MBE February 2018 Reactions.. Forum

[Lawgirl89]

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.

[L_William_W]

I passed the July 2017 NY Bar exam (on attempt #3). After I took the exam, I felt like I got every Civ Pro MBE wrong. The only two subjects where I felt confident in were Torts and Con Law. I got a 149.3 scaled MBE (the first time I took the bar, my MBE was a pathetic 118.6).

The exam is curved and there's some esoteric method of converting raw scores to scaled scores. Unless your mind went completely blank I wouldn't worry.

[Mobster1983]

Passed July with over a 150 MBE (My state doesnt release actual scores) and finished that afternoon session with well over an hour left.

I took the UBE this week. Definitely felt like the MBE questions were pretty whack (for lack of a better term). Lots of them just didn't feel like they had a good "best answer". And a lot of really off-the-wall concepts and fact patterns, much more than July.

I finished both sessions with half an hour left, and hope I did just as well as last time. The MPT felt easier this time. One of July's questions just felt like WTF? These two seemed more straightforward.

The MEE may have hurt a bit. Didn't feel completely confident about any of them, but hopefully I got average scores on each one.

[RCinDNA]

The exam is curved and there's some esoteric method of converting raw scores to scaled scores. Unless your mind went completely blank I wouldn't worry.

Well, this is my second career since I went to law school part time after being a paralegal so if I don’t pass and lose my job, I can’t afford to actually live let alone stay in the city so can’t help but worry!

[mka2016]

Any Ohio people in here??

Yup. What did you think?

Brutal essays. First day was bad for sure. Knew I blew at least one.

Yeah, they were pretty bad. Some parts I could get, but a lot of it was a tragicomic disaster. I was grasping at what little memory I had of peripheral details I had only ever seen in examples on Themis's handouts. That one torts essay was just downright mean.

If I fail, I'm going to try not to take it as a reflection on myself because WTF was that.

Never in my life have I seen such a vague call. I got to be honest I have gone through just about every essay in the past 15 years and they were about four or five on that exam that have never been tested or have never been a call of a question. I would’ve rather had a “discuss all claims.” Call than that. The corporations essay as well was ridiculous. I get the feeling this one might be an all new low pass rate. Then they will legitimize it by saying that law students have gotten dumber and blame law schools. The arrogance of these people is absolutely astounding.

[mka2016]

Does anyone else have any information on the MBE screw up in the morning? I know some people got some defective books. I wasn’t sure if it was nationwide or just Ohio?

[bcls2018]

Any Ohio people in here??

Yup. What did you think?

Brutal essays. First day was bad for sure. Knew I blew at least one.

Yeah, they were pretty bad. Some parts I could get, but a lot of it was a tragicomic disaster. I was grasping at what little memory I had of peripheral details I had only ever seen in examples on Themis's handouts. That one torts essay was just downright mean.

If I fail, I'm going to try not to take it as a reflection on myself because WTF was that.

Never in my life have I seen such a vague call. I got to be honest I have gone through just about every essay in the past 15 years and they were about four or five on that exam that have never been tested or have never been a call of a question. I would’ve rather had a “discuss all claims.” Call than that. The corporations essay as well was ridiculous. I get the feeling this one might be an all new low pass rate. Then they will legitimize it by saying that law students have gotten dumber and blame law schools. The arrogance of these people is absolutely astounding.

I sat for Ohio this week and I also thought that the morning session was “different” than the practice questions that I used. Also it makes me relieved that someone else had the same reaction to that Torts essay about damages. I was completely caught off guard with that one. Also I think I did a terrible job on the corporations essay. I was prepared to write about a breach of the duty of loyalty and care then we got that b.s. fact pattern.

[mka2016]

Any Ohio people in here??

Yup. What did you think?

Brutal essays. First day was bad for sure. Knew I blew at least one.

Yeah, they were pretty bad. Some parts I could get, but a lot of it was a tragicomic disaster. I was grasping at what little memory I had of peripheral details I had only ever seen in examples on Themis's handouts. That one torts essay was just downright mean.

If I fail, I'm going to try not to take it as a reflection on myself because WTF was that.

Never in my life have I seen such a vague call. I got to be honest I have gone through just about every essay in the past 15 years and they were about four or five on that exam that have never been tested or have never been a call of a question. I would’ve rather had a “discuss all claims.” Call than that. The corporations essay as well was ridiculous. I get the feeling this one might be an all new low pass rate. Then they will legitimize it by saying that law students have gotten dumber and blame law schools. The arrogance of these people is absolutely astounding.

I sat for Ohio this week and I also thought that the morning session was “different” than the practice questions that I used. Also it makes me relieved that someone else had the same reaction to that Torts essay about damages. I was completely caught off guard with that one. Also I think I did a terrible job on the corporations essay. I was prepared to write about a breach of the duty of loyalty and care then we got that b.s. fact pattern.

This was a trim the herd exam. They passed a fair amount in July. I think this is going to be a 50% pass rate again.. but Like I always say rather than looking at this bar exam and comparing it to past ones they will just say “this crop of students wasn’t prepared.

[Umyeah]

So yea... I made a profile just because of the mbe. The am session I honestly felt like I didn't study any of what was tested or some questions had no right answers. Or it was a straight experiment. With that said, I still finished with an hour left. Pm session seemed like it was regular mbe and I finished with half an hour left. So... Hopefully one of those sessions was great. Lmao I felt like we were tested on nothing I was taught in Kaplan or Emanuel lol if I failed... I think I will have to try adaptibar/critical pass or mass or whatever and just buy old questions from ncbe. Basically I was so speechless I couldn't even be emotional. After am session. Then after Pm session I kind of just broke down lol but whatever... It's in God's hands. May the scantron reader glitch in my favor. Or maybe new mbe passing rate will be 48% Lmao I don't know but that sh*t was cray. And I just hope either we all guessed right or we all guessed wrong.

[RCinDNA]

Any Ohio people in here??

Yup. What did you think?

Brutal essays. First day was bad for sure. Knew I blew at least one.

Yeah, they were pretty bad. Some parts I could get, but a lot of it was a tragicomic disaster. I was grasping at what little memory I had of peripheral details I had only ever seen in examples on Themis's handouts. That one torts essay was just downright mean.

If I fail, I'm going to try not to take it as a reflection on myself because WTF was that.

Never in my life have I seen such a vague call. I got to be honest I have gone through just about every essay in the past 15 years and they were about four or five on that exam that have never been tested or have never been a call of a question. I would’ve rather had a “discuss all claims.” Call than that. The corporations essay as well was ridiculous. I get the feeling this one might be an all new low pass rate. Then they will legitimize it by saying that law students have gotten dumber and blame law schools. The arrogance of these people is absolutely astounding.

I sat for Ohio this week and I also thought that the morning session was “different” than the practice questions that I used. Also it makes me relieved that someone else had the same reaction to that Torts essay about damages. I was completely caught off guard with that one. Also I think I did a terrible job on the corporations essay. I was prepared to write about a breach of the duty of loyalty and care then we got that b.s. fact pattern.

This was a trim the herd exam. They passed a fair amount in July. I think this is going to be a 50% pass rate again.. but Like I always say rather than looking at this bar exam and comparing it to past ones they will just say “this crop of students wasn’t prepared.

Now I’m freaking out.

[Thebariscoming]

I can't help but wonder whether they do this intentionally. I took the GA bar and the passage rate for folks taking it first time in July is wayyy higher than repeaters in Feb. Repeaters who pass are in the low 30s. I mean do they plant such questions on the MBE on purpose? Do repeaters do better in other jurisdictions? Like they're not answerable to us anyways. They can place whatever questions they want as long as they look like MBE questions. Honestly, I feel I'm experiencing the 5 stages of grief right now.

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?

[Jmari]

Any Ohio people in here??

Yup. What did you think?

Brutal essays. First day was bad for sure. Knew I blew at least one.

Yeah, they were pretty bad. Some parts I could get, but a lot of it was a tragicomic disaster. I was grasping at what little memory I had of peripheral details I had only ever seen in examples on Themis's handouts. That one torts essay was just downright mean.

If I fail, I'm going to try not to take it as a reflection on myself because WTF was that.

Never in my life have I seen such a vague call. I got to be honest I have gone through just about every essay in the past 15 years and they were about four or five on that exam that have never been tested or have never been a call of a question. I would’ve rather had a “discuss all claims.” Call than that. The corporations essay as well was ridiculous. I get the feeling this one might be an all new low pass rate. Then they will legitimize it by saying that law students have gotten dumber and blame law schools. The arrogance of these people is absolutely astounding.

I think it’s the start of the new phase where the form or contents of Bar exams start changing. And we just happen to be the lucky ones who went through it. The torts essay was brutal. I never thought they would test that state distinction. In torts and at least one other essay, I had to analyze the answer two ways (I think corporations). I was surprised they tested secured.

[deliriousxix]

I am not sure if the AM and PM questions are sometimes switched, but I thought the PM session was harder. That was the consensus amongst my friends but random people in the exam said AM was harder. I had about 40 minutes left in the morning and went back through all the questions I marked. I had enough time to review those and change a few answers with a few minutes to spare. In the afternoon, I think I marked about 25 questions and during the middle it was like every other question. I had 30 minutes to review those marked questions in the afternoon, but I had a hard time picking the "best" answer on a number of them. Seemed like quite a few oddball questions on fact patterns that I honestly do not remember seeing. I feel pretty decent but that is only based on how I did on practice MBE questions. Plus on the Barbri midterm, 100Q refresher, and a few of their 50 questions mixed sets I did not feel that confident but still did well enough. I think on the actual test its normal to stress about questions because it actually counts. I would think about the practice questions, but I knew it didn't count so no stress.

The MEE (UBE state) went surprisingly well for me. I had not practiced the essays much at all because I focused on the MBE. I know I did enough on each one to get an average score and really nailed one of them. MPTs, well just never enough time to get everything the way I want it, but I am sure I did fine on those.

I am glad that I am not studying today, but I hate having to wait a month to find out for sure that I passed.

In case you are feeling down, if I am reading this right someone has taken the Connecticut Bar exam 26 times and failed.

https://www.jud.ct.gov/cbec/Stats/July17Public.pdf

I felt like my PM session was MUCH more difficult as well. The AM session was almost easy for me. I assumed everyone had the same questions (so people can’t talk about questions during the break), but maybe not? The MBE is generally my strongest bar component.. I scored in the 90th percentile for the simulated MBE and scored well above average on the MBE for the Texas bar a few years ago.

[RCinDNA]

Just wanted to repeat that my state tested on state specific variations of hearsay exceptions. Ironically, I got 4 and a 5 on July’s Evidence essays but this time around, I am sure I bombed that one because I have a very rough memory of the Illinois version. In fact, I totally thought that they would only ask us questions about state specific distinctions of the 23+ exemptions and exceptions if they hated us which was why i made an effort to read through the distinctions at all.

[RCinDNA]

I am not sure if the AM and PM questions are sometimes switched, but I thought the PM session was harder. That was the consensus amongst my friends but random people in the exam said AM was harder. I had about 40 minutes left in the morning and went back through all the questions I marked. I had enough time to review those and change a few answers with a few minutes to spare. In the afternoon, I think I marked about 25 questions and during the middle it was like every other question. I had 30 minutes to review those marked questions in the afternoon, but I had a hard time picking the "best" answer on a number of them. Seemed like quite a few oddball questions on fact patterns that I honestly do not remember seeing. I feel pretty decent but that is only based on how I did on practice MBE questions. Plus on the Barbri midterm, 100Q refresher, and a few of their 50 questions mixed sets I did not feel that confident but still did well enough. I think on the actual test its normal to stress about questions because it actually counts. I would think about the practice questions, but I knew it didn't count so no stress.

The MEE (UBE state) went surprisingly well for me. I had not practiced the essays much at all because I focused on the MBE. I know I did enough on each one to get an average score and really nailed one of them. MPTs, well just never enough time to get everything the way I want it, but I am sure I did fine on those.

I am glad that I am not studying today, but I hate having to wait a month to find out for sure that I passed.

In case you are feeling down, if I am reading this right someone has taken the Connecticut Bar exam 26 times and failed.

https://www.jud.ct.gov/cbec/Stats/July17Public.pdf

I felt like my PM session was MUCH more difficult as well. The AM session was almost easy for me. I assumed everyone had the same questions (so people can’t talk about questions during the break), but maybe not? The MBE is generally my strongest bar component.. I scored in the 90th percentile for the simulated MBE and scored well above average on the MBE for the Texas bar a few years ago.

The AM session was much harder for me. I felt like crying by the 10th long question pattern with time running out. But standardized tests were always my Achilles heel. I did well in law offices because I can write well and research quickly and did well in law school because finals are oriented towards writing and outlining. It took a lot for me to get good logic games scores on the LSAT and I knew that the MBE would be a challenge. It’s funny how overthinking and overanalyzing can help out in the workplace but is a huge disadvantage under timed conditions.

[Landlaw]

Like I got hit by a freight train?

Like I have severe emotional distress?

Yes me too am questions were insane something was way off about them. Most unanswerable.

[Landlaw]

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....

I toatally agree. Something definitely wrong with 100 questions am for me. Pm were hard but at least I could see the familiar test areas. What the hell is going on with the writers at ncbe?? I feel like I didn’t have a shot no matter how I prepared at least for am session.

[Krissynateylee]

Goodgrief

[ScurryRay]

I came across this post on exam scoring. Anyone have a sense for whether this is legit? Check out the linked chart under the bullet reading "You would pass with any combination...." where the bullets start.

Guy is basically saying you can be in the 33rd percentile for both MBE and MPT/MEE and you will pass. I hope it's right but that seems like a really low threshold.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit ... d_what_is/

[anon0515]

Has anyone dropped in MBE scores between exam administrations before?

I previously scored above a 150 on the MBE (not sure of exact score) and prepped that time with just S&T and Adaptibar, went into the exam with about a 70% on adaptibar. I did the same prep this time and had around the same score on Adaptibar (slightly higher), but at the end of the MBE day felt like I was often making an educated guess between two answers and I forgot some specific exceptions and rules that I just should have had memorized better... if you do well once, will you likely score around the same again or can a dramatic drop be expected?

Thanks for any insight you guys can provide from your exam experiences. I'm thinking MBE is my only hope to save me from a big essay mistake.

[runningonempty]

Here is my modest proposal. For every MBE question that will appear on the exam, send it to 20 experts in the field. The aggregate response should match 95% of the time to the "correct" answer. (If the response from so-called experts is below this number, it can hardly be classified as accurate -or even fair.) Those of us answering questions during the MBE should not be required to have an accuracy rate higher than experts in the field.

What do you think?

[PSK_246]

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).

[bacillusanthracis]

I also feel like NCBE really likes motions for summary judgments for this exam.

This^ x 10.

I think the primary goal with those was to destroy the technique of reading the call of the question first. The secondary purpose was to frustrate.

I actually had to take a mini brain vacation to get my mind back under control. I did some hippie visualization bullshit about paradise replete with beautiful scenery and whatnot. And it actually helped. I know a new-agey type girl and among all the other adorably lame advice she gave me was this visualization trick; and it was actually helpful!

Anyway, other than those types of questions, I thought it was pretty fair. I thought the July MBE was on the fucking moon, but I think my mental freakout during that test gave me that [false] perception. I was much better prepared this time.

[RCinDNA]

I also feel like NCBE really likes motions for summary judgments for this exam.

This^ x 10.

I think the primary goal with those was to destroy the technique of reading the call of the question first. The secondary purpose was to frustrate.

I actually had to take a mini brain vacation to get my mind back under control. I did some hippie visualization bullshit about paradise replete with beautiful scenery and whatnot. And it actually helped. I know a new-agey type girl and among all the other adorably lame advice she gave me was this visualization trick; and it was actually helpful!

Anyway, other than those types of questions, I thought it was pretty fair. I thought the July MBE was on the fucking moon, but I think my mental freakout during that test gave me that [false] perception. I was much better prepared this time.

This is going to sound weird but I definitely had a similar moment during the test. My mental imagery was a little different - it was an apartment near the lake I just leased with the intention of boosting my morale that I would pass this thing despite the anemic February passage percentage.

[Go4broke]

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.