barexamguru

Finally – No PR!

Hello All,

Still collecting data – but so far, have heard: Contracts/Remedies, Wills (some undue influence), and Criminal Law/Procedure. (If you took this exam today, then you already know this – I am waiting for more details and will post as soon as I hear more).

You are almost done – Congratulations!

So far, thinking you might have PR this afternoon (but, who knows . . . maybe they will throw in Torts on this one) . . . in any case, I expect today’s PT to be easier than PTA and I would expect a persuasive type of assignment. It has been a while since the examiners have required more than one task on the PT, so I would not be surprised if you saw a PT this afternoon that asks for more than one document or task.

Best of luck,

Lisa

10 comments

  2. Dear Lisa,

    As a first-time bar-taker, I feel pretty comfortable about my essay results, because I knew most of the rules and organized pretty well. However, I did make this one huge mistake — on that Civ Pro question, I named all the correct rules (studied them that morning) and organized well, yet accidentally applied the facts as if the court was located in State B (they filed in the fed dist court in State A, actually). I was wondering, will my misreading of the call of the question totally reduce that score to a 55 because I messed up that one fact? Or is there still hope for a higher score if I did everything else correctly?

    Today’s essays were pretty easy, but the PT was super-racehorse. The lady next to me also said so. Another friend (who was taking the test a second time) felt that the MBEs were tougher this time around.

    Thanks for the solid predictions, I appreciate them! 🙂

    Hopefully I won’t need them again. You have provided a valuable service. Keep up the great work, and please feel good about what you do.

    • Hello,

      I made the same mistake on Q1, and would also like to know how potentially damaging it was.

      Thanks for the blog Lisa, it was very helpful!

      • Hello cabartaker,

        It was a common mistake (and generally is a common mistake) on the bar exam to misread a question. While it would change your analysis by thinking misreading that they were from the same state, all does not have to be lost. Bear in mind that it is only one essay. Let me give you an example that hopefully will ease your mind a bit. One of my students who took the July 2002 bar exam was certain she had failed (she passed, by the way). But, here is why she was certain she had failed: there was a products liability question on the Juy 2002 bar exam, there were two calls – one was agains manufacturer and one was against doctor. She wrote and wrote and then finished only to realize – after the test – that she had forgotten to write call number two (this was a full negligence discussion – about 1/3 or more of that essay and she forgot). Well, she past in spite of it. The bar examiners do tolerate mistakes – constantly. No bar passer writes six perfect answers. I know it must feel so frustrating to have misread something, but, it will be clear from your answer that you misread it and not that you misunderstand the law – that is an important difference. Try not to worry about it too much. My student who took that July 2002 exam was inconsolable at first, but, in November she got great news – I wish you the same.

        Thank you for following my blog.

        All the best,

        Lisa

    • Thank you for following my blog and for your comment.

      I do believe the MBEs were harder this time – that is what many have reported in. Don’t worry, they will scale it and so perhaps this bar round the raw passing will be lower than February’s raw passing score (which was a 131).

      Hang in there! I know how tough the waiting is!

      All the best,

      Lisa

    • Hello John Paul,

      Thank you for following my blog and for your comment. I agree, it sounds like the MBEs were a harder this round. Thankfully these are scaled. Years ago, when the questions were easier (or the course materials out there were more representative of the actual questions, a raw passing score was between 140 and 143. However, for several years now, the raw passing score has been between a 129 and a 133 (last February 2012 the raw passing score was a 132 – which equaled a 1442 scaled).

      I responded to someone after you who had the same problem with the civil procedure essay. Here is what I told them:

      “It was a common mistake (and generally is a common mistake) on the bar exam to misread a question. While it would change your analysis by thinking/misreading that they were from the same state, all does not have to be lost. Bear in mind that it is only one essay. Let me give you an example that hopefully will ease your mind a bit. One of my students who took the July 2002 bar exam was certain she had failed (she passed, by the way). But, here is why she was certain she had failed: there was a products liability question on the Juy 2002 bar exam, there were two calls – one was agains manufacturer and one was against doctor. She wrote and wrote and then finished only to realize – after the test – that she had forgotten to write call number two (this was a full negligence discussion – about 1/3 or more of that essay and she forgot). Well, she past in spite of it. The bar examiners do tolerate mistakes – constantly. No bar passer writes six perfect answers. I know it must feel so frustrating to have misread something, but, it will be clear from your answer that you misread it and not that you misunderstand the law – that is an important difference”.

      Try not to worry about it too much. My student who took that July 2002 exam was inconsolable at first, but, in November she got great news – I wish you the same.

      Thank you again for following my blog.

      All the best,

      Lisa

  3. I agree the second PT was pretty tough, I almost felt worse about it than the first because it was so obscure. Plus I felt that crafting an argument out of the library law involved a lot of guessing as to what argument the examiners were looking for. Hopefully I applied the right argument! But the hardest part of this exam (by far!) were the MBEs. I’d say at least half of the questions tested teensy nuances in the laws that I had never heard of and that weren’t covered in Barbri. Lisa, if I fail this time I’m coming straight to you 🙂

  4. Hi Lisa. Just logged back in to say “thank you” for the vignette about your student who was in a similar position to me. While I still worried and worried about that question all the way until November, your story did provide some comfort. And yes, I ended up passing — so let it be known that you can completely screw up at least one essay question and still pass.