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

DC & VA Bar Exam Coaching

  • Virginia and DC Bar exams are over for February 2015

    The DC and Virginia bar exam are now officially finished. In DC we had a solid exam with an objective memo and a persuasive letter to start the AM. The afternoon essays were as expected with Agency, torts, con law, civ pro, wills/trusts, and property and UCC 9. Trusts was a little tough, but otherwise manageable. The MBE was straightforward, with the civ pro questions being easier than expected and the rest of the exam being as expected with the usual focus areas.

    As for Virginia, we’re back to business as usual with a bunch of Fed and VA procedure questions, sales, partnership, agency, some equity and personal property, wills and everyone’s favorite creditors rights :-) Overall a very fair exam and nice to see the VA and federal jurisdiction back on the exam as those are critical subjects for any attorney to be tested on. Little bit surprised not to see the usual long Corporations, local govt, real property and criminal as I feel those are core subjects they should always test but overall, as usual, it was a very fair exam.

    Time to celebrate and enjoy the extra time that comes with not having to prepare for a bar exam! Results to be posted in late April for Virginia and late May for DC.

  • Proposed Amendment to allow MBE waiver for DC Bar February 2015

    UPDATE: Waivers are permitted, you may use your old MBE score for the February 2015 bar exam.

    The DC Court of Appeals has posted the formal order and notice proposing to amend Rule 46(b) to allow MBE waivers on the upcoming February 2015 bar exam even though Civil Procedure is being added as a 7th subject. Comments are being allowed until December 22, 2014, which means we should expect a formal yay or nay by the first week of January as originally anticipated. Remember, there is no guarantee they will accept previous MBE scores, but as of now that is the plan as the committee is trying to save everyone time and money to not have to deal with dozens and dozens of individual waiver requests but instead handle it through a single amendment change. But, until it’s a done deal, no promises.

  • Tutoring slots are FULL for February 2015 Bar Exam

    As the title says I am not accepting any more students for the February 2015 bar exam. This has been the case for nearly a couple of months now as I filled up around the end of August. I know it may seem unfair to July test takers as results just came out, but I only take on a handful of students each exam and prioritize multiple repeat takers, and they tend to decide which bar they are taking further in advance. If you have an exceptional set of circumstances feel free to email me but please keep in mind I am taking students for July 2015 at this time. My roster for July is about 1/2 full at this point but I still have open spaces. I will always post in the right side of my blog when I am full for the current exam and which exam I am currently accepting students for.

  • DC Bar Exam for February 2015 MBE changes and waiving in your old MBE score

    UPDATE: Waivers are permitted, you may use your old MBE score for the February 2015 bar exam.

    There is a considerable amount of concern around the DC Bar Exam for this February as Federal Civil Procedure is being added to the MBE for the first time as a 7th subject. The primary area of concern is around test takers who have previously (within 2 years) taken a bar exam and scored a 133 or higher on the MBE. Normally, DC allows these folks to waive in their score and not take the MBE, allowing them to take only the essay day. However, the Committee on Admissions Rules state that if the subjects on the MBE change then this does not have to be permitted. The DC Committee on Admissions has previously stated that they are only observing the 2 year rule and waivers would be permitted for this February. However, after speaking in detail with the office (more…)

  • New York Bar Exam Results for July 2014 released

    New York has posted their results for the July 2014 bar exam! Out of 11,195 students who took the exam, 65% passed. For first time test takers, the pass rate was 74%.

    Private lookup is available here.

    The full public list will be available tomorrow on the NYS BOLE website. Congrats to everyone who passed!

    UPDATE: Public lookup is available here.

  • Bar Stress Management workshop being offered next month

    All right folks, just in time for the start of Winter studying for the February 2015 bar exam I am happy to say that Brooke Baker in DC is offering a Bar Exam Stress Management workshop at Yoga District’s Glover Park studio on November 1st from 1:15 to 3:15. It’s a great way to learn techniques for dealing with stress and anxiety management which usually peaks around this time of year with results coming out and studying beginning. Interested folks can sign up on Yoga District’s website: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/home?studioid=2070

  • DC Bar Exam Results from July 2014 are posted

    DC bar exam results are posted here for the July 2014 exam.

    The overall pass rate was 39.3% this time with a 55.2% pass rate for first time takers.

    Congratulations to everyone who passed!!! If you did not pass, take a couple of days to get over the initial disappointment and then take a look at how you prepared and think of a plan for February 2015.

  • July 2014 Virginia Bar Exam Results Posted

    The results for the July 2014 Virginia Bar Exam have been posted over at the VBBE’s website.

    Overall pass rate was 68%
    The first time taker pass rate was 72.86%

    Congratulations to everyone who passed! This is a big moment and your hard work has paid off. The swearing in ceremony is on December 3rd at the Greater Richmond Convention Center at 12:30PM. It’s a very nice ceremony and is a special session of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

    For everyone who did not pass, don’t despair. Instead, look over how you studied for the exam and what you feel you should have done differently. Don’t give up and be sure to apply to take the February exam before the December 15th deadline.

  • New York switching to the UBE (Uniform Bar Exam) for July 2015

    Pretty big news for anyone planning to take the NY bar exam. The New York State Board of Law Examiners has recommended that the existing test (which is generally considered one of the harder bar exams in the nation) be replaced by the NCBE UBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners Uniform Bar Exam). The UBE consists of the 200-question MBE, 6 MEE essays and 2 MPT performance tests.

    The Court of Appeals is allowing for Public Comments until November 7, 2014 at the following url:

    New York Court of Appeals request for comment

    If these changes go through, it would be quite a change as this would be the first “big” state to change their bar exam in favor of the UBE. The target is to replace the existing exam for the July 2015 administration of the New York bar exam. The proposal also states that there would still be a state-specific component. Apparently, the same 50 multiple choice state-specific NY questions would remain as a 1-hour test to be given concurrently with the UBE. The good news is that they are proposing to also offer just the 50 NY questions in December and Early Spring for those who pass the UBE but fail the NY section.

    Big changes indeed if this all goes through. Stay tuned…

  • July 2014 Bar Exam is over – Results coming in a couple of months

    Now that the bar exam is over, we wait for the results. This is the worst part really, 2+ months of waiting from here is no fun. DC and Maryland should post the last week of October, we’re looking around Oct 29th for DC and Oct 31st for Maryland. Virginia is a bit earlier to post and will be in mid October, towards the end of the week, October 17th. And of course for California, you’ve got over 3 months of waiting, until November 21st until the results are sent out.

    This bar exam marked the end of a couple of things. First of all, for DC and all other jurisdictions using the MEE (including all UBE jurisdictions), commercial paper is no longer a tested essay topic. Additionally, for everyone except Louisiana and Puerto Rico (which doesn’t use the MBE), this was the last time the MBE will test the same six subjects because starting with the next bar exam in February 2015, Civil Procedure will be added to the MBE as a 7th subject. My students for February already have a strategy around this and in fact this should make the MBE easier for those who have struggled with it in the past for several reasons, but we’ll cover that another day. For the time being, try not to think about the bar exam and enjoy the rest of the summer. The results will be here when they will be here, nothing can make them come sooner or later.