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

Category: MBE

  • July 2012 MBE Analysis & PA results posted

    It’s time for a quick breakdown of the July 2012 MBE. Many were talking about the mortgage heavy, real property questions. Yes, there were a bunch of them and they were pretty tough. Here’s how the national numbers came out:

    The national mean for the July 2012 MBE was 143.4, right around where we typically see it for July. The range of scores nationally went from a low of 58 to a high score of 188 (kudos to those select few who broke the 185 barrier). Overall, no surprises.

    For PA takers, the July 2012 bar exam results have been posted here:

    http://www.pabarexam.org/bar_exam_information/results/be_results.htm

  • Happy 4th of July

    Happy 4th of July to everyone! Maybe if you’re feeling a little patriotic you can study some con law and focus on 1st amendment rights :-) Great day to celebrate everything freedom brings with it including studying the area of constitutional law. Have a safe and happy holiday!

  • MBE facts and tips for the bar exam

    Unless you are taking the Louisiana or Washington state bar exam, you will be taking the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) when you take your bar exam (although starting July 2013, Washington state will begin using the MBE, leaving only Louisiana without the MBE). It’s a six-hour, 200 multiple-choice question test and is administered each year on the last Wednesday in February and July. For those interested in timing, 6 hours for 200 questions equates to 1.8 minutes (1 minute and 48 seconds) per question.

    As for the subjects tested, it is a 6 subject test, pretty much equally distributed as there are 33 questions each of contracts and torts and for the rest of the subjects (con law, crim law and procedure, evidence and real property) there are 31 questions each. This adds up to 190 questions. “But, you said it was a 200 question test! What about the remaining 10 questions?” (more…)

  • February 2012 MBE Scores and DC/MD/VA/NY upcoming result dates

    We have the Feb 2012 MBE mean and range scores to share with everyone:

    Mean MBE Scaled Score for Total Population (National): 136.980
    Range of MBE Scaled Scores for Total Population (National): 74.300-183.900

    So, a mean score of about 137 (scaled) with the worst score being a 74 and a fantastic high score of almost 184.  This is a typical mean for a February MBE administration.

    As for upcoming (projected) results, here are the dates we have so far:
    VA – Projected April 26, 2012
    DC – Projected Early May 2012
    MD – Projected May 4, 2012
    NY – Projected Late April / Early May 2012

  • Book Review – 2010 Edition of Strategies and Tactics for the MBE

    With just over 1 week until the February 2010 bar exam, I felt it was a good time to do a book review of one of the best and well-known study guides out there:

    Strategies and Tactics for the MBE

    Most bar examinees know the 2006 edition with its olive color, but finally a new edition is out, the 2010 edition, and the book is now in two volumes.

    Volume 1 is the same format as the old one: 6 chapters (1 for each MBE subject) with practice questions, and a 200-question practice MBE exam in the back.

    Volume 2 is approx 300 additional MBE questions.

    I was excited to receive the new edition as I believe that the old (2006) edition is still the BEST study guide for the multistate bar exam. However, upon receiving the new edition, I realized that it was very similar to the old 2006 edition. In fact, it was so similar that I felt compelled to get my 2006 copy and compare. Here is what I discovered: (more…)

  • 1/2 way done with July 2009 Bar…

    Tomorrow is the MBE… I recommend a solid evening of studying flash cards or doing random MBE questions… Many people don’t want to study the day before the MBE, but I highly recommend it and it is part of my methodology… Get a normal night of sleep, and rest assured you will do well tomorrow!

  • Final thoughts on self-study materials for the DC Bar and MBE/MEE/MPT

    Now that the Feb 2009 bar is behind us, I wanted to discuss the materials I used… I must be honest, 90-95% of my study was on the MBE. I put in less than 1 week of study on the MEE subjects (much less than 40 hours), and about 20 hours of study for the MPT. So the other 300-400 hours I spent studying were MBE focused… I did this because the MBE is 50% of the exam, and the MBE subjects are usually 2-3 of the 6 essay questions on the MEE. The MPT does not require more than 20-40 hours of study, so I decided to roll the dice and focus heavily on the MBE subjects and MBE test-taking strategies and tactics. I feel that the gamble paid off well, as I was quite comfortable with the MBE material, MBE essay topics on the MEE, and the 3 MEE questions that I did have that were non-MBE subjects, I felt that I did about the same as everyone else I talked to after the exam… So I don’t think I would have gained much by having spent more time studying on the MEE subjects, but I definitely think I would have done worse on the MBE had I studied less for it…

    Anyway, on to my ratings of the materials:

    Here is my analysis of all the materials on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest)
    (more…)

  • 100 days till the bar

    So with 100 days until the bar exam I think this is a good time to kick into effect my study plan… I am going to start with a sit down and outline of all 32 PMBR audio lecture CDs. These CDs cover all 6 MBE subjects. I am going to do them in alphabetical order, so:

    Constitutional Law
    Contracts
    Criminal Law/Pro
    Evidence
    Property
    Torts

    After this, I’m going to hammer through all of the PMBR Earlybird questions (~50 questions per subject, so ~300 questions total). I think this should be sufficient to get my legal juices flowing, so to speak… I also plan to listen to the PMBR lectures randomly in my car anytime I am in my car (8-10 hours a week), and also anytime I am at the gym (4-5 hours a week)…

    I’ll report back when I’ve finished listening to all the CDs and gotten all the earlybird questions done and reviewed… I hope to have this done by the end of the month, so that will be about 3 months until the bar exam, which is when I hope to have my study schedule 100% finalized.