Happy 4th of July! With just under four weeks remaining until the July 2013 bar exam, I’ve been telling everyone I know taking the exam that if they have not been 100% focused up until this point, now is the time to get serious. The bar exam is not something that many people can cram for a week before and pass, it takes time. 1 month is about the minimum for most people, although the standard study period is usually 2 months. However, as most of us know 2 months is a long time in advance to memorize details, so the most important study time is the month before the bar exam. I’ve been re-reading the Strategies and Tactics book for the MBE this week, and doing a few MBE questions each day. This is my basic routine for MBE prep and keeps me on top of my game all month long. I also make sure and listen to my favorite PMBR MBE lectures for at least 30 minutes a day, usually when I am at the gym or driving. I’ve also been going over some state essay questions (Virginia, New York and California) from recent years and looking at the style of questions. This helps me to focus my studying and hone in on what areas/subjects I should be spending my time from now until the exam. I’ve been focusing on criminal law and UCC2 (Sales) quite a bit as those are popular topics on bar exam essays. Today I am basically taking the day off, and my students are welcome to as well. A quick read of the Strategies & Tactics book plus 3 MBE questions is all I need to do and then I can enjoy the rest of my day with BBQ and fireworks.
The February 2013 California bar exam results are now available online. 41% of test takers (1,810 people) passed the exam. 52% of first time test takers passed the exam while only 36% of repeat takers passed. Letters were mailed out this weekend but the full list and name lookup are available online here: http://apps.calbar.ca.gov/exam/
I am completely full for tutoring this summer, including my tutors that work for me. If you have extraordinary circumstances, feel free to email me and I’ll do my best to try help/give advice or point you in the right direction. But at this point I am not taking any more students for July 2013 and my February 2014 roster is nearly half full as well. I will try to post as many helpful posts as I can between now and the bar exam to help everyone out. Best bet is to get started with studying in the next week or two and be sure and have a good, solid plan of attack. You don’t need a comprehensive day-by-day plan, but put a good framework together so you can hit the necessary weekly milestones. Good luck!
The results have been made available at the courthouse on the door of the Committee on Admissions. Letters are in the mail to all test takers. Here is the official pass list available online: http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/membership/current_members/examResults.cfm. Here is a photo of the pass list (Thanks JB!):
Results are posted. Good luck!
http://www.vbbe.state.va.us/bar/barresults.html
Overall pass rate was just over half of test takers passing at 57.45%, with 65.71% of first time takers passing. The top prize this time goes to UVA with an overall pass rate of 90.48% and a 100% pass rate for all of their first time test takers. Liberty University also had all of their first time takers pass, so congratulations as well. Congratulations to everyone who passed! The swearing in ceremony is June 3rd this year, Monday @ 10AM.
If you did not pass, please don’t give up. Look over how you studied, how many hours you put in, etc. Did you have a plan? If so, did you stick to it? Analyze what you did and think about how you would have done things differently and make that your new plan for this July.
The official national mean scores for the Feb 2013 MBE exam have been posted. Looks like people did slightly better this past February than usual as the mean was 138.0, which is about a point or so higher than the typical Feb mean. The range of scoring was pretty normal, showing a low score of 73.3 to a most excellent high score of 183.2. Good luck to everyone still waiting for results to be released for their jurisdiction.