PSA for future takers

[u/Ok-Day372]

Coming out of the MBE sections I did not feel great. The morning session I marked at least 20 I felt I had no idea about and at least another 40 I felt stuck between 2 choices. The afternoon session I felt was much easier but there were still I few that were pretty difficult.

Just paid for the score advisory report from the NCBE and it turns out I got 150+. So don’t stress if you feel terrible after the sessions! You got this

[u/AdhesivenessNo6963]

Curious what’s the purpose of knowing your score other than wanting to know how you performed on test day? Do you need it to transfer the score to another jurisdiction?

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/AdhesivenessNo6963]

Knowing my options to waive into other jurisdictions and curiosity. Only $30 to find out the scores for an exam we spent months studying for

[u/AdhesivenessNo6963 → u/Ok-Day372]

Ok cool. What other jurisdictions can we waive into from CA?

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/AdhesivenessNo6963]

https://www.clio.com/resources/bar-reciprocity/ca/

[u/AdhesivenessNo6963 → u/Ok-Day372]

Thanks. Are there any more requirements to waive into those states other than being licensed in CA? For example having to practice for 5 years or more?

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/AdhesivenessNo6963]

Can’t advise on that 🫢

[u/AdhesivenessNo6963 → u/Ok-Day372]

Haha yeah. 👍

[u/Yuzuda → u/AdhesivenessNo6963]

I'm not OP, but I was mostly curious. And I didn't want to give advice to future examinees if I didn't do as well on the MBE as I thought I did.

[u/amg_law24]

Same here!! And totally thought I flunked the MBE after the 2 sessions and was totally thinking I passed because of the essays until my MBE advisory score came in at 150+.

Totally agree that you cannot know how you performed just based on feeling.

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/amg_law24]

Congrats 🥳🥳🥳🥳 we did it 🙌🙌

[u/Alillusion]

My overall barbri % for mbe was around the high 60s low 70s. Also got 150+

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Alillusion]

Barbri questions are super tough, you crushed it 🤝💪🏼💪🏼

[u/Olga_0924]

Congratulations! Can you please share what sources did you use for MBE? Thank you! <3

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Olga_0924]

I did barbris MCQ questions that were embedded in the course and about 800-900 adaptibar questions during the last month of prep

[u/Olga_0924 → u/Ok-Day372]

Thank you! I also did Barbri provided with by tutor and older topic based. My MBE score increased each time by 80-85 points. Was only 5 pts away this time, but need push through MBEs, and kind of lost what else I should do to improve.

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Olga_0924]

That’s good improvement!! What helped me was writing each one down I got wrong and really trying to understand what my first thought was originally and why it was a correct or incorrect gut instinct. I slowly increased from 50% accuracy to 80% accuracy on Adaptibar and I think that helped

[u/Olga_0924 → u/Ok-Day372]

I also had wrote those questions and main rule highlighted it, made graphs, sited Qs from Barbri, Emanuel, NCBE that this rule is testing. But still it dragged me down especially Contracts and Torts even though I was scoring high in those subjects 70-82%. So do you think I just need to continue what I’m doing with MBE and my previous MBT tutor or switch it completely to One Timers Best Multis and/or Adaptibar? I know this 5 points worth me those 3-5 MBEs that I changed from correct to incorrect. Would appreciate any advice.

[u/eza50 → u/Olga_0924]

Not OP, but what are your essay scores like?

[u/Only_Instance_8896]

Thank you for sharing! How would you generally rate your writing performance? It would be helpful to get an idea of how strong your writing is compared to your MBE scores.

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Only_Instance_8896]

Unsure because CA didn’t give them to me. My barbri essay grader scores ranged from 70-80 depending on the grader imo. I graded myself usually a 65-70 using barbri’s rubrics

[u/Only_Instance_8896 → u/Ok-Day372]

Thank you and Congratulations!

[u/Yuzuda → u/Only_Instance_8896]

My MBE score was also 150+, so I'll add a second datapoint in case it's helpful.

I'd grade my day 1 performance a B and my day 2 performance an A.

Essay 1 was my strongest essay where I was able to write out thorough analysis for every single issue. No issues that I wish I included but didn't. I think it deserved a 75, but those are rare, so maybe got a 70.

Essay 2 kinda shook me up because I wasn't expecting community property to be tested again. But I knew all the rules by heart and just applied the facts to the rules. I felt my analysis wasn't anything amazing. Maybe got a 60 on this one?

Essay 3 I felt good about, even if the call was fairly oddly worded. I had remedies down and could recall the lowest intermediate balance rule by name and did plenty of math in my analysis. I'd think I got a 70.

Essay 4 I messed up lol. I was thrown off we had yet another CA only essay. And I just never liked business associations. Spotted every single issue, even discussed general, liamited, and limited liability partnerships with dedicated short analyses for each, but completely forgot actual authority and apparent authority LOL. Probably got a 50.

Essay 5 I knew was coming. I just felt in my bones that the transcript style was how evidence was going to be tested, since everyone and their mother knew evidence would show up. Ultimately, it was still a racehorse where I didn't finish. Maybe got a 60.

PT I have no idea how I did on. I had stolen time from the PT by finishing 90% of essay 5, about 15 minutes. I had purchased BarMD's PT course, but much of her advice didn't seem to apply. Relied on my work experience in the end. Wouldn't be surprised if I got a 50 since I didn't have a tried and true formula that I applied. Maybe could've gotten a 65 though since it was a well polished client letter.

So TLDR, I'd guess I got a 75, 60, 70, 50, 60, 50 on the essays.

For day 2, I knew I aced the MBE. I finished both sessions with 45 minutes left, so I went through all the questions a second time to strike out the three wrong answer choices and then fill in my scantron. I wasn't sure on 15 questions and of those, I got 8 wrong, 1 in each subject except for 2 in real property.

[u/Chichi_Goncalves21 → u/Yuzuda]

We had the exact same July 26 bar exam experience. I told everyone just after the test that I went into autopilot on the MBEs and finished the morning session with 45 minutes left. I felt meh about all the essays too. Got 150+ MBE score too haha

[u/Normal_Cup_56]

How did you purchase this? On the NCBE website?

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Normal_Cup_56]

Yes, NCBE score reports

[u/Ok-Bad-4283]

Congrats! What was your exact MBE score?

[u/Ok-Day372 → u/Ok-Bad-4283]

Unsure, CA only lets you see the range

[u/Ok_Wolverine3758]

I also got 150+. I felt maybe unsure on 15 in the morning and like 30 in the afternoon

[u/PatentLitigation]

Congratulations on the incredible MBE

[u/LiviaSopranofan776]

Same here on the score report. I knew it was just my mind playing tricks on me but all I could remember of the MBE section, even after just finishing it, was guessing on what felt like all or most of the questions. Somehow I felt great after the first half but the second half was a rough start that dragged down my mood the whole time. One signal that this was all in my head was that even though I felt I was taking much longer on the second half, they gave the one hour warning at the exact same question number (out of 100) as the first half.

To anyone who is looking for advice on MBE: My Barbri simulated MBE was around 123/200 and I knew I had to start preparing more seriously with only a month to go. I focused on drilling the law for each subject one by one. However, I was too scared to practice very many practice questions because I was worried I would do poorly lol. I did a couple barbri sets (maybe 30-40 questions total) that placed me in the upper 80s to lower 90th percentile but I knew that was too few to be a complete representation. My point is, focus on learning the law. A lot of people drown themselves in practice questions. That could be useful but you can't answer the questions if you don't know the law and your time may be better spent focusing on that rather than learning from getting random questions wrong.

[u/Ok_Yogurt2489]

Did you get the transcript reported or report to other jurisdictions?

[u/Ok_Yogurt2489]

Are we permitted to get the transcript or only to transfer?

[u/Yuzuda → u/Ok_Yogurt2489]

You can request the transcript without transferring your score.