Category: Bar Exam

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Bar Exam DC Bar Exam Virginia Bar Exam

Day 1 of the February 2014 bar exam is over

Half way there (I know the west coast is still going, but I wanted to get my thoughts on DC and VA out there before dinner)…

DC was a mess today, poor administration, inconsistent time given to students, poor lunch break management, just an all around disaster. I feel bad for everyone who sat for DC today, expect more of the same tomorrow and try to just stay focused on the exam. Good news is the subjects tested were as expected, although only two MBE subjects this time around, con and crim law. The MEE subjects were a mix of easy and hard, with civ pro, partnership, trusts and UCC9. Oh, the MPTs were a memo and a brief.

Things were smoother in Virginia, essays were basically exactly as planned. Lots of VA civ pro, some PR, crim, UCC3, our friend detinue made an appearance (hope you read my twitter tips of the day), property, wills was back, corporations and some creditors rights/suretyship. All around a very fair and straightforward exam, what we have come to expect from VA, tough but fair, exactly how a bar exam should be.

Stay strong and finish things off properly with the MBE tomorrow to put this exam behind us. Good luck!

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Bar Exam DC Bar Exam

DC has sent out admission tickets for the February 2014 Bar Exam

With just under 2 weeks to go until the 2014 DC February bar exam, people are starting to receive their admission tickets to the exam. It should have all the information you need with regards to time/place/date/etc. In these last couple of weeks I plan on doing two things:

1) Focusing on any weak areas or subjects that I have been avoiding. Everyone has a couple of subjects that they dread, real property, secured transactions and commercial paper usually are at the top of most people’s “I hope they don’t ask those on the exam” list. So, I always focus these last few weeks on the subjects that I have been avoiding.

2) Do a review of all areas of the exam to be tested. If there are MPTs on the exam, I will always do a couple MPTs this week in addition to the usual essay and MBE preparation. If there are short answer questions I will review and practice some of those as well. These final weeks/days are treated as more of a review than learning new information.

Good luck to everyone taking the exam!

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Bar Exam

4 weeks to go before the February 2014 Bar Exam

The February 2014 Bar Exam will be here in just under a month. It’s around this time that things start becoming very real as the test is now within sight. Here are a couple of suggestions/study tips for the next few weeks:

1) If you have been avoiding certain subjects (Real property is usually one of the common ones) because you don’t like them or don’t do well, this needs to end immediately. Instead, do the opposite and spend some extra time on your least favorite/worst performing subjects to make up for the procrastination up to this point.

2) Don’t panic that there is “only a month until the exam”. Even though it might not seem like it, a month is a long time and one can get a ton of quality studying done in that time.

3) If you have not gotten into a study routine (X number of hours per day) and come up with a strategy for which subjects you will focus on between now and the bar exam, do so now. Put together a simple study plan committing to a realistic number of hours per day and stick to it.

Good luck to everyone and stay strong over these last few weeks. As always, if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

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Bar Exam MBE

Happy New Year, time to start studying

Happy New Year February 2014 bar exam takers! The Christmas decorations are starting to come down, New Year’s Eve hangovers are mostly gone, and the holidays are officially behind us now. What does all this mean? Time to get on a regular study schedule. Barbri has officially started and so have I, which means that every day there is some amount of studying going on, even if it’s only an hour or two. Try to have a positive outlook right now even if you did not study as much as you would have liked to (or at all) during the holidays. We’ve got about 50 days until the bar exam which doesn’t sound like much, but it is in fact a decent amount. Put your study schedule together, make a plan and start to follow it. It takes dedication and discipline to pass the bar exam, but being organized and smart about things helps. Don’t just randomly study from a gigantic pile of bar review materials each day. Instead, create a plan to help prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed by studying from a smaller, more manageable set of materials. And of course, if you have any general questions about the bar exam, feel free to drop me a line or post a comment here.

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DC Bar Exam Virginia Bar Exam

Filing deadline for Virginia and DC bar exam coming up this Monday

Reminder: The filing deadline for the Washington DC and Virginia February 2014 bar exam is coming up this Monday, December 16, 2013. If need be, DC has a late filing deadline of December 31, 2013 for an additional fee of $200. Get it done now and save yourself the $200.

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CA Bar Exam

July 2013 California Bar Exam results released

Congratulations to all who passed the July 2013 CA bar exam! The public pass list has been posted here as of this morning.

The overall pass rate was 55.8% which is just under 5,000 successful test takers out of nearly 9,000. First time takers did decently well, passing at a 68% pass rate which was considerably better than the repeat taker pass rate of only 21%. As usual, this indicates that repeat takers should try a different approach than they did in previous attempts as most repeat takers typically do not modify their previous study strategy. If it didn’t work the first time, history shows that it is not likely to work the second time.