MBE February 2018 Reactions.. Forum

[animalpeople]

Finished both sections with at least 30 minutes remaining. I was surprised by how confident I was considering I only managed to complete 64% of my Themis program.

Felt the same. I think Themis was great.

Same. Themis had me very well prepared for the MBE (essays too for that matter but I feel very good about the MBE, let's hope those feelings are true).

Happy to hear that others are feeling confident. Looking forward to updates in April!

[RCinDNA]

There was a Con Law question??

Ugh, what do we do with ourselves now?

I am going to hide out, drink some wine, and throw out my BarBri books.

That sounds like a good idea. I would like to throw away my bar prep books but I may need them after today's MBE...;(

What did you all think about the essays and MPTS? The second MPT was a nightmare....

The BarBri books will be updated by July so maybe send them back. AdaptiBar was super useful. I felt a bit more grounded compared to the last go round but still feel like throwing up.

The MEEs were OK. There was one CivPro one that was ultra specific to the point where I did a double take. The MPTs are always a crap shoot - never enough time to synthesize a solid rule and the instructions can be confusing.

Also got an easy ConLaw question wrong because I overthought the Speech and Debate clause.

I was referring to a punter MBE question that stood out to me because I talked myself into the wrong answer.

[myrtlewinston]

Re: MPT
Did anyone want to strangle that annoying MUD woman?

[Derek Vinyard]

There are supposed to be 8 test forms right??????? The last 20 questions of the PM seemed to be too lengthy, like 4 paragraphs all for one question. I really wonder how scattered around the experimental questions are, or if they put them all in a row or all together.

[rayforoc]

AM session felt pretty solid for me.

PM session was rougher for sure. I fell behind in the afternoon and had to rush a bit to catch up. There was long paragraphs and one question was the entire page. You can see the experimentals because everytime I hit one I wanted to closeline the sweet, kind innocent proctors.

In general, I missed a couple because of nonsense like literally forgetting easy BLL. I think practicing the real questions benefited me. A few of the questions I recognized. Off to the gym. Let's be easy on ourselfs ladies and gents. If we passed, good. If not, head down and we fucking hit it again in July.

[JustHawkin]

Re: MPT
Did anyone want to strangle that annoying MUD woman?

Yes.

[b290]

Finished both sections with at least 30 minutes remaining. I was surprised by how confident I was considering I only managed to complete 64% of my Themis program.

[b290]

Re: MPT
Did anyone want to strangle that annoying MUD woman?

Yes.

Exactly!!! You have a pretty extensive job and...you want to...take another TWO?!? Yeah, that makes sense.

Also, anybody THAT into Con law, and etc., could probably figure that on their own what and emolument is

Finished both sections with at least 30 minutes remaining...

Last July, I found the MBE PM session to be WAY more difficult than the AM. This time, I found them to be more balanced - but with the afternoon still slightly more difficult.

However, I do have to say that the addition of clocks massively improved my time management (for both days) - more so than during my prep. I was able to write down my benchmark times, and still was early by a while. I still had at least 15 mins to spare (the second session was over 20), and if it wasn't for my self imposed breaks (I got up/stopped every 20 questions), I would've been done with near 30 mins to spare. Another shoutout to Emanuel's (and by extension Adaptibar for July) for realistic questions.

My $.02

[b290]

There was a Con Law question??

Ugh, what do we do with ourselves now?

I am going to hide out, drink some wine, and throw out my BarBri books.

That sounds like a good idea. I would like to throw away my bar prep books but I may need them after today's MBE...;(

What did you all think about the essays and MPTS? The second MPT was a nightmare....

The BarBri books will be updated by July so maybe send them back. AdaptiBar was super useful. I felt a bit more grounded compared to the last go round but still feel like throwing up.

The MEEs were OK. There was one CivPro one that was ultra specific to the point where I did a double take. The MPTs are always a crap shoot - never enough time to synthesize a solid rule and the instructions can be confusing.

Also got an easy ConLaw question wrong because I overthought the Speech and Debate clause.

Many of the MBE Q's I know I got wrong were Civ Pro. The MEEs, I remember specifically (because I re-did the order):

Partnerships/Agency (expected it on the exam and wrote the most for this)
Family Law (same as partnerships)
Contracts (studied enough, even though I didn't expect it on the exam - wrote enough for a decent essay)
Real Property (I threw in K law when I blanked)
Criminal Law (my answer for this was almost 100% garbage)
Fed Pro (my answer for this was pure garbage)

I'm glad I didn't waste time on Secured, Corps, etc.

This was a tough exam. Tough exam = I expect a nice curve

[RCinDNA]

Weird. I did not have a CrimLaw question.

[RCinDNA]

I did not write much for the Partnership essay because it was so straightforward. There is only so much to get out of the duties and IIRC there just two sub questions.

[dreamofNYC]

Finished both sections with at least 30 minutes remaining. I was surprised by how confident I was considering I only managed to complete 64% of my Themis program.

I felt the same way. And I also took Themis. I thought Themis' mid-term Practice Tests were way harder and more confusing than the real MBEs. I thought the MBE was suspiciously "easy" compared to Themis PQs. I really hope my confidence was not illusory. What's your take? Thanks so much.

[Go4broke]

Weird. I did not have a CrimLaw question.

The Crim law question was with regard to M’Naghten and the competency to stand trial.

With regard to agency, it was about winding down, agency, proper ways to dissociate and what authority he has when he dissociates. You also should have talked about duty of care and duty of loyalty to each partner and the partnership under the UPA.

[RCinDNA]

Weird. I did not have a CrimLaw question.

The Crim law question was with regard to M’Naghten and the competency to stand trial.

With regard to agency, it was about winding down, agency, proper ways to dissociate and what authority he has when he dissociates. You also should have talked about duty of care and duty of loyalty to each partner and the partnership under the UPA.

I remember the CrimLaw one now. This was definitely a test that freaked me out because I studied the predictions and between two sites, I had prepared for all of the MEE’s pretty well except the first question in the CivPro essays. The CrimLaw question was particularly a happy moment because I had purposefully drilled the M’Naghten Rule. For the life of me, I just could not memorize it before but it cane together the week before the test.

Yes, Partnership was not too difficult because I took the class. I also discussed what a partner saying they wanted to end the partnership meant - so I also discussed dissolution and even the notice of dissociation.

Again, I am not sure what this means in terms of my final grade because there were sub-questions that I did not know 100% but I definitely felt as if there was karma or some good luck or something else working for me. I had a miserable 2017 with family emergencies and straight up burnout so I am very hopeful. The only essay I think I flubbed was a state essay about state specific Hearsay exceptions - ran out of time but I remembered a few because I also looked those over thinking that if they wanted to make us miserable that is a topic they could test on. I just felt different going in to this administration. I felt more drilled and prepared than I did following the BarBri program this summer, worked over 1,000 MBEs, wrote/outlined 30 practice essays, took four timed practice tests, and went over the Critical Pass flashcards almost daily. Here is hoping it was enough.

[Derek Vinyard]

Something was legitimately wrong with the AM session. I have head conspiracies about some of people getting experimental sections because some tests didnt even contain the same questions as others...

Thoughts?

I agree, something was off with the morning. I was scoring in the 80s on all my MBE practice sets and completed 1500 questions. NONE of the AM questions made sense to me. I got to question 20 and was like “I really don’t know if I’ve answered a single question right yet” and walked out at the end and said “I maybe got 5-10 right. Wtf” I went into this week thinking FL was the only day I had to worry about. My mind is completely blown over the fact that now I am worried about MBE.

lol. Conspiracy theories??? lmfao. I heard there were 8 different test forms and my problems occurred mostly during the PM session when there were huge fact patterns with 4 paragraphs for every question. It did feel like many of the questions were a guess, but I had the same problem when I took practice tests during my preparation and then I ended up with decent scores on those at least. I have some IIED theories. NCBE made me drink too many beers.

[TheJuryMustDie]

THAT WAS INSANE!!! I did ALOT of practice questiond and struggled on almost every AM question... some
of them I really just had no idea what they were testing...I felt the PM test reflected accurately my practice tests but what the hell was up with the AM!?! It felt like I was taking a competely different test than the MBE....

Ditto!

It was as though the questions were made intentionally ambiguous. A lot of the choices are so contentious they would divide the Supreme Court justices. They hardly reflected the NCBE's own past questions. I almost convinced myself they had mistakenly printed the wrong sets of questions.

The AM session was particularly a bloodbath!

[RCinDNA]

THAT WAS INSANE!!! I did ALOT of practice questiond and struggled on almost every AM question... some
of them I really just had no idea what they were testing...I felt the PM test reflected accurately my practice tests but what the hell was up with the AM!?! It felt like I was taking a competely different test than the MBE....

Ditto!

It was as though the questions were made intentionally ambiguous. A lot of the choices are so contentious they would divide the Supreme Court justices. They hardly reflected the NCBE's own past questions. I almost convinced myself they had mistakenly printed the wrong sets of questions.

The AM session was particularly a bloodbath!

The AM session was pretty horrible. I tried to block it all out and am just crossing my fingers now.

[JustHawkin]

Any guesses as to the NY pass rate? Any indication it will be relatively high, as J17 was?

[pfunkera]

there should be a computer outside the room so they can process the answer sheets and give you your raw score in a day or two. I would pay extra for that. The waiting is killing me.

[JustHawkin]

there should be a computer outside the room so they can process the answer sheets and give you your raw score in a day or two. I would pay extra for that. The waiting is killing me.

What's the over under? I'd say I'd pay up to $500 for instant raw score.

[RCinDNA]

there should be a computer outside the room so they can process the answer sheets and give you your raw score in a day or two. I would pay extra for that. The waiting is killing me.

What's the over under? I'd say I'd pay up to $500 for instant raw score.

Thirded.

Heck, if you fail by less than 10 points, I still stand by the idea that you should be able to pay to take extra CLEs but that’s crazy talk.

[pfunkera]

there should be a computer outside the room so they can process the answer sheets and give you your raw score in a day or two. I would pay extra for that. The waiting is killing me.

What's the over under? I'd say I'd pay up to $500 for instant raw score.

My state only takes a month for results so $500 might be too steep, but I would definitely pay $100 walking out the door to get the results.

[RCinDNA]

In the hopes of having people feel at least a "bit" better - I have passed in both Michigan and Illinois and I can safely say that I had a similar reaction...

I could say that I "knew" maybe 10-20 questions...out of 200. Nearly the entire test fell under the category of "educated guess" where I could eliminate a choice or two, and be left picking what I thought was the best of the other two.

I ended up passing with an "ok" not "great" score in each jurisidction (141) - but it also goes to show that you can pass (perhaps even comfortably) while feeling like crap today. Its just the nature of the test, there are very few brightline, for-sure answers so you are left with a feeling of doubt and uncertainty - welcome to the club.

Go get a drink...or whatever it is you do. Its over, enjoy a break and we can all reasses this in a month or two when results come out.

I hope so. Definitely have been having moments of intense paranoia these past few days. I have been going through my essays in my head (and on this board) thinking that I think I adequately answered most of them with the time and character limits given but MBEs have always been a weak point so my plan was to specifically address those but now my worry is if I did enough. I missed by 7 points so technically I was not far off but I was never quite in the safe space of scoring - BarBri consistently placed me at 60-ish and Adaptibar generally did the same so I was looking at two sets of sources for practice tests with both placing me at 120/200 on a good day meaning hitting 130-140 was possible. So I pulled out my specific weak areas and just drilled and reviewed those but the actual test definitely psyches you out and the big difference between this attempt and the first is that I recall so many questions that seemed either particularly easy because I knew them or tough because of educated guesses. I would have PMed you rather than writing another novel but figure this might help others and TLS has been like a chronicle of my entire law journey.

[b290]

In the hopes of having people feel at least a "bit" better - I have passed [...] Michigan...

You passed Michigan? I remember one buddy who took it and failed by a few points. He had a 2nd Amendment question (which he, like everybody, bombed) That's just wrong! That alone (+ the UBE) was enough for me to look elsewhere. Congrats on MI and IL - that's no joke!

Any guesses as to the NY pass rate? Any indication it will be relatively high, as J17 was?

I could easily see it being north of 50%, with 60+ percent of first time takers passing. The passage rates have been going up for every UBE administration in NY (since July 2015).

Note: Do not get discouraged by the lower numbers - February always has lower passage rates nationwide than July.

https://abovethelaw.com/2017/04/new-yor ... o-the-ube/

My $.02

[RCinDNA]

Morning session was more difficult than the afternoon one. Overall, I found MBE difficult this time. I don’t recall what was my impression after July’17.

I felt the same (however I distinctly recall in July of 17 being stressed as hell over the AM and thinking the PM was a walk in the park--- that being said, I failed the CBX based on my MBE's.... so that doesn't account for much as far as actual proof.)

My thought is, that depending on which version of the test -- there are 8(?) Comes into play on if someone felt one was harder than another. I wish I knew if there were 8 versions split in 2 (i.e. 1-4 for am and 5-8 for PM) or if there is 8 total Am and Pm are same sets. Because I am guessing that they have to factor the difficulty of the respective Am's and PM's into the randomization of the how the questions are ordered.

There were 10 versions in my state going off the test booklet numbers.