Here we go again - time for Ma Bar to do her thing. To those of you poor souls who will spend the next three days months doubting yourselves: Good Luck!
As for the rest of us, let's offer our soon-to-be-attorneys some advice on how to make it to 1:00 PM on Thursday. Tell your barzam war stories in the comments.
I pooped at least twice a day during the test (I had to leave during the block in the morning and afternoon), we're talking projectile stuff, and I still had plenty of time to finish and pass. So, the moral is, the bar is pretty easy.
ReplyDeleteHmm...why do I feel like a Bill Simmons' "Yep, these are my readers" comment should just close this thread now?
ReplyDeleteThe exam itself is an unpleasant, but anticlimactic experience. Far worse was the preparation. Although I did extremely well on the bar exam, I wouldn't describe it as easy.
ReplyDelete(1) Drink heavily in the evenings;
ReplyDelete(2) Don't be a schmuck and go around talking to people about what was on the exam, how you answered, and what you think was expected to be addressed;
(3) Don't look like a nitwit sitting there in the hall before the exam going over outlines/flashcards/reading bar review books - if you don't already know it, you won't learn it there;
(4) drink heavily after and for the follow week. It dulls the pain.
8:47 AM - How do you know how you did? I never got a score. Did you?
ReplyDelete8:47 here. I got my MBE score.
ReplyDelete@ 9:10 - Generally good advice, particularly 2 and 3.
ReplyDeleteAlso, re: 1 and 4, there's this website. Just sayin' because I care.
@ 8:47 - "I did extremely well on the bar exam"... Apparently superstar here got their results back with a grade on them. Was anybody else so lucky? You're an f-tard, go back to recreating all your billing so you can get the 240hours BigFirm requires for the month and stop fucking around wasting valuable .1's reading this site.
ReplyDeleteI would love to see 8:47 Wikipedia page. I bet it's piled high with self praise.
ReplyDeleteThe math is simple. If you just graduated in the top 25% you will pass unless you smoked crack during the exam. If you graduated in the bottom 25%, you will fail unless you did some serious turning around over the summer.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you know anybody who didn't pass, they will all tell you the same thing: I missed it by less than one percent. They are lying.
Either you wrote essays to prepare or you didn't. All my friends who refused to write essays because they would rather spend time "preparing an outline" or reading about it failed. Those who took the effort to write essays as part of their studies all passed. It's that simple.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to everybody.
11:07 - That is actually the best summation of bar result success that I have seen. Top 25% is b.s., I knew a guy from Boalt who was in the top 25, failed CA bar twice. Do the work, get the results, "review" and enjoy life as a paralegal.
ReplyDelete@11:05, now that you mention it, it seems that EVERY person who didn't pass said they missed it by like 1%...hmmm
ReplyDeleteto be truthful, I only did one practice essay and passed (probably barely, I really don't know). I spent most of my time memorizing and practicing MBEs. I personally think the biggest deciding factor is how well you can bullshit and plays devil's advocate. You have to be able to see both sides of any potential argument.
ReplyDelete11:07 AM - bravo
ReplyDeleteClass ranking has little bearing on the bar, other than as it relates to general IQ. The Nevada bar looks tough because of the passage rate, but the rate for first-time takers is pretty high. Factor in that some idiots don't prep for the test and it really means everyone who tries should pass.
ReplyDeleteAnd what do I mean by try? Thanks for asking. I sat in about 80 percent of the bar bri classes, paid attention about half the time. Scanned through the bar bri materials the week before the exam.
My table of four had a lady who walked out during the first afternoon and a guy from Ohio who went to law school 10 years before but had been selling used cars most recently. He decided to take the bar because he visited Las Vegas and thought it would be fun to live here. Did no prep.
My year the pass rate was about 50 percent. I passed. Dunno about the other person at my table. But I think it is a safe bet she and I passed and the other two failed.
Yeah, four is a small sample size, but it does hold to the average.
Show up. Answer all questions. Write readable sentences, and you pass.
Diligence often trumps intelligence.
ReplyDeleteAM - Intentional torts, a corp. with respondeat superior/agency, and domestic relations/community property mashup. And I got a kickass parking spot. Oh hell yeah.
ReplyDeleteactually there is a real correlation between class rank and bar passage rate. Jennifer Carr actually seeks out people in the lower rankings to offer extra help because of it. But it shouldn't be much of a surprise. (yes I'm a Boyd graduate...let the bashing begin)
ReplyDeleteLet's see,,,I grad. top 15% and on the bar in Nev. I was in top 10%, yeah I called someone who had info on the scores. Only comment I can make is that others who did not do as well, ended up being poor to mediocre attorneys...guess if you take law school serious, the bar exam serious, then perhaps you take the practice of law serious..otherwise you continued to be a schmuck.
ReplyDelete1:20 PM - that was some piss poor shorthand.
ReplyDelete1:20 - You are so full of shit, top 10% of the bar passers... Go back to doing CD depos regarding weep screed and leave the real lawyers alone.
ReplyDelete120 is a dumbass and a liar. I am thinking its J.Mac.
ReplyDeleteNeither class ranking nor bar results have NO frickin correlation to competence as a practicing attorney. The best ones, IMHO are mulitple takers.
1107 and 1220 are brilliant.
Go figure. Hard work and focus wins out over sheer (alleged) brilliance.
For purposes of satisfying my insatiable need for real filth and gossip, Let rat out the multiple test takers in this town, by name.
204 here. Let the grammer correction commence. I meant to say:
ReplyDelete"Neither class ranking nor bar results have ANY frickin correlation to competence as a practicing attorney."
2:03 "Go back to doing CD depos regarding weep screed and leave the real lawyers alone."
ReplyDeleteFor someone who claims to be a real lawyeR you actually know what weep screed is? Hmmm...I'm thinking you were a CD attorney in the past and now that you left you think you're a REAL LAWYER..HA!
@ 8:47 is this your website?
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayvid_Figler
If you score more than one point over what you need to pass the bar, then you simply worked too hard.
ReplyDeleteA wise man related to me, "How well you did in college has no bearing on how you will do in law school. How you did in law school has nothing to do with how well you'll do on the bar exam or, more importantly, how good of a lawyer you'll be". I took those words to heart. Study, study, study! Whether or not you pass at the top or the undistinguished bottom, you'll still be an attorney. Then, the true test is how hard you will work and fight for your clients.
ReplyDeleteJust my humble opinion.
@ 8:49
ReplyDeleteGreat advice, thanks!
Cocaine in the am, hookers and weed in pm.
ReplyDeleteRinse and repeat.
As is the exam itself is the hard part!?!!? Waiting for results and finding a j-o-b you like is the hard part. The second you find out you passed, it don't mean a thing anymore. (Except for blow hards who like to believe they scored higher than everyone else - they spend all their time reading blogs so they can feel important by commenting...)
ReplyDeleteTop 15% in Law School, top 10% on bar exam, and have left many "lawyers" talking to themselves. proof is in the pudding so go ahead an criticize as you kiss your bosses' butt to have a job...I call my own hours, make good money, do not advertise and am very busy... i.e., re ipsa loquitor...ha ha you dweebs.
ReplyDelete@12:25 Who cares. You are douche of the day.
ReplyDeleteTop 15% in law school Mr. re ipsa loquitor??? It's res ispa loquitor. The "lawyers" you've left talking are saying, what an egotistical douchebag. I feel sorry for his clients.
ReplyDeleteFrom me: may you achieve all that you deserve.
@12:25 - Steve Gibson, is that you?
ReplyDeleteI mentioned this in another bar exam post, but it's still my favorite bar exam anecdote. An attorney at my first job was talking to me before I took the exam and I asked him if the exam was so much harder, since it was the 2nd-lowest pass rate of any state, and he had taken 2 other bar exams (Louisiana and Utah) Here was his response, verbatim:
ReplyDelete"The exam is about the same difficulty as Utah, but lots of people fail because Nevada is full of doorknobs."
As an aside, he passed the exam despite winning a $10,000.00 slot machine payout during lunch and coming back over an hour late.
4:44 PM - the slot machine payout makes it a classic nevada story.
ReplyDeleteThe pass rate is pre-determined. The exam is graded on a curve. An easy pass in, say, Illinois, can easily fail here. That simple.
do what i did....finish early and play poker. You'll likely make more $$$ in both the short and long run.
ReplyDeletethe practice of law and playing poker professionally are actually quite similar. endless hours of boredom broken up by a few seconds of shear terror or adrenaline, and in both you cannot predict with certainity whether you'll win or lose.
and the entire point of both is to take the cash from the lessor skilled and feeble minded around you.
@6:42 - pretty much nailed it.
ReplyDelete# of new greenies is predetermined, so I've been told. So, the pass rate is relative to the number of people who show up to take the exam vs. the predetermined number of warm bodies the bar wants to allow in.
Based partly on personal experience and personal observation (neither scientific), you can be good at one or the other - essay or MBE - and miserable at the other and pass. However, if you're mediocre in both, you will fail. If you're good at both then apparently you are a God and qualify to be in the same league as @12:25 and have concubines constantly fluffing your ego.
@2:47 Thanks for making my day, you correct me saying it is res ispa loquitor.. you make my point, you can't spell and so we have dweebs who throw stones and show their ignorance. Thanks once again for absolutely making my point.
ReplyDeleteIs res ipsa near Ypsilanti?
ReplyDeleteTake a breath and lighten up.