Welcome to the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast. Today we're answering your frequently asked questions about coming back after a bar exam failure. Your Bar Exam Toolbox hosts are Alison Monahan and Lee Burgess, that's me. We're here to demystify the bar exam experience, so you can study effectively, stay sane, and hopefully pass and move on with your life. We're the co-creators of the Law School Toolbox, the Bar Exam Toolbox, and the career-related website CareerDicta.
Alison also runs The Girl's Guide to Law School. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review on your favorite listening app, and check out our sister podcast, the Law School Toolbox podcast. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can reach us via the contact form on BarExamToolbox.com, and we'd love to hear from you. And with that, let's get started. Welcome back!
'Tis the season for bar results, and over the last few weeks, many bar takers around the country have been dealing with disappointment, grief, and frustration. We've been talking with many of you, offering thoughts about score reports, next steps, and getting mentally ready to study again. So in today's podcast, we're sharing common questions we receive from bar takers seeking advice about studying again. Alison, have you been on call after call after call?
I'm sure, because we've barely talked to each other recently.
That is very true. I've definitely spoken with a lot of people. A lot of these conversations go the same way, so I'm glad that we're doing this Q&A, so we can help people set themselves up for success if they do have to have this experience again. One of the questions I think people struggle with is: If I did really well on one section, say the MBE, can I just focus on the writing? What are your thoughts around that?
We do get this question a lot, and the short answer is "no", which is never the answer anyone loves to get from us. But I have seen a lot of scores flip-flop all the time. So, you come to me and you said, "I knocked the MBE out of the park, but my writing is a problem." And then you come back to me after another administration and the scores are completely opposite. So, this rule really does apply, even if you did well in the writing portion but struggled with the MBE.
Unfortunately, you do need to prepare for all parts of the exam. I think you can give additional focus to weak areas and as you allocate your study time - sure, if your MBE scores are thriving, maybe it gets 30% of your time. But you can't assume your results will remain the same just because you got a solid score on one section previously. I think
that's true. Another thing I see people sometimes say: "Well, I'm looking at the breakdown of my MBE score and I see that I was in the top 75% of applicants on Con Law, but I was in the bottom 10% on Torts. So that tells me I'm good with Con Law; I can only work on Torts." And when you see multiple reports of score reports from the same person, you often see those scores are kind of random and all over the place.
So I don't think, again, that if that is inconsistent with the results you were seeing in your practice, that it's a very good idea to give zero time to one topic and extra time to another. Again, of course, it's a balance. You want to be looking throughout your preparation at, "Where am I doing well, where am I not doing so well?
Where am I needing some more attention?" But just to say, "I'm not going to look at this law at all" - I don't think most people are going to be able to remember everything they studied six months ago. So you definitely need to be refreshing on everything, even if some things are getting more attention.
A hundred percent. I also think it's important to keep in mind that this applies to the performance test portion as well. I have seen bar studiers say, "Well, I did pretty well on those, so I just won't do any more of those." And I think that's kind of a bad idea, too. I think you at least need to keep your skills fresh. It doesn't mean that you need to be doing three of these a week, but maybe one a week as you get closer to the exam.
And just to keep your skills fresh, do a practice exam where you're used to doing one after the other, to remind yourself what it feels like to do that block of them. It's just important to remember that some of this is just doing dress rehearsals for the real exam. You still need to practice, even if you know all your lines.
I think that's absolutely right. And I think to be honest, a lot of this, the first time somebody takes it and doesn't pass, is a little random. Maybe you got one essay that you really didn't do well on and that brought down your writing score. Well, that doesn't tell us that your MBA is consistently going to be higher; it tells us you had one bad essay.
So, particularly in cases where you don't get much of a breakdown individually by piece by piece, I don't think it's a great idea to just ditch half the test or the PT or whatever, because you happened to do pretty well on that particular one. The PT is a great example, because when I took the California bar, one of the PTs was on the topic of my moot court brief. So I was a literal expert on that area of law.
I was probably not going to do as well on some other random PT that I'd never seen before. I just got lucky.
Yeah, yeah, I think that's part of it. And I also think it's important to keep in mind that when you go back to study again, you're really doing a point collection exercise. It's great to get more points on the essays if that was really your lowest section, but you would also be in a good position to gain more points on the performance test, if you did really well on a performance test, or even more points from the multiple choice. You want to... Is it raise the water so the boats all go up?
What's the saying? You know what I mean, though. I don't remember, but you want to basically have everything come up... A rising tide lifts boats. There you go. I knew it was something about boats.
Yeah, you want to be in that rising tide. I'm like, "That's great that you did well on the MBE. Let's get it even higher, so if something bad happens somewhere else, you're covered." No, I think like you said, you've just got to collect those points. And I say collect them everywhere.
Yeah. Another question we get pretty frequently is: Should I take this bar exam or the next administration? I feel like I almost talked to every single person about this question. What about you?
It's pretty common, because the reality is, a lot of people who did not pass the exam might have expected to pass and they have other things going on. So they might be working, they may have family obligations, maybe you put your life on hold for two months to study for the bar and you can't do that this time. So I think this is a legit question. I think it's complicated. Our general advice is probably, if there's a way you can do it - sure, take the next test.
That being said, if you can look ahead and say, "There is no way with the holidays, with everything I have going on, that I'm going to be able to carve out the necessary time to study" - then there's really no reason to go and fail the exam again.
A hundred percent. Generally speaking, most people need around 400 hours to study for the bar, and it's important to sit down and ask yourself where those 400 hours are going to come from. And if you are moving, or taking care of an ailing parent, or have a demanding job - I think that it's possible you can't find 400 hours, or even something very close to it, to study again. And I think there needs to be honesty when really evaluating this question.
I think sometimes someone will tell us this question and I can hear the fear in their voice, like, "I want to just push this boulder down the road and say I'm going to take July, because that sounds really far away and that gives me plenty of time." And I get that, right? I get that. I don't like to go to the doctor, so I make doctor's appointments like months ahead of time, just so I can forget that I have them until they show up on my calendar. I get it, right?
But there is also a benefit to taking the next administration - the law is going to be fresher in your brain, you aren't as removed from the study period. There are lots of reasons why you may want to take this next administration. You really have to go through some self-analysis to make sure you're not self-sabotaging yourself and just trying to push the boulder down the road.
I think that's right. I've definitely at the same time spoken with people who said, "Well, this is the third time I'm taking it. And I took it once, it didn't go well. The second time, I just really wasn't mentally there. I was really demoralized. I was still very, very, very upset about this, I couldn't focus." In that scenario, it was like, okay, the bar is going to be there when you can actually be mentally prepared to take it.
If this is so devastating to you that you just absolutely cannot cope with it, go talk to a therapist or something and try to get some help. If in a couple of weeks you're still like, "I just can't do this again right now" - that's fine. There are plenty of reasons not to take the bar exam at a particular given time. So I think my default is always if we can figure out a way to make this work - sure, take the next exam. If not, then maybe you wait.
And part of that is also, can you access the resources that you need? So, if you're completely financially strapped, maybe it makes sense to work for a little while and then be a little more stable, have resources that you can apply towards getting help with this, and then be set up and get it done. There's just no point in kind of cycling through these exams, not being ready for them.
A hundred percent. I had a student many, many, many years ago, who was really in a financial situation where she could not access any more resources and she knew she needed help. She needed tutoring, she needed someone to help walk her through this. So she took a hiatus. She went and did bartending, which is what she did on the side, made as much money as she could for a period of time, and then stopped working, studied full-time, and was able to pass the test.
And I think that there was a lot of honesty in evaluating her situation and saying, "I'm better off waiting a few months, getting all my life stuff in order, and getting the help that I need so I can give it a good, honest try." Because what some folks really don't consider is the amount of money it takes to just give the bar a shot. That's not even like hiring a team like us.
This is just paying those fees to sit for the test, paying the laptop fees, maybe going to a location where you need to sit for the test. Those dollars add up really quickly. And so, if you're going to sit for it, just make sure you have a chance to invest in it, to give yourself a chance at passing. I just don't think it's a wise use of money to just sit for the experience. No,
because it's going to be demoralizing. Again, I've had people say, "Look, I knew I wasn't ready. I shouldn't have taken it again." That's fair. I just prefer people get to that point beforehand, rather than wasting multiple months of their life and lots of money to find out that actually, this never made sense to start with.
Yeah. Okay, I know you get this question a lot, because I also get this
I get a free repeat of my commercial bar review program. Shouldn't I just do that same program again because it's free? Hmm. Well,
I'm going to ask them, did that work for you the first time? I always go to the Einstein quote, I think it is: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results." So I think people really have to reflect honestly and seriously on their last experience. It is totally possible that you purchase a course and you did not commit yourself to that course for whatever reason. Okay, fine. Maybe if you were more committed, it might work.
I don't know that most people are really in that position. What are your thoughts?
I think most people I talk to at least did 75% or more of their commercial bar prep. Every now and then I'll hear someone who say they only did 50% or that something happened, especially if they're a working and studying applicant. But generally speaking, most people have worked their commercial bar program to a certain extent. So then the question becomes, did that program prepare you for the test? And if you're speaking to me, likely the answer is "no", unfortunately.
So, if you put in sufficient effort, which meant you were studying regularly, you were taking care of yourself, you weren't doing self-sabotaging behavior - then the question is, "Okay, I put in all this time, why wasn't I able to apply what I was learning to the exam in the room?" And there can be a lot of factors that go into that. One that almost comes up in every single conversation about this is, talk to me about your learning. Did you do passive learning or active learning?
Did you put in tons and tons of hours, but did you ever test your retention? More and more I keep thinking about the last Adam Grant book that we've talked about on the podcast before, where he talks about studying foreign languages, and this idea that you have to be speaking something, you have to be challenging yourself, you have to be failing to really be able to learn, and I always think of that when somebody talks to me about how many hours they put in listening to video lectures.
And they're surprised that that didn't lead to being able to spit out the language on the page and do the legal analysis, because it's just not the same things.
Right, exactly. We have this conversation literally multiple times a day of like, "I realize now I was too passive. I watched too many videos. I didn't really put the material together. At some point it all became really overwhelming and I had all this stuff in my head and I just couldn't perform. I didn't practice." And I'll be honest, I think of myself last ski season. I was training for this exam, I was getting all this input from different people.
I was working hard, I was putting in the time, but I was getting worse and worse and worse in a lot of ways. And it got to the point a couple of weeks before the test when I said, "You know what? I'm not going to pass this test. I need to take a different approach." And so I realized that upfront. It was a lot easier because it was $200 and I could get it refunded.
But I think there's something about that process of, particularly the first time you do something, you don't know what's going to work, so you put your chips like, "Okay, well, these people know what they're doing. They're telling me to do these things." But at some point, if it's not working, it's not working. And so, I think that's the analysis that people really have to consider, is, what about this did not work for me, and what can I do differently?
Maybe you use the same materials, but you focus intently on practice or something. There are lots of ways that you can work this, but I do not think just doing the exact same thing and redoing the course is going to probably result in a different result.
No. I actually challenged somebody I was speaking to on the phone this week to do an A/B
test. Hmm. Hmm
And I said, "If you're not sure if you retain information in this way, I would, re- engage with your commercial bar prep program, because it's free. Why not? You've already paid for it." And then listen to Evidence lectures and test yourself and see how you retain.
And then, instead of doing the audio lectures for the next subject, you could study off of outlines and make flowcharts and flashcards, and then see how much you retain, using the same amount of time that you would have spent on those lectures, which when you add them up are a lot of hours, like a lot, a lot, a lot of hours. And then see how it comes out. What do you remember? And I think that there is a vulnerability in making yourself do some sort of exercise like that.
But think about all the information that you can get from doing an exercise like that and just really looking at yourself and saying, "How do I retain information in the most efficient way?" I have my own personal opinions on that answer, but you should test it and figure it out for yourself.
Yeah. I spoke with someone today who had a legitimate reason for telling me that watching videos was helpful for her. I'm like, "Okay, cool." I mean, she was doing it in conjunction with other things, but again, there were specific reasons with the way her brain works that it was helpful to see someone talking about the information. I'm like, "Cool, I get that." Is that everyone? Absolutely not.
So, I think you just have to be thinking of what is the most efficient way to get material in your head. And the other thing is the overwhelm of just the amount of law. Even if someone's using the commercial course again, I really strongly urge them to get some shorter outlines and use that as their primary source of information, because there's no way that you can memorize a telephone book.
No, no, no, no, absolutely not. Okay. Next up is another question I think I almost get every single time we speak to somebody on the phone: When should I start studying, especially if I'm going to be working and studying? I
think the answer to this question is
as soon as possible. Like, today.
Today, yes. You need to start studying as soon as you can, because working while studying especially presents an additional challenge. This is the thing I see over and over again, is you end up using your best brain at work, and then you're trying to study with an exhausted brain. So, it's not even that all your study is going to be the highest impact study. So not only do you need to find time to study, you need to get creative with how you're going to spend your time studying.
So, perhaps you get up early and you study in the morning before work. Maybe you can go to work 30 minutes later, so you can get a couple of hours of studying in. That would be horrible for you, Alison, because you're definitely not a morning person. But for morning people, that could be very good. Maybe you talk to your boss and you're able to work remotely to eliminate some commute time and you could get some extra study time in that way.
But perhaps you need to find other ways to study when you're fresh. Perhaps you try and get off work a little bit early and then go for a walk and come home, having had a break from your computer. But there are a lot of challenges around this. I also think that when you're working, a lot of stuff can go sideways. Your job can all of a sudden have an emergency, which could prevent you from studying as much.
And then I always have to say, even if you're not working and studying, especially for the February exam, people get sick all the time. And sometimes you lose like a week from getting sick.
Yeah, no, exactly. And I think if you are working, it might be worth it to think of creative ways that you could get that fresh study time. So, for example, if you need to work 40 hours in a week, maybe you don't need to do eight hours a day. Maybe you could do four days a week where you're working 10 hours, because that's the same 40 hours.
And it may not matter to anyone, but then you just basically commit, "Okay, I'm pretty much not going to be studying that much for those four days, because those are going to be very intense work days. But then I get a whole extra day that I can do a lot of work." I think that's often a fair trade for people, because I would rather have somebody take those eight hours that maybe they're going to try to study after work and put them in one day.
And that's just going to open up a lot better study time than trying to do it bit by bit.
I've also had folks take vacation days to take a Friday off, a number of Fridays in a row, if they're not able to do the 40 in four. So, if your job's like, "I can't give you weeks off, because it's too much of a burden", you could say, "Okay, well, could I have every Friday off for six weeks? Use my six vacation days and do it that way?" And sometimes that still gives you that uninterrupted time, that best brain time without the same burden on your job.
So, what this really comes down to is you need to figure out what you need, and then you need to be honest with your employer and give them solutions. Don't just come to them and say, "Boy, this is going to be
rough." Yeah. I've seen people do half day and maybe cut back to 30 or 35 hours a week, something like that. Something that's manageable for everybody. Everybody's going to have to give a little bit here. You may not get exactly what you want, which is 10 weeks of paid vacation. And your employer may not get you working a full 40 or 50-hour week if they really want you to pass this test. So, everybody's got to give a little bit.
The other thing I think is super helpful, that I did when I was taking California while I was working, was try to get any time you can off before the test. So, even if it's a week or two weeks or three weeks, that is going to make a really huge difference, versus just stopping work one day and rolling into the bar the next.
Yeah. I've even told folks to think about that week before the test. If you take the week off just before the test - so, five vacation days - you have the two days of the weekend before that, plus the five days of the work week, plus three more days. That's actually a long stretch of full-time study, with only taking five days off of work. Even if you can only take, let's say, three days off of that week before the test - that would still be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.
That's still a pretty long stretch. So, you can really look at the calendar and see where you can pull some extra time. And it is going to give you possibly five to seven to ten days of full-time study without taking a huge amount of time off of
work. Right, exactly. So I think work with your employer, figure something out, and get creative if you have to, and try to make it work for everybody.
Yeah. Something else that we talk to folks about when we talk about evaluating what happened on the bar exam is, people come to us and ask, "Should I request my answers from the past exam?", if your jurisdiction allows it. Not all jurisdictions allow it. Some send them to you no matter what. California does that. They're just like, "Here, you're welcome. You can have copies of your
test." Yeah. I often ask people if they've looked at them, and the answer is usually, "Not yet."
Yeah, no, not yet. Yeah, exactly. But some jurisdictions charge a fee. I mean, it can be a nominal fee, but it's still an annoying fee, considering how much money you've already invested in this test. But seeing your writing is so crucial for evaluating what went wrong, even if it's a little bit painful to
do. Yeah, definitely. And people who work with us for a tutoring option, that's one of the first things we do, because we want to see what did you do on exam day, and I find often people are really surprised. They thought they were writing a great essay and then they look at it and they realize, "Oh, wow, that really wasn't what in my head was coming out." And that's important information to have, that you have an idea of what you're doing and it's not matching the reality.
Okay, well, that's step one, is like, what are we dealing with here? In any problem, the first option is, we've got to get clear on what the problem really is. And nothing is going to be better than actually looking at those. So I think they're extremely valuable, even if it's kind of painful.
Yeah. I mean, you might have to do a meditation before you crack them open to read them, to get yourself very centered. But if you're not sure how to go about even looking at these, I think you can start with something really simple. You could literally start with different color highlighters and just try and highlight the IRAC or CREAC structure. Start with something simple: Did I even use IRAC or CREAC? You might be surprised.
You might be like, "There is no rule here."
Right.
"What was I talking about?"
"I have no idea what was happening", right? Neither
did
graders.
They have no idea what you're talking about either, because you didn't write it down.
Yeah. And then you can start looking at those issues and looking at the model answers or the NCBE answers or whatever you have that you can compare your answers to, and start asking yourself, "Did I talk about these issues? Or did something big happen? Did I apply the wrong law? Did I miss huge issues?" It doesn't feel great, but I think there is power in just really seeing what happened in the room.
The other thing I think that can be really interesting to see is that sometimes you think you're writing a very organized answer, but it comes out as a disorganized mess and it can look sloppy. When we were doing an episode with a former bar grader not too long ago, we were talking about that you have to dress up your answer and make it look like you know what you're talking about. Don't wave your arms and say, "I'm freaking out and I'm panicked."
They're looking for confidence, even if it's faked confidence. And so, try and look at that and say, "If I was just reading this for the first time, what does this answer show me?" And if it doesn't show confidence or that you have some sort of authority, then that's really important information to have when coming back and studying again and picking your bar review providers and making your study schedule and getting feedback. So, it's not fun.
And sometimes you have to pay a little money, but you should still get those answers, and then, like you said, you should read them. You could highlight them, you could take it outside somewhere pretty, I don't know. You've just got to do it. Go
to a coffee shop, go to a park. I do think the highlighting is great, because it makes it a little more objective that you're just looking for these things. And then, you can see, "Is my analysis section really small? Alright, well, maybe that's a problem." But it just makes it more objective, and that's what we're looking for here. This isn't anything to talk about what a great person you are or not, or a worthy human being. It's just, this is what you wrote down on that particular day.
And so, the more you can step back from it and look at it objectively, I think the more useful it's going to be as an exercise and it's going to hopefully set you on a path to say, "Okay, now I understand what happened." And you can even highlight every time you use something like "because", like, are you linking facts to law? That's another really big thing to look at. And if not - well, that's an easy fix. Just use it.
Yep, exactly. I had this conversation yesterday three times, which is why I added it to this list. So, I hope everyone's ready: is applying for accommodations worth it? What do you
think, Alison? Well, I was speaking with someone this morning about this. So, yeah, I think generally speaking, if you need accommodations, it's probably worth it to apply. That being said, I think it's important to understand that if you have never had an accommodation before for anything, even if maybe you had a diagnosis probably not going to happen. But there are accommodations, like we've talked about, for all kinds of different things. It doesn't have to be something that's longstanding.
My bottom line is, if you had accommodations in law school, you 100% should probably apply for them on the bar, because you have a pretty good shot at getting them, depends on the jurisdiction. You might be able to forum shop a little. If you know that this is something you've had, pretty likely. If it's something brand new, I think that's a harder question. What do you think?
I think that's true. If it's brand new and in the category of physical accommodation - so, you need a standing desk, or you have an injury, or you need to be close to a restroom, or you need to eat or drink, or something like that - I think that those things that come up often aren't new and they don't typically require extra time. So I think the things that often come with extra time are learning differences, ADHD, anxiety.
And if that has just popped up - it may have been there for a while - but if you have just recently been diagnosed and you've never had accommodations before, they are going to scrutinize that. And depending on the jurisdiction, you may need to be evaluated, and those evaluations can be expensive and hard to get. And so, it may be tough to squeeze that in, because those accommodations deadlines are going to come up really quickly, especially if you have just got bad news from the bar.
So, then you have a few choices. You could forum shop, like you mentioned. You can look, especially for these UBE takers, you could look for a jurisdiction that could be still accepting applications. I do recommend that you pick up the phone and call and ask questions, so you can get all the information possible. And then you have a difficult decision of whether or not you should delay the exam until you could apply for accommodations.
That is really situation-specific, but for some students I have recommended that without accommodations, they're not able to perform at their best. And so, just sitting for an exam where they can't be their best selves, just maybe not the best use of time or resources or
energy. Yeah, I think that's definitely an argument for maybe postponing, giving yourself six more months to sort this out, and then going in with a better option than just saying, "Oh, I have to do it right now." It's like, what's the point? If we think you can get accommodations later and we don't think you're going to get them for the next test for sure, I would say that's a strong argument for waiting.
Yeah. Okay, one of my favorite questions that I get is: Can I pass the test if I study again? Which I think is a really vulnerable question and I know why everyone asks it, but then I feel like my answer is always the lawyer answer of, "It depends."
Right, it depends. I don't know. For me, it's always like, I'm not telling you you can't. I think you probably can if everything aligns, but we need to figure out what happened, what you're going to do differently, how this is going to set you up for success in a way that you weren't set up for success before. Sometimes lightning just strikes. We work with a lot of people and sometimes, frankly, we're surprised that some people pass and some people fail.
We aren't 100% when somebody goes into that test, whether they're going to pass or fail. It depends on a lot of factors. There are all kinds of different people. Do you have, like we said, the accommodations thing? We work with students who are foreign-trained attorneys. That's a completely different scenario than somebody who's done a JD. Maybe you went to school in New York and now you're sitting in California and you've never taken any California bar classes.
These are all things that can be addressed. I never like to tell people, "Absolutely not, you're never going to pass." I don't think that's accurate for anyone. We've seen people make a lot of progress. I've also seen people who failed by five points. Fail again, repeatedly, by five points.
Yeah. I think that this is just one of those things where the bar is so arbitrary on how it is graded. I can't tell you that if I turn in an answer, that every single bar grader is going to give you the same score. They're going to do their best to do that, but that's why that five points can be so elusive, right? It can be like, "I don't know why this one essay got this exact score." But I can tell you that you can set yourself up for success and try and just leap over that pass line.
So, one of the things you have to think about is that you're not just trying to find five more points. You're trying to find 20 or 30 more points, and then you hope that that works out. I will say that there are some bar providers out there who talk to folks and they tell them they don't think they can pass.
Have you had anyone say that they've been interviewing... I don't even know who it is, but someone out there is having these consultation calls and telling people that they shouldn't sit for the test.
I mean, I definitely have heard that people are like, "Somebody told me I'm never going to pass." And, like I said, sometimes if somebody's in California, if they're 300 points from passing, I can see why somebody might say that. Do I think that's the right thing to say off the bat? No, I want to dig into that and why do we think you got the score you got. And if the answer is, "I studied for 10 minutes and took the test", the score tells me nothing.
But if it's somebody who really did everything it seemed like possibly they could do and they're still 300 points off at that point, that might be a different conversation.
Yeah, I know. I just think, like we've said, there are so many things that can happen in the room that it's so hard to say that this one performance on this one day... It means that there's a barrier entry.
No hope ever. You're done.
There's no hope, or you have to study for a year, or you have to do all of these things. That's why I think it's really about an evaluation of, what can you do to pass and not whether or not you can pass. And all you can do is collect points from all these different places and hope that you can jump over that threshold. But, I don't know, I wouldn't consider myself an optimistic person. I don't think anyone would describe me that way. I don't know, you've known me for a million years now.
But I am one of those people who's like, "Listen, we can all do a lot of really hard things if we want to try and do them." So, I'm not just going to tell someone, "Do it! It'll be great." But I've seen people do amazing things, and with the right help and the right support, who knows?
Yeah, I think that's the thing. We've been doing this long enough that we've seen a lot of people make a lot of improvement. I'm just always hesitant to say off the bat when I look at a score report... We look at a lot of score reports. I honestly look at somewhere, I'm like, "Wow, I've never seen a score that low before on a pretty consistent basis." I'm like, "Huh, that's a new one." So I want to talk to that person and figure out what happened. We can't answer, can you pass? Who knows?
We can tell you what you need to do to get yourself closer to passing. And if you execute on those things, hopefully you can pass. But anyone who tells someone like, "Oh, I can guarantee you're going to pass the bar" - they are lying to you.
Yep. Okay, well, we have to do something special for our California listeners. The California Bar Experiment here is happening. So, the question I'm getting from California bar takers, which I'm sure you're getting too, is: Should I take the February 2025 bar exam despite all of this uncertainty?
So, for those of you who are not aware, California has gone rogue and they have decided to hire Kaplan Bar Review to write MBE-like questions that hopefully won't infringe copyrights, and give a slightly different bar exam that will be taken remotely and at these testing centers. And there's been a lot of chaos, we've got a really fun YouTube series on it if you want to watch that.
But the initial kind of testing of these questions, where students were allowed to come do what they called the California Bar Experiment, where they sat down for 90 minutes and took sample multiple-choice questions - that's happened, and the reports are that the test wasn't significantly different from the MBE. I'm sure the NCBE would love
hear that. quote us on that.
Don't quote us on that. If you're listening from the NCBE - I was not there, I did not take the test. It's all hearsay, alas. There's a lot of uncertainty and it feels yucky to those who are sitting for the February bar, because it's going to be the first time that they're using these test centers. It's going to be the first time that they are taking it remotely outside of COVID. There are interesting questions that still feel open, like what does this virtual scratch paper look like?
There's even some mention of possible whiteboards on the FAQs, but we're still working on getting the full answer about that. There's still just a lot of uncertainty, and it makes it scary to study for this test. However, I still think that people should take it.
I mean, I go back to what we were saying in the days of COVID when things were being postponed and, same thing, we didn't know what was happening. Somebody's going to pass the test. Probably roughly the same percentage of people who always pass the test are probably going to pass this test. So, if you can set yourself up to be one of those people and everyone around you is freaking out I talked to someone yesterday, it was like, "Maybe it's an advantage.
Maybe they'll pass more people because it's so chaotic." I was like, "That could happen. I don't know." But yeah, they're not going to fail 100% of the people because they're giving it at a remote test center. That's just not going to happen. So, I think if there's a reason for you to sit for the test, then prepare for the test as if it's the normal test. Do whatever you need to do. If you have to take notes on a whiteboard instead of a piece of paper - okay, you can probably live with that.
The one thing I guess interesting is probably you're not going to be doing the MBE-ish part by hand. Right. We
I don't
don't know what call it anymore. The XMBE. Again, okay, if that's the case, that's not a problem. You can just practice with AdaptiBar or UWorld. You're taking them on the test. Most people are actually more concerned about going the other way now, where they have to go from the screen option to pen and paper, pencil and paper. So, those are minor details, I think.
Yeah, everyone's in the same boat. Nobody sitting for this test is going to have sat for this exact test under these exact same conditions. Never. So, you're all doing it together. Yes, are you part of a bit of an experiment? You are. But the Cal Bar is going to pass people, because that's their job. And so, you do the best that you can, the chips will fall where they may.
And if you don't pass, then you can tell people that you were part of this wacky February 2025 bar exam experimental type section. And everyone will say, "Yeah, I bet that was kind of wild." And then years from now, nobody will ask you what bar you sat for. And then you'll just be licensed and it won't even
matter. Right. And I was even just thinking now, because they have no way to scale the MBE against any other set of people. Normally, if you're taking the MBE, that's going to be scaled across the whole country. You have a lot of data to work with. They basically just have to set a point and be like, "Okay, well, the 70 percentile person got this many questions right, so that's now our scale."
Yeah. I
mean, that's it, they can't do anything else. If everyone does worse, you're not going to be downgraded for that, because they're still going to have to pass basically the same amount of people. They have nothing else to scale again.
Yeah. It's just all very concerning. So if you're listening to this and you're not in California, just be
thankful. Be happy. That
you are not trying to pass the California bar. And if you are in California - well, we're all in it together. So, we're doing the best we can, and you can continue to get updates from us as we try and figure out what's happening, so we can help our students prepare. But I think for now, the best thing to do is just prepare for the test as you have been preparing, and just remember that you are not alone. Everyone's in this
together. Yeah. I would say, just don't psych yourself out. Do your preparation, go in, give it your best shot, and you might get a little score boost at the end.
That's right. Well, I think those are our top questions. Do you have any final thoughts before we wrap
up? No, I'm good. I feel we say the same thing a lot. We get a lot of the same questions. So hopefully this has been helpful to people and will help you as you move forward and try to make some decisions. We're always happy to help. You can reach out, set up a free call, and we'll walk through your personal situation and perhaps answer some of these same questions for you.
That's true. We could reference back to the podcast. And with that, we are out of time. If you enjoyed this episode of the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast, please take a second to leave a review and rating on your favorite listening app. We'd really appreciate it. And be sure to subscribe so you don't miss anything. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to Lee or Alison at lee@barexamtoolbox.com or alison@barexamtoolbox.com.
Or you can always contact us via our website contact form at BarExamToolbox.com. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk soon!