How well do you really have to know this stuff? Forum

[Lawworld19]

We are about 2 weeks out. I know many people who have failed and many who have passed. People who have passed (minus extreme gunners) how well do you really need to know this stuff for the essays? I am just at about passing for my state MBE. There is so much info, MBE + State specific, do you really have to memorize everything or can you just identify? How forgiving are the essay graders? I really am just curious what level is considered "passing" and how far I still have to go.

[sarahbeck10]

I passed on second try. For my first exam, I definitely underestimated how much I would need to know. For my second time, around 2-3 weeks out, I made a list of every notable "test" for each subject and made sure I could identify them and familiarized myself with essay fact patterns relating to the same. So for example with Secured Transactions I made sure I knew priorities, perfection, and types of collateral, etc. For commercial paper, I made sure I had down negotiability. With limited time, it helps to at least make sure you have down the elements of the big things for each subject even if you don't have time for nuances. In my opinion how forgiving graders are is completely arbitrary and changes from grader to grader, but in general, pretty forgiving. What is a passing score for one examinee could be a barely passing/failing score for another. This is the big issue with the bar exam. Good luck!

[redsox550]

I passed on second try. For my first exam, I definitely underestimated how much I would need to know. For my second time, around 2-3 weeks out, I made a list of every notable "test" for each subject and made sure I could identify them and familiarized myself with essay fact patterns relating to the same. So for example with Secured Transactions I made sure I knew priorities, perfection, and types of collateral, etc. For commercial paper, I made sure I had down negotiability. With limited time, it helps to at least make sure you have down the elements of the big things for each subject even if you don't have time for nuances. In my opinion how forgiving graders are is completely arbitrary and changes from grader to grader, but in general, pretty forgiving. What is a passing score for one examinee could be a barely passing/failing score for another. This is the big issue with the bar exam. Good luck!

I got in high 160's on essays on two different state exams. I agree with the above. It literally takes 5 minutes to learn 50%+ of commercial paper - which is the main elements of something (forgot by now). I had commercial paper on my exam and nailed it, though before the exam I wanted to see how well I knew commercial paper and took some MC questions and got like 33%. For some of these ancillary topics you really just need to memorize the main shit. Looks at 10 practice essays on commercial paper or secured transactions and maybe even trusts and others and you will see that on 95% of the essays the same majority of crap is tested which is really just one long thing of elements that are easy to apply.

[Nightcrawler]

I haven't pass the whole exam yet, but I'll chime in because last time I passed the written portion (CA). I noticed throughout my previous failed attempts that it's pretty hard to pass the 65 mark on a given essay. However, I feel like the thing that awards the most point is not getting lost in the smallest nuances of rules (still, they give points), but it's hitting as many relevant issues as possible. Much better to hit 5 out of 8 issues and write them in a mediocre way (as long as you hit all the main elements at least) compared to writing perfectly 3/8 issues, in my opinion.

[ivankinghk]

I messed up a wills and trust and a secure transaction essay, didn't finish 2 MPT questions, including failing to use the given case laws, and still passed. But 1 thing i did well was organization. I honestly think organizing my answers played a big role in passing.

[JohnnieSockran]

I messed up a wills and trust and a secure transaction essay, didn't finish 2 MPT questions, including failing to use the given case laws, and still passed. But 1 thing i did well was organization. I honestly think organizing my answers played a big role in passing.

OP, take advice like this and all other advice in this thread with a grain of salt because it will depend on the state. This probably wouldn't fly as passing in CA (and if it did, this poster probably crushed it in other sections). It's all going to be state specific based on what the state's cut score is.

As someone who failed CA and passed the 2nd time, ya gotta know all of this stuff pretty well, so keep working hard these last couple of weeks.

[ivankinghk]

I messed up a wills and trust and a secure transaction essay, didn't finish 2 MPT questions, including failing to use the given case laws, and still passed. But 1 thing i did well was organization. I honestly think organizing my answers played a big role in passing.

OP, take advice like this and all other advice in this thread with a grain of salt because it will depend on the state. This probably wouldn't fly as passing in CA (and if it did, this poster probably crushed it in other sections). It's all going to be state specific based on what the state's cut score is.

As someone who failed CA and passed the 2nd time, ya gotta know all of this stuff pretty well, so keep working hard these last couple of weeks.

my was NY bar. but I agreed, you gotta know your stuff, even for bs-ing asnwers. So good luck.