2018 February CA Bar Forum

[love4vinolaw]

Hello, hard-working citizens.

I'm looking for essay donations from the July 2017 exam because the free essay bank that I maintain is bare for that exam. In fact, it's the only administration I don't have any donations for yet.

Would any kind souls be willing to scan or take photos of their returned essays, for science? This is not for me; it's for your fellow students and future generations who want to stand on the shoulders of giants. Please PM me for where to send (or if you're a guest user of TLS, you may have to click around a bit to find my email), or I can reach out to you. Thanks in advance.

I can't do it before the CBX, but I will send you mine from the July 2017 next week when I get back. Do you want my PT also? I received a 75/80 on first and second review.

[HND]

[/quote]

I can't do it before the CBX, but I will send you mine from the July 2017 next week when I get back. Do you want my PT also? I received a 75/80 on first and second review.[/quote]


Mmmmmmmm Okay so now I'm in panic mode. You said you scored high on all essays and even a 75/80 on PT and still failed because of MBE. WHIch yes I understand is now worth 50% but FU>> ! I was hoping that if I got even 70s on essays that would somewhat help me make up for the fact that I can't get my mbe score up...but seriously if you dont mind me asking how bad you did on mbs? Like was it well below 50%? I was seriously PRAYING that If I passed all essays with 65s and praying for a 70/75 on PT that would help my mediocre mbe score and get me into pass range. BUT now I feel sick . . .

[a male human]

Hello, hard-working citizens.

I'm looking for essay donations from the July 2017 exam because the free essay bank that I maintain is bare for that exam. In fact, it's the only administration I don't have any donations for yet.

Would any kind souls be willing to scan or take photos of their returned essays, for science? This is not for me; it's for your fellow students and future generations who want to stand on the shoulders of giants. Please PM me for where to send (or if you're a guest user of TLS, you may have to click around a bit to find my email), or I can reach out to you. Thanks in advance.

I can't do it before the CBX, but I will send you mine from the July 2017 next week when I get back. Do you want my PT also? I received a 75/80 on first and second review.

Yes, please! Those would be very helpful. I haven't been able to get in touch with one potential donator after PMs were disabled. Don't worry about it now, but you can get in touch with me at brian [you know what goes in here if you're not a spammer crawling for email addresses on the web] makethisyourlasttime.com. Thanks in advance!

[love4vinolaw]

I can't do it before the CBX, but I will send you mine from the July 2017 next week when I get back. Do you want my PT also? I received a 75/80 on first and second review.[/quote]


Mmmmmmmm Okay so now I'm in panic mode. You said you scored high on all essays and even a 75/80 on PT and still failed because of MBE. WHIch yes I understand is now worth 50% but FU>> ! I was hoping that if I got even 70s on essays that would somewhat help me make up for the fact that I can't get my mbe score up...but seriously if you dont mind me asking how bad you did on mbs? Like was it well below 50%? I was seriously PRAYING that If I passed all essays with 65s and praying for a 70/75 on PT that would help my mediocre mbe score and get me into pass range. BUT now I feel sick . . .[/quote]


Don't feel sick. I was looking through a lot of the close calls people have posted, and it looks like many have been in this boat. Your method is what I was hoping for also, and had I scored just a tad higher... I may have made it. After having several Bar Prep people review what I received it was the MBE that shot me in the foot. They were actually all surprised that I scored as high as I did on the essays, because the bar graders already have your MBE scores when they read your essays, and said that it was likely my essays weren't even given much thought because they knew I had failed due to the low MBE. My essay coach after reading my answers when I got them back echoed this response and felt that I should have had at least 5+ points on each from what I received. My MBE was 1280 and my written was 1580 which totaled 1430.35 -- There is a decimal behind one of the #'s but I don't remember which one, hence missing by 9.65 points.

I am sending you good vibes, and I hope you have great success on the test. I am actually not expecting to pass this time. Since getting my results back, I had life kick me in the ass on multiple occasions, and I think I may have studied 25 hours, since December 1, but I already paid for everything, and I even paid for an MBE bar prep class this time (which I hardly used) to boot. That being said, I figure I might as well go hard, since I'm not going home, and see where I land on the scale this time, so I know where to start to practice for the July, and hopefully my life will settle down by then and I will have a better opportunity to focus on the CBX.

Deep breath, don't freak out, it's a waste of energy that could be better spent doing something enjoyable.

Cheers,

[bigballerbrand]

I failed the July '17 exam by 25 points. Getting a 50 on the PT really hurt me. My 71-72% average on MBE could only carry me so far. Back then, I did 1200 total MBEs and only 3-4 essays per topic. No PT practice either. In other words, I definitely did not put my best foot forward in July but still came pretty close to passing.

This time around, I made sure to change things up...
(1) I did 10+ essays (combination of full essays, outlining, issue spotting) on the 10 likeliest topics I think will show up. I didn't really do hardcore memorizing beyond what I got out of doing the essays and reviewing answers, making notes, etc.
(2) I also did 7-8 full PT practices.
(3) I also improved (somehow) on the MBEs though a part of that is from seeing repeat questions, I'm sure. Overall, I averaged 83% on 1750 questions. Here's my progress report on adaptibar for every 350 questions completed: https://i.imgur.com/PFM8nv9.png

[LockBox]

Remember, the graders don't know how well (or poorly) you did on your last go-around. All they see is the document in front of them. Don't panic because you don't know everything - use what you know to write in a concise, lawyerly fashion. Imagine you've already passed the bar and you're going to work - apply those critical thinking skills, don't be super stressed (you will be doing this for a living after this, afterall) and give it your best go.

My advice and thinking going into each essay/section was "i'm just under the passing mark so I need to be just above average on this particular question." Focus on content over form and trust yourself enough to believe that what you're putting down on paper is quality. Because by this time next year clients could be paying you hundreds of dollars for the same thing - make it worth their while.

Good luck.

[love4vinolaw]

Good Luck to everyone tomorrow, and I realize that if you truly know it -- you don't need luck.

For those of you in Sac, hope you enjoyed the hail like snow storm with thunder and lightning.. it definately made me think twice -- especially when I got out of the car and there was a huge crack of lightning, and thunder loud enough to set of car alarms.

Had a drink and some dinner, and now I'm sitting down to review my Evidence, Crim Pro and Con Law for one last look before bed.

Best wishes for a smooth Tuesday.

[LawIQ45]

Just want to wish everybody the best of luck! You have worked hard and you know more than you think you do. Go in there and do your absolute best. Remember to stay calm, or as calm as you can. Im rooting for each and every one of you!

[nsv]

Been through what most of you are feeling at this point. You know what you know...Get a good night sleep and kill it tomorrow.


Good luck!

[shopbarprep]

Good Luck with your bar exam.

[a male human]

Hope the first morning went well!

Take it easy during lunch, get some rest, and remember that things come easily to you. Remember your training. You did all that work for a reason.

You guys are already so helpful and supportive of each other already. In other words, you guys are bar experts now. Why not show it to them?

[bigballerbrand]

Is it just me or was the head proctor in Ontario tripping balls during the announcements today?

Also, on the essays overall, felt like almost all the questions were in the "vomit out everything you know / sprint" format.

[Element795]

So, what were today’s subjects?

[chicoalto0649]

[tweet][/tweet]

So, what were today’s subjects?

AM

Remedies/Crossover with PR
Con Law
Property/Torts

PM

Wills
Crim/Crimpro

[LawIQ45]

So, what were today’s subjects?

Thank you! Ive been dying to know all day.

[valgal]

Please do not kill me for this post.....BUT I made a grave error. I discussed the PT after the exam with another test taker. I know that is a huge error - but now it is killing me. Did the call of the question as that we address gift or contract; if gift type of gift and standing? The other tester said that there was no standing in the call of the memo.....UGH!!

[question!]

Did the PT want us to address standing as well as gifts v contracts and gift type? The prompt didn't exactly ask us to address standing....but there was a case dedicated to it. hm

[chicoalto0649]

Did the PT want us to address standing as well as gifts v contracts and gift type? The prompt didn't exactly ask us to address standing....but there was a case dedicated to it. hm

If you concluded that it was a conditional gift I don’t know how it would harm your essay to throw it in at the end. Even if they didn’t specifically address it in the prompt

[Honey0808]

I think standing was an issue to address in the PT. Definitely not the main crux, so don't stress if you didn't focus on it. That PT was one of the more difficult ones I've seen

[love4vinolaw]

I prefer to call today "cross-overs with a chance of more cross-overs"
yuck...and I am particularly torked about how choppy the cross-overs were. One paragraph this, two paragraphs that.

On a plus side, the new software was surprisingly far more pleasant than using the old exam soft for things like the spellcheck option with the right click and cut and paste or maybe my law school just disabled some of the features for that, but before I couldn't use the Ctrl C Ctrl X - I had to highlight and then use the little icon thingys. <-- highly technical term right there. Note: This is me trying to find the silver lining.

Besides the Bar Secrets guy were there any other predictions posted? I'm curious how each faired. I am sad to admit that it's been a guilty pleasure of mine trying to predict what was on the bar.

[BrainToast]

Is it just me or was the head proctor in Ontario tripping balls during the announcements today?

Also, on the essays overall, felt like almost all the questions were in the "vomit out everything you know / sprint" format.

I felt there was enough time for the crossovers.

[neb]

[tweet][/tweet]

So, what were today’s subjects?

AM

Remedies/Crossover with PR
Con Law
Property/Torts

PM

Wills
Crim/Crimpro

Which part of Q3 did you think dealt with real property? I was short on time for it, so my cursory analysis of the facts indicated that the issues were nuisance, trespass to land and a taking. That'd be Con Law/Torts. Did I miss a real property issue?

[chicoalto0649]

[tweet][/tweet]

So, what were today’s subjects?

AM

Remedies/Crossover with PR
Con Law
Property/Torts

PM

Wills
Crim/Crimpro

Which part of Q3 did you think dealt with real property? I was short on time for it, so my cursory analysis of the facts indicated that the issues were nuisance, trespass to land and a taking. That'd be Con Law/Torts. Did I miss a real property issue?

Lol i was kind of quick punching that out, I think of takings as a category of real property questions because that's where they popped up in law school. But the takings issue was the property issue, which I guess is also a con law issue

[bigballerbrand]

I think my biggest whiff/miss today was neglecting to do a free speech analysis on the Con Law question. I decided to do Due Process and EPC, but neglected free speech. Blegh.

[Got'eem]

I think my biggest whiff/miss today was neglecting to do a free speech analysis on the Con Law question. I decided to do Due Process and EPC, but neglected free speech. Blegh.

Try harder. You’re a better troll than that, right?