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

Author: Dwight Zenzano

  • DC Bar Exam for February 2015 MBE changes and waiving in your old MBE score

    UPDATE: Waivers are permitted, you may use your old MBE score for the February 2015 bar exam.

    There is a considerable amount of concern around the DC Bar Exam for this February as Federal Civil Procedure is being added to the MBE for the first time as a 7th subject. The primary area of concern is around test takers who have previously (within 2 years) taken a bar exam and scored a 133 or higher on the MBE. Normally, DC allows these folks to waive in their score and not take the MBE, allowing them to take only the essay day. However, the Committee on Admissions Rules state that if the subjects on the MBE change then this does not have to be permitted. The DC Committee on Admissions has previously stated that they are only observing the 2 year rule and waivers would be permitted for this February. However, after speaking in detail with the office (more…)

  • New York Bar Exam Results for July 2014 released

    New York has posted their results for the July 2014 bar exam! Out of 11,195 students who took the exam, 65% passed. For first time test takers, the pass rate was 74%.

    Private lookup is available here.

    The full public list will be available tomorrow on the NYS BOLE website. Congrats to everyone who passed!

    UPDATE: Public lookup is available here.

  • Bar Stress Management workshop being offered next month

    All right folks, just in time for the start of Winter studying for the February 2015 bar exam I am happy to say that Brooke Baker in DC is offering a Bar Exam Stress Management workshop at Yoga District’s Glover Park studio on November 1st from 1:15 to 3:15. It’s a great way to learn techniques for dealing with stress and anxiety management which usually peaks around this time of year with results coming out and studying beginning. Interested folks can sign up on Yoga District’s website: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/home?studioid=2070

  • DC Bar Exam Results from July 2014 are posted

    DC bar exam results are posted here for the July 2014 exam.

    The overall pass rate was 39.3% this time with a 55.2% pass rate for first time takers.

    Congratulations to everyone who passed!!! If you did not pass, take a couple of days to get over the initial disappointment and then take a look at how you prepared and think of a plan for February 2015.

  • July 2014 Virginia Bar Exam Results Posted

    The results for the July 2014 Virginia Bar Exam have been posted over at the VBBE’s website.

    Overall pass rate was 68%
    The first time taker pass rate was 72.86%

    Congratulations to everyone who passed! This is a big moment and your hard work has paid off. The swearing in ceremony is on December 3rd at the Greater Richmond Convention Center at 12:30PM. It’s a very nice ceremony and is a special session of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

    For everyone who did not pass, don’t despair. Instead, look over how you studied for the exam and what you feel you should have done differently. Don’t give up and be sure to apply to take the February exam before the December 15th deadline.

  • New York switching to the UBE (Uniform Bar Exam) for July 2015

    Pretty big news for anyone planning to take the NY bar exam. The New York State Board of Law Examiners has recommended that the existing test (which is generally considered one of the harder bar exams in the nation) be replaced by the NCBE UBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners Uniform Bar Exam). The UBE consists of the 200-question MBE, 6 MEE essays and 2 MPT performance tests.

    The Court of Appeals is allowing for Public Comments until November 7, 2014 at the following url:

    New York Court of Appeals request for comment

    If these changes go through, it would be quite a change as this would be the first “big” state to change their bar exam in favor of the UBE. The target is to replace the existing exam for the July 2015 administration of the New York bar exam. The proposal also states that there would still be a state-specific component. Apparently, the same 50 multiple choice state-specific NY questions would remain as a 1-hour test to be given concurrently with the UBE. The good news is that they are proposing to also offer just the 50 NY questions in December and Early Spring for those who pass the UBE but fail the NY section.

    Big changes indeed if this all goes through. Stay tuned…

  • July 2014 Bar Exam is over – Results coming in a couple of months

    Now that the bar exam is over, we wait for the results. This is the worst part really, 2+ months of waiting from here is no fun. DC and Maryland should post the last week of October, we’re looking around Oct 29th for DC and Oct 31st for Maryland. Virginia is a bit earlier to post and will be in mid October, towards the end of the week, October 17th. And of course for California, you’ve got over 3 months of waiting, until November 21st until the results are sent out.

    This bar exam marked the end of a couple of things. First of all, for DC and all other jurisdictions using the MEE (including all UBE jurisdictions), commercial paper is no longer a tested essay topic. Additionally, for everyone except Louisiana and Puerto Rico (which doesn’t use the MBE), this was the last time the MBE will test the same six subjects because starting with the next bar exam in February 2015, Civil Procedure will be added to the MBE as a 7th subject. My students for February already have a strategy around this and in fact this should make the MBE easier for those who have struggled with it in the past for several reasons, but we’ll cover that another day. For the time being, try not to think about the bar exam and enjoy the rest of the summer. The results will be here when they will be here, nothing can make them come sooner or later.

  • Day 1 of the July 2014 Bar exam is over – VA and DC essays

    Congratulations on surviving the first day. Down here in Virginia we had an interesting exam, with our predicted subjects making up nearly all of the exam and with civil procedure(s) having a negligible showing: Lots of local government, some personal property, crim law, partnerships, wills, domestic relations, agency and commercial paper. DC was fairly straightforward as well, with predictions nearly on the mark this time (6 out of 7 ain’t bad): crim, contracts, evidence, civ pro, fam law/conflicts and corporations. And on a positive note, the administration/proctoring of the DC exam today went smoother than last time, although there were still some issues, but hopefully this is a sign they are getting their act together slowly but surely. Oh, MPTs were a fairly tough memo and a letter. Good luck on the MBE tomorrow for everyone taking it!

  • No more Commercial Paper starting in 2015 in DC

    By now most everyone is in full swing with their studying for the July 2014 bar exam as we are solidly into June. But I thought I would make a mention of the Feb bar exam as one of the most anticipated (dreaded perhaps?) changes to the bar exam is the addition of Civil Procedure to the February 2015 bar exam. Well, the NCBE has given some additional news which will probably be better received; effective the same exam, Feb 2015, they will no longer test UCC3 (Commercial Paper aka Negotiable Instruments) on the essay (MEE) portion of the exam. Here is the direct quote from the NCBE themselves:

    “Effective with the February 2015 bar exam, Negotiable Instruments (Uniform Commercial Code Article 3 and the excerpts of Article 4, Bank Collections) will no longer be tested on the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE).”

    So, for those of you taking the bar in February 2015 who were upset about Civ Pro coming to the MBE, maybe news will come as some small relief. In the meantime, I am going to commence my daily twitter Tips of the Day (#TOTD) so be sure and follow me if you have not already.

  • Bar Exam Stress Management workshop in DC

    I came across something I thought I would share with everyone taking the bar exam this July. It is a Bar Exam Stress Management Workshop run by Brooke Baker of Brooke Baker Therapy (www.brookebakertherapy.com). I met with her last week to discuss her workshop and get some more details as I thought it might be beneficial to some of my students taking the exam this summer and was quite impressed with her and what she has planned for this workshop so I wanted to share the details with all of my readers. Here are some of the highlights of her workshop:

    – How to create and implement a self-care regimen that will fit with your study/work schedule
    – Relaxation techniques that will help recalibrate the nervous system so you have the greatest access to your cognitive faculties while you study and for exam day
    – Tools for reframing the distorted and anxious ruminating thoughts that often lead to overwhelming anxiety post-exam

    Each of these 3 areas are important when it comes to bar exam success. I have heard countless stories of people studying like crazy for the bar exam only to “blank” or “freeze up” when exam day came. Brooke explained some of the possible reasons this can happen and discussed her techniques for helping to address it which I found to be very informative.

    The workshops will be on Friday, June 6th at noon and Saturday, June 14th at noon and are scheduled to run approximately an hour and a half or so. Even though time is always short when studying for the bar exam I think it would be a wise investment to spend the 2 hours or so and attend her class, especially for anyone who has test taking anxiety (which is pretty much everyone taking the bar exam unless you have nerves of steel). As always, good luck with the studying and for anyone who attends feel free to post some comments here leaving feedback as to what you thought of the session.

    UPDATE: Here is a link to her website with registration information