Washington DC (UBE) & Virginia Bar Exam Tutoring & Self-Study

Author: Dwight Zenzano

  • Tutoring for the July 2017 bar exam

    Now that the dust has settled from the February exam, I am going through all requests for July 2017 bar exam tutoring. Every email I have received has been queued and categorized. I am expecting it to take about 2-3 weeks so if you have contacted me you’ll be getting a response soon. Please remember to answer all the questions I have on the Tutoring request page as it helps me understand your individual situation better. Thank you!

  • VA and DC February 2017 bar exams are done

    Hope everyone survived the exams and is now enjoying the nice DC area weather. The exams were about as expected, Virginia tested Property, Torts, Virginia and Federal Procedure, Criminal, Wills and UCC2. DC had a memo and Power of Attorney Motion for the MPTs and the MEEs were Contracts, Family law (conflicts), Property, Agency/Partnership, Corporations and Trusts.

    Despite the changes the MBE was about the same as always, which is to say it was tough. Civ Pro looked about the same and the balance of questions with the new topics and larger number of experimental questions seemed to blend in pretty well with the older exams, so they didn’t go too crazy from what I can tell. Curious because there are many variants of experimental questions given so I still need to talk to more people about their experiences to see if there were bigger changes that I haven’t heard of yet.

    I will post about anticipated results date when I hear more, but figure mid to late April for DC and VA and May 5th for Maryland.

  • Tutoring slots for February 2017 are full

    I have filled all of my tutoring slots for the February 2017 bar exam. I still have some slots yet to confirm, so more spots may open up to the people on my wait list, and I have several folks to still get back to, so I will get back to everyone who has emailed me so far by the end of the week either way. So if you have not heard back from me yet, I will get back to you soon. If anyone is considering contacting me for the first time now, there is very little chance of an opening for February 2017. But if you have extenuating circumstances, feel free to reach out and maybe I can point you in the right direction. Thank you.

  • DC July 2016 Bar Exam results posted – UBE pass rate through the roof

    DC has posted the July 2016 bar exam results here. The most interesting thing is the pass rate, which is the highest I have ever seen by a long shot. First time test takers had a pass rate of 71% with the overall pass rate being 62%. So, we had a total of 684 people take the exam and 422 passed. This is around double the number of people taking the exam and the pass rate is about 50% higher than usual as well. Congratulations to everyone who passed! If you did not pass, (more…)

  • Virginia July 2016 Bar Exam results posted and statistics

    The results for the July 2016 Virginia Bar Exam have been posted. The overall pass rate was 73% with nearly 78% of first time takers passing the exam. UVA gets the top prize with the highest overall pass rate of over 92%, which is spectacular, so kudos to the Cavaliers!

    The admission ceremony is going to be at the convention center in downtown Richmond at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 7, 2016. This is a very nice ceremony where they convene a special session of the VA Supreme Court. Dress nicely and invite your family/friends to enjoy the special day with you.

    Congratulations again to everyone who passed!

  • Tutoring for the February 2017 bar exam and good luck to those taking the MPRE this weekend

    I am now beginning the process of reviewing all the emails I have received so far for tutoring for the February 2017 bar exam. I am anticipating getting through the emails by the end of this month (August 2016) so please be patient. I will review them from the oldest to most recent, but with emails from as far back as early January 2016 it will take me a while so please be patient. When emailing me about tutoring, please remember to always include the following information:

    1) Why you are looking for a tutor?
    2) Which bar exam (e.g. – July 2017 Virginia Bar Exam) are you planning on taking?
    3) List the bar exams you have taken in the past as well as the results and complete breakdown of your scores.
    4) How did you prepare for your past bar exams (e.g. – self study, barbri, pmbr, etc.)?
    5) Any other information you think will help give a better understanding of your background and current situation.

    Looking forward to responding to everyone who has contacted me so far and good luck to everyone taking the MPRE this weekend!

  • July 2016 Bar Exams are over – DC, VA and MBE discussion

    The July 2016 Bar Exam is over! This was definitely one of the harder exams on the books, with both the MBE and MEEs being more difficult/different than in the recent past. Virginia’s essays were, as usual, fair yet challenging as expected.

    In DC we saw about twice the number of test takers due to this being the first time DC has tested as a UBE jurisdiction. Many folks opted against going up to New York or other jurisdictions and decided to stay local and take the exam here. I think yet others opted for DC instead of VA this time as well due to DC being a UBE jurisdiction. As far as the usual chaos that is the administration of the DC bar exam, they did not disappoint, although it was not the worst it has ever been. The main problem this time was delays in starting, which in the grand scheme of things is annoying but not as bad as what we’ve seen before. The morning MPTs were pretty straightforward, with a memo and a brief, but a couple of the MEEs were tricky this year. We had the following MEE subjects: (more…)

  • Strategies and Tactics for the MBE Sixth (6th) Edition Review

    The newest edition of the Strategies and Tactics for the MBE book by Steven Emanuel was released a few weeks ago. I have looked over the book and compared it with the 5th edition and there are several major changes, most of them for the better. This is, in my opinion, the best MBE study guide there is, and my primary book when preparing for the MBE. It is great to see it continuously updated and the roughly $80 price is really a steal for such a good resource that contains around 600 practice questions with excellent explanations of the answer choices.

    The major change to the book is the addition of Civil Procedure, both (more…)

  • Public Service Announcement – Strategies and Tactics 6th edition now available – Tips of the day on twitter

    PSA – The new edition of Emmanuel’s Strategies and Tactics for the MBE is now shipping. Expect a full review from me shortly. The main change is the addition of a Civil Procedure section (both questions and a substantive review) plus an additional 100 or so questions from the NCBE OPE-4. If you have the 5th edition, email the publisher as they can give you online access to the Civil Procedure questions.

    Also, I have started posting my daily Tips of the Day (#totd) on twitter. Check for the #totd hashtag to get MBE and Virginia bar exam tips each day.

  • Tutoring roster is full for all states for July 2016

    I have filled my entire roster and my waitlist for the July 2016 bar exam and am no longer accepting any more students. I believe I have responded to all the emails I have received so far, and I know some folks have emailed several times and it can take a while for a response but things get quite busy around results season. I have started filling spots for February 2017 so if you are interested please feel free to email me and of course if you have extenuating circumstances please feel free to email me for July 2016 and I can try and give you some advice. Good luck to everyone taking the bar this summer!