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

Category: Bar Exam

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • 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!

  • Washington DC Feb 2016 bar exam results posted

    The results are posted. Out of a total of 324 applicants, we have an overall pass rate of 44%, with 54% of first time takers passing. The full pass list is located here. Congratulations to everyone who passed!!! I know it’s agonizing waiting for the DC results but they are finally here. If you did not pass, don’t despair as it is not the end and you can use a different approach and pass it this summer (you should be getting your letter with full score breakdown in the mail very soon).

  • Virginia February 2016 Bar Exam results released

    Virginia has posted their February 2016 bar exam results here. The pass rates are as follows:

    Overall pass rate: 57.5%
    First time taker pass rate: 65.5%

    Highest overall pass rate school: Both George Mason and Washington and Lee with 83% of test takers passing, well done!

    These results fall in line with a typical February 2016 administration of the VA bar exam. Waiting for DC next week or two hopefully.

  • Virginia, DC, Maryland and NY February 2016 bar exams are over

    And with that, the February 2016 bar exam is over in this area for DC, Maryland, NY and Virginia. With this, NY and DC will be joining the growing number of jurisdictions to adopt the UBE starting with the July 2016 exam this summer (keep your eye open for an upcoming post on this topic soon). The exams were brutal and the weather pretty miserable but that’s about what you have to expect when it comes to the bar exam. DC didn’t disappoint with a dismal proctoring experience and near mutiny by the test takers over incorrect timing and other issues but everyone managed to survive more or less. Other jurisdictions were mostly smooth as usual. See below for the breakdown of subjects tested and some release date predictions: (more…)