whether I will make it. Should I stay in MD (which is not a UBE juris) or do you recommend going to Iowa or Missouri and taking it there?

Please help! I have family and friends frustrated at me, it is very disheartening so i need solid, constructive advice. Also, if anyone has taken the bar in any these states or a UBE jurisdiction in general any dos/donts would be extremely helpful.

You should consider taking the exam in a UBE state with a lot of applicants, even if that state doesn't have a low minimum. You will be curved against the other examinees in your state, and a bigger pool may give you more cushion if do just okay on a few essays. If you don't pass in the state that you took it, you can always transfer your score to another state with a lower minimum.

Have you used any MBE specific study tools like Emmanuels or Adaptibar? I was very happy with both. Adaptibar breaks down your MBE scores by topic, and I used this info to focus my studying on those subtopics where I was really struggling. Emmanuels showed me why I was missing questions when I generally knew the law; it really helped me see when I was falling into traps or focusing on the wrong part of the question or law.

I hope this info helps! Feel free to PM me if you want. I've taken the bar in three states, so I've suffered through the MBE quite a bit.