Category: Virginia Bar Exam

  • Virginia Feb 2013 Bar Exam Essay Analysis

    The Feb 2013 Virginia bar exam is over.  The questions were right in line with predictions and the MBE (to be discussed in a later post) was average.  Question 1 started out with property, a Virginia favorite, followed by my favorite local govt law and VA Civ pro for question 2.  Question 3 was a hybrid wills and Prof Responsibility question.  The fourth questions was UCC2, sales, and finishing up the questions for the morning section was our old friend corporations.  The afternoon gave us another local govt question followed by the evil subject known as creditors rights which was mixed with more corporations and property. There was a nice Federal Jurisdiction question, and then finally, a nice gift of a question featuring personal property and wills.  Short answer/multiple choice were straightforward as always, with a few gimmies and a couple head scratchers, but nothing crazy.  It was interesting to see the bar examiners leave out UCC 3 and 9 (thank you!) and go a big lighter than usual on the VA civ procedure (thank you again!).  Depending on how you studied for this exam, it either seemed very hard, or tough, but fair.

    Good luck to everyone that took the exam!  I’ll post estimated dates for when bar exams across the country will be posting their results.  Got a few months of painful waiting until then, so try and think about something else other than the exam for the time being.

  • 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…)

  • 2 weeks of studying left, strategies for the home stretch

    OK, we’ve got 2 weeks of studying until the February 2013 bar exam.  I believe that this is the most important time to focus on studying.  Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way:

    1) Focus on your weak areas – If you have been avoiding evidence, or property, or any other subject because you “don’t like it”, or “just don’t get it”.  Then you really need to put in a little extra time now to try and get more comfortable with whatever subjects you have been avoiding.  Don’t be the ostrich.

    2) Be sure and do at least 10 or 15 practice MBE questions every day between now and the bar exam.  This is a good way to ensure you stay fresh on your MBE skills.  I keep hearing people say things like “I heard you need to do 50 per day”.  That may be fine if you have (more…)

  • 6 weeks until the Feb 2013 Bar Exam

    With 42 days remaining, we’re at the 6 week marker until the Feb 2013 bar exam. Most folks are totally immersed in studying right now, a trip to the law library confirmed that for me today. I talked to a guy who is working full time but has Monday’s off until the bar exam. We were discussing how it’s hard to get in enough study hours while also working a full-time job. I gave him the best advice I know of, which is just do the best you can with the time you have.

    Check my twitter feeds for daily MBE and Virginia bar exam tips during the weekdays as well.

    On an MBE note, I’m going to post a mini-review of the latest edition of one of my favorite bar prep books, Strategies and Tactics for the MBE. The 5th edition (2012) has a purplish-reddish color and a few nice updates. I’ll write that up and publish it soon.

  • Virginia Bar Swearing in Ceremony still taking place today

    Despite other closings due to Hurricane Sandy, the Virginia swearing in ceremony is still happening: “The Admission & Orientation Ceremony at the Richmond Convention Center is scheduled to take place.”

    http://www.vsb.org/site/events/item/state-offices-closed-2012-10-29

    This has been confirmed with the convention center directly as well. Here are the specifics for the ceremony this morning:

    Click to access VABar102912Ceremony.pdf

  • July 2012 Virginia Bar Exam results posted

    The results for the July 2012 Virginia Bar Exam have been posted online. As I predicted, they were released 1 day before the scheduled date, so if your friends are still waiting for tomorrow, let them know the results are up and available now.

    As usual, there are 2 lists: Pass list A for those of you who passed and have no outstanding paperwork or issues with the VBBE; and Pass list B for those of you who passed and still have pending issues/paperwork to submit to the VBBE. Those on the first past list are now licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, so congratulations!

    For those who didn’t pass this time, try not to be too hard on yourselves. It is a difficult exam and you can always re-take in February 2013. Think about how you studied, how disciplined you were in following your study plan and what you would have done differently. For most people, (more…)

  • 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

  • Virginia bar exam topics – July 2012

    Day 1 of the Virginia bar exam is done and we saw Trusts, Federal Civil Procedure (it’s back), Domestic Relations, Sales (UCC2), Property, Wills, Criminal, Corporations and VA Civ Pro.

    No major surprises, now it’s time to switch over to multistate mode and tackle the MBE tomorrow. Hopefully they go easy on some of the strange property questions this time around.

  • Twitter Virginia Bar Exam Tip of the Day

    For those of you that didn’t notice, we have started posting daily Virginia bar exam tips to our twitter feed. Simply do a hashtag search for #barexam #totd on twitter or follow us at The Bar Exam Tutor on Twitter

    Starting in June we will also have daily MBE tips. And of course, let us know if you have any suggestions for tips or info you’d like to have during the next 7 weeks of bar preparation.

  • Virginia Bar Exam February 2012 Results Posted

    The February 2012 Virginia bar exam results have been posted:  (http://www.vbbe.state.va.us/bar/barresults.html)

     It was a tough exam with just over 1/2 of test takers passing (55.68%) and 2/3s (66.16%) of first-time takers passing.  Kudos goes to George Mason University School of Law with the highest overall pass rate of 77.27%.

     To everyone who passed, first and foremost, congratulations!  To everyone who did not pass, don’t despair.  Regroup, reassess and get ready for the July 2012 exam.  Think about what you did, how much time you studied, etc.  Then, promise yourself to make this summer all about studying and passing the exam.

     Hopefully we will see MD/DC/NY results soon.  Good luck to everyone still waiting for results.