July 2018 Texas Bar Exam Forum

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pvnyc

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by pvnyc » Thu Oct 25, 2018 8:51 pm

Raisingthebar1 wrote:For those on here proclaiming that the February bar is for some reason more difficult than the July bar exam, I am sure the BLE would love to hear how you reached this grand conclusion. The BLE takes painstaking efforts to make sure the bar exam remains consistent across multiple exam periods to ensure one exam is not "harder" to pass. The questions themselves go through multiple levels of review and the BLE generally aims to draft consistent questions. Additionally, scores are ultimately tied to a curve that relates back to the MBE. The MBE model has multiple checkpoints to ensure consistency across exams developed by a team of statisticians and experts in the field. I can assure you there is no grand conspiracy at the BLE or NCBE to make February exams more difficult. February exams historically will always be lower (and for good reason). Most people taking their first bar exam will sit in July. The February pool includes substantially more repeaters, people who delayed taking the bar exam, and people sitting for a second bar exam (and therefore spent a greater time period removed from law school). All of these factors in the applicant pool correlate with lower bar passage, so it is no surprise the February rates should be substantially lower than July. I would love to be enlightened how your anecdotal negative experience with a February exam has more persuasive weight than years of meticulous effort by the BLE and experts in the field to produce fair and consistent exams.
Hi, but the scale for grading the exam in Feb is tough, is it not? I failed July 18.. but if I had my Essay Scores from the Feb 18 exam in the July 18 exam, I would likely have passed... or got close to a 266

Raisingthebar1

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Raisingthebar1 » Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:50 pm

pvnyc wrote:
Raisingthebar1 wrote:For those on here proclaiming that the February bar is for some reason more difficult than the July bar exam, I am sure the BLE would love to hear how you reached this grand conclusion. The BLE takes painstaking efforts to make sure the bar exam remains consistent across multiple exam periods to ensure one exam is not "harder" to pass. The questions themselves go through multiple levels of review and the BLE generally aims to draft consistent questions. Additionally, scores are ultimately tied to a curve that relates back to the MBE. The MBE model has multiple checkpoints to ensure consistency across exams developed by a team of statisticians and experts in the field. I can assure you there is no grand conspiracy at the BLE or NCBE to make February exams more difficult. February exams historically will always be lower (and for good reason). Most people taking their first bar exam will sit in July. The February pool includes substantially more repeaters, people who delayed taking the bar exam, and people sitting for a second bar exam (and therefore spent a greater time period removed from law school). All of these factors in the applicant pool correlate with lower bar passage, so it is no surprise the February rates should be substantially lower than July. I would love to be enlightened how your anecdotal negative experience with a February exam has more persuasive weight than years of meticulous effort by the BLE and experts in the field to produce fair and consistent exams.
Hi, but the scale for grading the exam in Feb is tough, is it not? I failed July 18.. but if I had my Essay Scores from the Feb 18 exam in the July 18 exam, I would likely have passed... or got close to a 266
Based on the score you cited I assume you are talking about a non-Texas state (probably a UBE state based on the score). (Also unsure whether you meant to say July 17 or 18?) Regardless, whether you take the exam in February or July, there will always be people that walk out feeling great and others not so much. What is easy or hard on a personal level is extremely subjective and based on our personal knowledge.

In Texas, I know essays are curved based on the MBE. Check out https://ble.texas.gov/scoring_and_weighting for more details. How do we know the MBE is fair ---- because they use statistical equating. http://www.ncbex.org/exams/mbe/scores/ This is why MBE is so strict about not releasing questions. The reuse a select number of questions of each exam to help account for statistical differences. This is how the average MBE score can change each exam but still be "equal" to past exams. I get you may be skeptical, but I can assure you the statistical methods check out and bar exams across the country actively take measures to avoid "easy" and "hard" exams. Individual exam taker reports are extremely subjective and not reflective of the aggregate data.

Nightcrawler

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Nightcrawler » Fri Oct 26, 2018 1:06 am

Raisingthebar1 wrote:For those on here proclaiming that the February bar is for some reason more difficult than the July bar exam, I am sure the BLE would love to hear how you reached this grand conclusion. The BLE takes painstaking efforts to make sure the bar exam remains consistent across multiple exam periods to ensure one exam is not "harder" to pass. The questions themselves go through multiple levels of review and the BLE generally aims to draft consistent questions. Additionally, scores are ultimately tied to a curve that relates back to the MBE. The MBE model has multiple checkpoints to ensure consistency across exams developed by a team of statisticians and experts in the field. I can assure you there is no grand conspiracy at the BLE or NCBE to make February exams more difficult. February exams historically will always be lower (and for good reason). Most people taking their first bar exam will sit in July. The February pool includes substantially more repeaters, people who delayed taking the bar exam, and people sitting for a second bar exam (and therefore spent a greater time period removed from law school). All of these factors in the applicant pool correlate with lower bar passage, so it is no surprise the February rates should be substantially lower than July. I would love to be enlightened how your anecdotal negative experience with a February exam has more persuasive weight than years of meticulous effort by the BLE and experts in the field to produce fair and consistent exams.
For the reasons you stated, July has a higher pass rate. And for the statistical equating they use, a lower pass rate equals to a lower scale, which means less points for everybody in February. Even if the July and February exams have the same difficulty, one is harder to pass for the sole reasons that you will get less points for the same raw score.

Houstonttt

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Houstonttt » Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:15 am

in Addition to get 135 you have to be like in top 37 %tile in July while in Fe to get the 135 you have to be in top 55 %tile which will make you preform way better on the written portion to reach the passing zone.. However Feb. will carry most repeater which may make us reach the higher percentile easily.

Houstonttt

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Houstonttt » Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:49 am

Electricella wrote:HAHAHA. Decided to give myself some comfort and tried Joe Seperac's estimator for the bar exam. It says I probably failed. That was not a good idea lol.
:roll: :roll: :roll:
lol just played with it :) by changing male to female gave me close to call rather than fail lol

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cantdecide

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by cantdecide » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:47 am

OMLS48 wrote:Is the general consensus that we're to expect an email the day the results are released prior to the list going public? I know in years past, the list was the first opportunity to view if you passed, but in Feb 2018, candidates received an email with scores. Not sure if that new practice will continue going forward. Thoughts?
Heard from a Feb 2018 taker that the email looked like a standard 'check your BLE account for an update' email that they've sent for everything else, and that the list was up ~10 minutes after the email was sent.

OMLS48

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by OMLS48 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 10:58 am

Ten minutes is nowhere near enough time to GTFO of the office. I think Justice Brown might give us some warning on twitter. I'd much appreciate that.

airtexas13

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by airtexas13 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:21 am

OMLS48 wrote:Ten minutes is nowhere near enough time to GTFO of the office. I think Justice Brown might give us some warning on twitter. I'd much appreciate that.
I'm a huge fan of the twitter warning system from the highest court in the state. A little levity, a little notice, never hurt anyone. Then again, I'd also be fine with a Friday miracle and release today!

On my first attempt, my mate told me a story (unverified) about how one of the girls in his school who had sat with us, had been up late at some unholy hour about a week before results should be released. Out of habit, she checked the results page, and found the results posted, checked her name, and thought nothing of it, because she figured everyone else was going to find out. Well, then results were taken down, and we guess it was something like a dry run to make sure results would upload properly.

Not sure if that's true, but when I wake in the middle of the night, sometimes I'll check the pass lists.

Serenity147862

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Serenity147862 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 2:03 pm

Heads up- Justice Brown responded to a tweet of someone asking if results would be up before Nov. 1st and he said yes, it was possible for results to be emailed early next week and a pass list to be posted by mid week.

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airtexas13

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by airtexas13 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 3:32 pm

Serenity147862 wrote:Heads up- Justice Brown responded to a tweet of someone asking if results would be up before Nov. 1st and he said yes, it was possible for results to be emailed early next week and a pass list to be posted by mid week.
What did I tell ya! It's a Friday miracle! I'll be on vacation and freaking out, whereas before I figured I could wait to get home before freaking out. Huzzah!

OMLS48

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by OMLS48 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 4:00 pm

Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.

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whosinthehousejc

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by whosinthehousejc » Fri Oct 26, 2018 4:08 pm

OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.

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whosinthehousejc

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by whosinthehousejc » Fri Oct 26, 2018 5:52 pm

whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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cantdecide

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by cantdecide » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:15 pm

whosinthehousejc wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can't tell if all this speculation is increasing or decreasing my anxiety

Baaah

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Baaah » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:20 pm

cantdecide wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can't tell if all this speculation is increasing or decreasing my anxiety

definitely increasing, astronomically.

airtexas13

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by airtexas13 » Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:21 pm

cantdecide wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I can't tell if all this speculation is increasing or decreasing my anxiety

Huh, guess you cantdecide. :D

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Houstonttt » Sat Oct 27, 2018 3:47 am

dtjustice wrote:I'm setting this up for the July 2018 takers....You can also download the WhatsApp app and text me your first name if you'd like to join! It was AMAZINGLY helpful for Feb exam. Whether we passed or have to take again, the group is soooo supportive!!

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Raisingthebar1

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Raisingthebar1 » Sat Oct 27, 2018 7:53 pm

whosinthehousejc wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Justice Jeff Brown is up for reelection this cycle. I plan to early vote either Monday or Tuesday. If Justice Brown can manage to get me bar results before then he has earned my vote. Otherwise Kathy Cheng is getting my vote! We will see if she can do better.

Houstonttt

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Houstonttt » Sun Oct 28, 2018 3:12 am

Raisingthebar1 wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
whosinthehousejc wrote:
OMLS48 wrote:Don't want to throw anyone into a panic, but from the mouth of a Texas Supreme Court clerk, results are "definitely coming out on Monday". Please take this with caution because I've been burned before. Before this tweet and subsequent correspondence, I was 100% confident about Thursday as per usual, but now all bets are off.
SCOTX clerk here, consensus here appears to be Thursday.
That said, the State Bar's Twitter account just retweeted Justice Brown's tweet, so maybe we'll see results earlier than Thurs? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Lol
I like your point of veiw and will fellow!!

Justice Jeff Brown is up for reelection this cycle. I plan to early vote either Monday or Tuesday. If Justice Brown can manage to get me bar results before then he has earned my vote. Otherwise Kathy Cheng is getting my vote! We will see if she can do better.

Houstonttt

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Houstonttt » Sun Oct 28, 2018 5:14 am

barexamracket wrote:Hello all,
I took and just missed passing the TX Feb exam (scored 668/1000). I did not purchase a bar prep course, but am considering one now to make sure i get over the hump. Any recommendations on the best way to go for TX? I was considering Themis, but based on the above post comparing Themis to Kaplan, maybe Kaplan is a better value. I wrote Themis explaining that my financial situation is extremely tight right now in hope of receiving a discount, but as the above poster mentioned, it doesn't appear that there is any wiggle room with them. If anyone else is interested in selling (or donating!) their TX materials, please let me know! Also, I'm planning to take CA after passing TX, so trying to find the best value for getting state specific materials for both. Does anyone know, for example, if I bought Themis (or Kaplan) for TX and passed, is there any chance that they will offer just the CA materials at a significant discount? Would appreciate any recommendations on a good plan for someone in my situation. As for the specifics of my score, I actually bombed the MPT (I had some severe eye issues the week of the exam - I've had cornea transplants in both eyes and was dealing with a bad infection in one eye, which especially inhibited me at the very start of it, and I ended up not even finishing the MPT on time), did well on TX civil and criminal, average MBE (138), and okay on most TX essays (except very uncomfortable on the oil and gas, family law and commercial paper questions, none of which I knew quite well enough). Thanks very much for any suggestions or help. Also, will join the above mentioned study group. I'm located in Fort Worth if anyone is interested in forming a study group.
I am sure you gonna make it this time, one week and then congrats:)
Do you mind sharing what was score gor MPT? And percentile on essay!!?
Thanks

OMLS48

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by OMLS48 » Sun Oct 28, 2018 3:16 pm

Monday officially per Brown’s latest tweet. Good luck all.

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Electricella

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Electricella » Sun Oct 28, 2018 4:40 pm

Omg Monday for real! Good luck everyone!!

Adverselypossessed

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by Adverselypossessed » Sun Oct 28, 2018 5:50 pm

Anyone else awaiting results have a bday tomorrow?

I10attorney

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by I10attorney » Mon Oct 29, 2018 8:27 am

Wishing everyone the best!!

BasilHallward

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Re: July 2018 Texas Bar Exam

Post by BasilHallward » Mon Oct 29, 2018 9:44 am

The scores are in your BLE account. Good luck!

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge.
Just kidding ... it's still FREE!


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