Categories
Bar Exam DC Bar Exam

DC Bar Exam Application Instructions and Requirements

After getting some emails and in-person questions about the DC bar exam, I figured I’d post my experiences with the application process and requirements to help others out. I hand-delivered my application to the Bar Examiner’s office at the Courthouse in DC so I can confirm that my application was done correctly.

First and foremost, the application and the character and fitness are one in the same. It’s the NCBE online application that’s available at ncbex.org. You fill this out online, finalize the application, and print it out. (NOTE: The instructions say that it must be “typewritten”, but simply printing out the completed online form is what they are looking for)

The DC Specific Forms (Filename: ExamInstructionsAndForms.pdf) are also required. Unless you have special testing requirements, you will only need 2 pages from these forms: 1) The BAR EXAMINATION TESTING REGISTRATION QUESTIONNAIRE, and 2) CERTIFICATE “A”. Certificate “A” must be completed by your law school. Both of these DC Specific Forms may be handwritten. So, basically, there is no need for a typewriter for any of the DC Bar Exam Application.

Take your completed application (which will have 3 release forms and 1 attestation form) to a notary and get all 4 of those pages notorized. Then, make a photocopy of the entire thing. This is what is required when you submit your application. (NOTE: If you want any sort of “proof” or “receipt” of submission, then make ANOTHER photocopy of the entire application. They will stamp this copy “RECEIVED” and give it back to you as your proof of submission.)

Finally, for payment, you will need FOUR separate money orders. (NOTE: Be careful with certified checks, no form of payment that has an expiration date less than 1 year will be accepted by the DC Bar Examiners. My bank’s certified/bank checks had a 90-day expiration so I had to get money orders instead.) So, I would recommend going to the post office and getting Money Orders from them. And remember, even though 3 of the checks are made payable to the same payee, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, they must all be separate. Do NOT combine them into one large money order.

The deadline without a late fee for the application is Monday Dec 15, 2008.

That’s about it. Any questions, feel free to send me an email or leave a comment here on the blog.

Categories
Bar Exam MPRE

I passed the November 2008 MPRE

NCBE released the scores from the November 2008 MPRE today and I passed with a solid margin, scoring well into triple digits… I believe the free PMBR/Kaplan lecture + the multiple practice exams from the various sources was the key… Also, knowing and mentally preparing for the fact that the format of the current MPRE is simplified from the existing Barbri/PMBR/Micromash/Whatever practice questions out there now is probably the best advice I can give to anyone taking the exam… (As stated in my previous post https://dcbarexam.com//2008/11/thoughts-on-november-2008-mpre-and.html)

To those of you that did not pass, or are taking it for the first time in March 2009, I recommend 1 week of study, comprising 8 hours of review of the outlines (1-2 days) and 4 practice exams of 50-60 questions each reviewing all answer explanations thoroughly (4-5 days). It may seem excessive, but the test is not as “easy” as everyone says unless you put in that effort, or have recently taken PR in law school…

Categories
Bar Exam

79 days till the bar – 4 of 6 subjects preliminarily done

Finished Real Property/Future Interests yesterday and started Evidence… I spent a long time on Property, as there is a lot there… I spent a good amount of time in the long outline books as well reading about mortgages and Future Interests, and the RAP. So, I probably spent more time than I needed to, but I feel like I have a good grasp of Property now, so I think it was time well spent. Moving onto evidence, I will probably spend a decent amount of time on this subject as well because it’s so rule-based and I think if one can just brute force memorize as much of the FRE as possible, success on the MBE should follow… My goal is still to finish this initial effort of all 6 subjects by this Friday… I’m traveling on business 3 days this week, but I’ll be studying on the plane, etc…

I’ve been making about 50 flashcards per subject so far… A good start… Once I finish this preliminary effort I think I’ll do the PMBR red book questions, setting a minimum of 50 per day, max of 100 per day. Probably do that for a few weeks, then in early January take a simulated MBE (probably the barbri one), and go back to PMBR red book questions for another few weeks, and repeat…

I really wish there was a source of sample questions out there that was newer and more reflective of the new styl e of MBE questions… The PMBR and BarBri questions do not appear to have been changed AT ALL in the past 5 years :-\

Categories
Bar Exam

85 days till the bar – 50% done with preliminary studying

OK, so I did not hit my goal of finishing the 300 PMBR earlybird questions in all 6 MBE subjects and all 32 PMBR CDs of the 6 MBE subjects. I’ve done Con Law, Crim Law/Crim Pro, and Torts. So, 1/2 the lectures and 1/2 the questions. The reason it has taken me a bit longer, is I’ve been making notecards for almost every PMBR earlybird question. Also, I am reading the Strategies and Tactics book section every day for the subject I am working on that day. My new goal is to have the next 3 subjects done by December 15th. Full-time work and travel also interferes with my study time, as do holidays such as Thanksgiving :)

Categories
Bar Exam MBE

100 days till the bar

So with 100 days until the bar exam I think this is a good time to kick into effect my study plan… I am going to start with a sit down and outline of all 32 PMBR audio lecture CDs. These CDs cover all 6 MBE subjects. I am going to do them in alphabetical order, so:

Constitutional Law
Contracts
Criminal Law/Pro
Evidence
Property
Torts

After this, I’m going to hammer through all of the PMBR Earlybird questions (~50 questions per subject, so ~300 questions total). I think this should be sufficient to get my legal juices flowing, so to speak… I also plan to listen to the PMBR lectures randomly in my car anytime I am in my car (8-10 hours a week), and also anytime I am at the gym (4-5 hours a week)…

I’ll report back when I’ve finished listening to all the CDs and gotten all the earlybird questions done and reviewed… I hope to have this done by the end of the month, so that will be about 3 months until the bar exam, which is when I hope to have my study schedule 100% finalized.

Categories
Bar Exam MPRE

Thoughts on the November 2008 MPRE and recent changes

I realized there were some distinct changes to the MPRE from all of the sample tests I did… I did some digging around and found this document on the NCBE website:

Click to access 770308_donahue.pdf

Apparently, the test writers over at the NCBE are trying to make multiple choices more straightforward and have eliminated “none of the above” or “all of the above” choices! Further, they have eliminated the “K-type” format (using Roman numerals in complex options—e.g., I is true, but II and III are not true). NONE of these are on the MPRE anymore…

For more details, read the article in the URL I posted above and keep that in mind when doing practice questions as you no longer need to learn strategies for K-type questions and so forth…

Personally, I liked the new format and thought it was very straightforward, this might explain why I finished it faster than any of the practice exams.

Finally, keep in mind these changes appear to apply to the MBE, so the Feb 2009 MBE should be along the same lines…