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

Category: NY Bar Exam

  • New York July 2015 Bar Exam results posted – Worst in a decade

    The July 2015 bar exam results for New York have been posted and it ain’t pretty. As our friends at Above the Law wrote in detail, the pass rates are the worst in almost a decade. The overall pass rate is 61% with first time takers from ABA-schools clocking in at a respectable 79%. A special congratulations to my student who took New York this past summer on her amazing performance in passing the exam!

    Of note is this was the last July exam in the current format, making the February 2016 exam the last one in the “old regime”. Starting July 2016 New York will begin using the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) with an add-on NY component. Either way, this past summer was brutal, so an extra congratulations to everyone who passed!

  • 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.

  • 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…

  • New York July 2013 Bar Exam results posted

    The pass list for the July 2013 bar exam for New York has been publicly posted at http://www.nybarexam.org for viewing. The overall pass rate was 69% for this administration of the exam. Here are some more detailed pass rate statistics from this summer’s exam:

    New York ABA Schools – First Time Takers 88%
    Out-of-State ABA Schools – First Time Takers 84%
    All ABA Graduates – First Time Takers 86%
    Foreign-Educated – First Time Takers 46%
    All Foreign-Educated 37%
    All First Time Takers 78%

    You will find the lookup here.

  • Feb 2013 Bar Exam Results anticipated posting dates for VA, DC, MD, NY, TX and CA

    We’re getting closer to February’s bar exam results, with Virginia’s coming next week.  Here are the expected and anticipated dates for the February 2013 bar exam results for VA, DC, MD, NY, TX and CA:

    Virginia – Expected April 25, 2013
    DC – Anticipated May 1, 2013
    Maryland – Expected May 3, 2013
    Texas – Expected May 3, 2013
    New York – Anticipated May 9, 2013
    California – Expected May 17, 2013

  • Weekend before the February 2013 bar exam

    It’s almost here.  The Feb 2013 bar exam.  The final weekend of studying is an important one, and usually a stressful one.  The feeling of all the months of studying coming to an end, and the feeling that it was not enough time.  Rest assured that I don’t think very many people feel “fully prepared” before taking the bar exam.  There is simply too much law that can be tested to know it all well enough to feel like you are going to ace the exam.  Good thing is, the bar exam is a pass/fail situation with a passing score being usually around the 65% mark.  This isn’t law school, you can’t get an A, or a B+ on the bar exam.  So, you don’t need to have mastered every bit of law in every subject they can possibly test.  Hopefully that little tidbit will help ease some nerves this final weekend.

    OK, how about some final tips and advice?

    For VA takers, don’t forget to (more…)

  • July 2012 New York, Maryland and Texas bar exam results

    3 more July 2012 bar exam results are available today. Private lookup only for New York at the following link:

    https://www.nybarapply.org/LUJ12/XResults.asp

    On Monday NY will post the public list on their website.

    Maryland is releasing today at 4:30PM at the following link:

    http://www.courts.state.md.us/ble/examresults.html

    Finally, you can get your Texas July 2012 results here:

    http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Results/pass_0712.htm

    Congratulations to everyone who passed! California is still a ways off, Friday the 16th for private lookup and Sunday the 18th for public posting. Best of luck to everyone.

  • Bar Exam Result dates for DC VA MD NY CA

    It’s going to be a long wait, but here are the dates we’re looking at for CA, MD, VA, DC and NY:

    California results expected November 16th, 2012
    Maryland results expected November 2nd, 2012
    Virginia results expected October 12th, 2012
    Washington DC results estimated around Oct 25th, 2012
    New York results estimated around Nov 8th, 2012

  • 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

  • February 2012 Bar Exam Analysis (DC VA NY)

    And with the leap year behind us, so is the February 2012 Bar exam behind us.  Let’s take a quick look at how the exams went.

    First, let’s start with DC (and also touch on New York):

    Essays – The MEE selection for DC was fair and straightforward, with 2 MBE subjects (contracts and evidence) and 4 MEE subjects (Corporations, Fed Civ Pro (conflicts crossover), Partnership, and Wills).

    Performance tests – The MPTs for DC were not as great.  We had one Objective letter to a client, which was totally straightforward, and one never before seen “leave behind letter” that was persuasive.  Up in NY, they decided to pick the leave behind letter (joy). Nevertheless, as with all MPTs, practice makes perfect and even though the leave behind was an unknown, after looking over it, it became clear what they were asking for and was manageable.

    Speaking of NY, the essays there were a nice selection. (more…)