Bar Review Status Report
After five weeks of studying for the bar exam, I have:
- Attended 19 video lectures, which comes to just under 60 hours of talking professors.
- Watched another 6 hours of MBE “workshop” lectures.
- Made 135 flash cards.
- Created about 145 pages of all new outlines in seven different subjects.
- Written 15 practice essays and outlined at least fifteen more.
- Done just over 1,500 multiple-choice MBE questions.
And there are still five more weeks until the bar exam.
Peter:
Keep studying, and really hammer the MBEs. They are a key to passing our beloved (dreaded) California Bar Exam.
Okay, getting an average of 65 on the essays is also a key.
Yeah, a 130 on each of the PTs would be nice, too.
Well, it just goes to show…you have to work everything, and it sounds like you are.
Best of luck in November.
Jonathan Kramer, Esq.
PassTheBarExam.com
Damn! 1500 MBEs already?! I seem like such a slacker… I’ve only done 506.
(Then again, I’m not taking California’s exam, so I’m not sure how much the MBEs are worth for you.)
Yeah, and I’m up to 1,600 now, because I just did a 100-question, half-day “simulated” exam. (Got 71% correct, which makes for a raw score that is definitely within “passing” range, but I still hate to see 29% wrong.)
The MBE counts for 35% of the California bar exam total score. The other 65% is based on the written portion, six hours of which is essay-writing and six hours of which is “performance tests” (i.e., you get three hours with a scenario, some cases and/or statutes, and a lawyerly task to perform, like writing a memo or an opinion letter).
All that’s missing is a Kobayashi Maru portion.
I’m up to 732 MBEs, but I doubt I’ll ever catch up to you. I did 168 yesterday, and I feel like my brain is slowly rotting.
The MBE is 1/3 of my state’s scores. Another 2/3 comes from the essays (both state and multistate topics) and MPT. So, it sounds similar to California in that regard, though our pass rates are higher.
I am very impressed by your focus. It sounds like you are working hard, much harder than I have been. (It is a constant struggle for me to focus and buckle down to study!) Good luck with all your studying.
Correction: 782. Not that it’s still anywhere close to what you’ve done.
Well, the only reason I’ve done so many is because my first week of bar review (before my Bar/Bri course started), that’s all I did. And I started studying a lot earlier than a lot of people I know. When is your exam? And which state are you in?
Also, I heard from multiple sources that most people don’t see a marked improvement on MBE questions until they’ve done between 1,000 and 1,500, so I figured I needed to crank it up. That turned out to be mostly true.
After I do a set of questions, I always go back, read the explanations, and then write out the rule that, had I known or remembered it, would have allowed me to get the correct answer. But in the last 100 questions or so, I have found very often, maybe approaching half of my wrong answers, that I knew the correct rule, but either failed to understand the question correctly or disagreed with the question writer as to analysis. Those are the kinds of things that you really can’t study for, except to make sure you’re awake and paying attention on the day of the test.
(Or, as in the case of one question I did yesterday, I think it was just extremely poorly written. The fact pattern had a contract where one of the parties was a refinery providing oil to the other. The refinery party sold its refineries to someone else—it didn’t sell its business, it didn’t go out of business, just sold its refineries. That’s all the question said. So then the choices were about who can enforce what against whom. I thought the facts were strange. They didn’t say anything about whether the contract was assigned or delegated as part of the sale. So I thought, “Okay, they’re asking what would be the effect on the contract if the refineries are sold.” WRONG. When I read the explanation, I discovered that I was supposed to assume that when the refineries were sold, the contract was sold with them. Argh. How do you prepare for questions like that? I can’t think of a way.)
I wouldn’t say I have been studying with extraordinary focus or anything. At least, it doesn’t feel like that from where I sit. But I haven’t, like, sat down and watched someone else study for the bar. The closest reference I have is my study partner, who is doing pretty much the same stuff I’m doing. We’re both busy, but we still find time for fun stuff.
Anyway, I best be on my way. We’re doing a full-day simulated MBE today. Six hours, two hundred questions. Woo. Hoo.
Well, just be sure to figure out a way to adjust your Kobayashi Maru so you can win.
Sounds like you’re studying hard. I’m sure it will pay off.
My exam is the last week in July… I’m taking a Midwestern exam and hoping to do well enough on the MBE that I could waive into Minnesota if I so choose.
I think I might prefer a Kobayashi Maru scenario to UCC Article 9.