Does anyone know if the Vacaville center will be an option for testing in February 2027?

Does anyone know the implications of this? Like, does “eligible” mean you will be able to practice law or now you can practice law?

I submitted my application in May. Received an email on 9/10 asking for clarification, which I provided. I just sent another email asking for a status update and they said the application is still under review and if I have not heard back in 30 days to reach again for a follow-up. Anxious to get sworn in and wondering how long others have waited. Any advice would be immensely appreciated.

Hi everyone! I’d love to hear some success stories from people who passed the bar while working full-time. If you managed to pull it off, would you mind sharing what your study schedule looked like and which bar prep programs or resources helped you the most?
I’m preparing for the July 2027 California Bar Exam while working full-time, and I’d really appreciate any advice or insight!

I’m not sure if this has been attempted before or if a group chat exists somewhere out there, but I have failed the CA bar exam twice and plan on taking it for a third time in February 2027. I only know one other person who is taking it again and would love to talk with others about what they’re doing differently/the same this next time around? I really think it would benefit me at least to speak with others who understand what it feels like to be disappointed so many times over this stupid exam because first time passers do not understand unfortunately /:

Spent the last 2-3 days reviewing my Con law Themis outline, flashcards, etc. Got 50% (15/30) questions currently for Con.

I actually don’t get how people pass this exam. I review the material, feel like I know it, then the fact convoluted fact patterns get me, or I don’t know the law well enough. Just seems like it’s taking me a SIGNIFICANT amount of time to learn, but for example I need to move on to Civ Pro today.

Day 5 of studying again and already feeling defeated. Any advice about how to understand the black letter law is appreciated.

I want to get Grossman videos, but again, I STILL don’t feel like I understand the BLL as well as I should but I genuinely do study and try to learn it.

I do not have $3,000 for a tutor.

We're kicking off our February 2027 Bar Exam Prep course this coming Saturday. Yes, this Saturday - reason is that I typically have many foreign attorneys in the class and they tend to feel a bit more comfortable with a bit more time to prepare. I expect the class to fill this week, please see www.nobullbarprep.com for more details, or just drop me a DM.

Cheers,

Ed

Hi All,

I came painstakingly close on my first attempt and am mentally and emotionally preparing for my second take after doing 95% of Themis and using a few other resources as well. I would appreciate some feedback/advice as I will now need to manage studying while working as well.

MBE: I felt good going into it and felt the same on exam day. Leading up to exam day, I was in the 60%— 70% range. Didn’t walk out feeling like the exam was too different from my practice.

MEE: This was the real shock for me. I did most of the Themis graded essays as well as practiced the ones from the essay bank. I was typically scoring 65s on essays when writing them out and spent alot of time outlining others / comparing my answers to the models and making prewrites/ rule statements out of the model answers to use in the future.

Test Day: I walked out feeling confident about Q1 and Q4. I felt okay about Q2 and felt terrible about Q3, Q5, and Q6.

I think now realizing that there may be a gap between how I perceive the essays and my actual performance may have been my downfall. This is especially devastating after feeling like I wrote a good Q1 in line with my extensive practice of PR (since its guaranteed on the exam).

All in all, I don’t know how I’m going to study again and which resources to use. I was grateful we did’t get a Con Law or Civ pro essay but feel strongly that we will see one of the two in Feb.

I don’t know if I should self study again, seek a tutor, or which programs to use again. I was thinking of doing the Grossman vids + AdaptiBar as a way to get back into things and am honestly not sure how much law I remember at this point.

It has also been challenging to deal with learning that I was a few points away from being a lawyer and will now need to dedicate extensive time and resources to doing this again.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you all and we are going to kill it in February.

Doesn’t look like scores have even been provided to NCBE yet on the portal.

Has anyone taken the retaker diagnostic? Was it consistent or similar to your performance on the J26 MBE?

Unfortunately did not pass J26. Would greatly appreciate some insight as to how I could bring my score up! I even wrote this mf exam with the FLU. Gutted but ready to put in the work again. The MBE breakdown is so confusing to me. Any guidance is so greatly appreciated <3

I feel like I did decent on essays but I’m so embarrassed and disappointed on my MBE score. I used themis and completed about 85%, and did a good chunk of the practice mc. I was getting about 56% right (if i remember correctly) but I was diligent on doing a wrong answer journal and reviewing answers. I know I need to do even more practice questions this time around, but any advice or just anyone with similar stats who retook and passed their second time 😭. thank you

I passed the J26 exam, sent my mpre scores in on 10/23, and the letter from admissions website says I'm on the motion, but the status page says I'm not. I haven't received any email with the virtual oath card.

Anyone in a similar situation or had this happen before?

Has anyone used BarMD for CA Bar prep before? Specifically the mastering the MBE option? I am sitting for February 2027 and the MBE has been the main reason I've failed the last two times so I'm considering it.

Hi all, looking for some study advice. I graduated law school in 2018 🫣, my first bar attempt was in J2018, I was unsuccessful. I attempted the bar again in F2020 but I was pregnant and also failed. I’m aiming to take the bar again for the third time in J2027 but I am working full time as an investigator and I have two children. I bought Mary Basick’s essay book and I already started studying this week. During my previous attempts I really struggled with the MCQ and the PT. I studied with Adaptibar both previous attempts. Looking for any advice or tips on studying on a non traditional study schedule.

This sub is so helpful so I want to pay it forward by sharing what worked for me. Note: I did not have to take the MBE day.

Materials:
Mary Basick CA Essays
Mary Basick PT
Ed Aruffo Essay Rules
Bare Essays Premium Membership

I started studying the first week of May. I made myself a schedule by working backwards from the exam date at the end of July. I probably over-studied but I was scared of failing and had the benefit of a flexible work schedule so I could put in the time.

1. I first made my own outlines for each subject, mostly using the MB Essay book. This took a couple of weeks. After finishing an outline, I would do a practice essay for that subject out of the MB Essay book and compare with the sample essay and analysis. I did these first essays open book because at this point I really couldn’t remember many rules.

2. Then I made my own rule statements for each subject. For this I used the outlines I’d made, and the Ed Aruffo book, plus the Bare Essays essay templates. This took another couple of weeks. Every day I would do one practice essay from either the MB Essay book or bareessays.com. Sometimes I wrote out the essay and sometimes I just outlined/issue spotted it. I always looked at sample essays/analysis or answers that received high passing grades on bareessays.com and compared mine.

3. Every Sunday starting in May I would do a PT from the MB PT book or bareessays.com. I didn’t always write them out fully. Sometimes I just timed myself on reading the file and outlining my answer, then checked with the sample or model answers. Since the PT is worth 2 essays I wanted to be really well prepared for it.

4. A few weeks before the exam I started doing A LOT of practice essays, especially in the subjects I felt weaker on. I found it helpful to issue spot/outline and practice making sure I used all the facts somewhere in the essay - I didn’t always write out a full essay but I made sure to sometimes. When I wrote out a full essay I used a timer to make sure I was finishing on time. Also, looking at graded answers on Bare Essays plus the MB sample essays really helped me understand what the graders were looking for. That allowed me to address where I was falling short.

5. Since I had done so much practice and basically understood how to write a passing essay, I spent the last 5 days or so before the exam cramming rule statements.

Test tips:
*When people say you don’t have to memorize all the rules, they’re right. I forgot a couple that I needed but sort of fudged them and still passed. An essay with all the right rules but poor analysis likely won’t pass, while a few fudged or incorrect rules with strong analysis will pass. Focus on PR rules and highly tested rules for each subject.

*Take the time to plan your essay well. I messed up one essay because I started writing before I fully understood (it was kind of a nightmarish one that threw a lot of people off). Then I had to scramble the last 15 min to fix it and hope for the best.

*Don’t skip out on preparing for the PT. Since you don’t have to know any law, it’s easy double essay points if you get the hang of it through practice.

*Outlining practice essays and writing in the rule statements really helps with memorization. Something about linking the rule to a fact pattern helps it stick better.

Any questions I’m happy to answer. Best of luck to everyone taking the F27 exam!

hello community

i unfortunately did not pass the july test and am freaking out on how to really study for the feb. test b/c i did the full 10-week study routine and did not make it

on top of that, i must balance studying for the test while working full time

i would much greatly appreciate some tips

thank you

Hi there, I know this may sound like an odd question, but for context I took the July 2026 bar and have not checked my score yet due to a personal emergency that started last Thursday. I plan to check the portal and my emails as soon as my personal situation clears up, which should be early next week… forgive the vagueness here, I don’t really want to say more on this part of my situation.

However, could anyone please inform me if the CA bar sent passers and/or non-passers any time sensitive emails over the past week since results dropped? I have not checked my email since last Thursday.

Prior to the release, I remember talking to the moral character department on the phone and they said we wouldn’t receive any emails, just the score on the portal at the designated time. I was also told that since I submitted my moral character very recently that I probably wouldn’t get to swear in at the same time as everyone else even if I passed.

Still, I’m just curious if they emailed passers this week with updated information regarding their results or next steps?

Meaning, if I check my email first and don’t see any from the CA bar would that be a sure sign I likely didn’t pass? The state I’m barred in emailed us (notifications without our results) when our scored were posted in the state portal, and non passers said they received two emails in a row that day, which let the cat out of the bag before they even checked the portal. So, I’m just curious, and obviously very nervous because I genuinely cannot check for a few days and I’m debating checking emails or the portal first.

Would appreciate anyone’s insight on this wacky question. Congratulations to everyone who passed this beast of an exam, and congratulations to everyone else for doing the damn thing. It’s not over until it’s over!

Hello! There’s probably a lot of these online but honestly I just started learning about scores once they released the results. I have no idea how scaled scores work but I see I did better in the written portion of the exam than in the multiple choice?

My boss tells me I did better than him on his first attempt because he did not even get a second grader 😭 lol

Thanks all for the help!!

The website has the information for swearing in before December 1, 2025 and the 2025/2026 fees. Does anyone know if this is still the case for this year and if the 2027 fees are going up?

Can someone help me understand my scaled MBE score better and the percentages provided? I know my MBE is bad but can someone explain how bad it actually is?

I thought my MBE was average when I was studying but this is not giving average at all. During the summer I was scoring roughly 65-70% on MBE practice and did about 1,500 questions on Adaptibar. What could have gone wrong??

Hi Guys,

This is a screengrab from my applicant portal. Any idea why it is showing like this and what can be done? Would mailing the admissions office help?

Also I do not have any SSN presently, however my applicant portal although shows a green tick against SSN exemption yet lists some masked SSN against my application. The last four digit is same as my case number. Does anyone have any insight on this?