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The Smart Guide to the Pennsylvania Bar Exam

A guide to mastering the pennsylvania bar exam, pennsylvania bar exam format.

Pennsylvania is a Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) jurisdiction. All UBE jurisdictions use the same 3 sections:

Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)

Multistate essay exam (mee), multistate performance test (mpt).

2 writing assignments

Pennsylvania Bar Exam Dates

 July 2024 exam: July 30-31, 2024  Feb. 2025 exam: Feb. 25-26, 2025

*The Pennsylvania Bar Exam takes place on the last Tuesday & Wednesday of February and July.

How to Prepare for the Pennsylvania Bar Exam

(FREE Study Guides)

Part 1: Smart Guide to MBE

Part 2: Smart Guide to MEE

Part 3: Smart Guide to MPT

Click the links above for FREE study guides covering each section of the bar exam.

Contact Info

Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners 601 Commonwealth Ave., Ste. 3600 P.O. Box 62535 Harrisburg, PA 17106-2535

Website:        https://www.pabarexam.org/ Phone:        (717) 231-3350 Fax:             (717) 231-3351

Frequency Charts

(FREE Charts & Statistics)

MBE Frequency Analysis

MEE Frequency Analysis

MPT Frequency Analysis

Click the links above for FREE Frequency Charts covering each section of the bar exam.

Subjects Tested on Pennsylvania Bar Exam

Mee essay subjects.

• Business Associations (Agency, Partnerships, Corporations, LLC’s)
• Civil Procedure
• Conflict of Laws
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law & Procedure
• Real Property
• Secured Transactions
• Trusts & Future Interests
• Wills & Estates

MBE Subjects

• Criminal Law & Procedure
• Real property

Minimum Passing Score

For Pennsylvania , the UBE minimum passing score is 270.

Pennsylvania changed its passing score from 272 to 270 effective with the February 2024 exam administration and it applies to UBE score transfers as well. For administrations prior to February 2024, the minimum passing score remains 272.

Jurisdiction-Specific Component

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Bar Examination Resources

• Introduction
• The Bar Exam

Bar Admission Rules

Application information, bar exam components, sample essay questions, bar exam results.

• Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners
• Other State Bar Exams
• Bar Review Courses
• Listing of All Rules and Regulations
• Bar Exam Application Info As a rule, the bar exam is always held on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of every February and July.

*** Important Notice re:  July 2020 PA Bar Exam :  In light of COVID-19, the July 2020 PA Bar Exam has been moved to September 9 and 10, 2020.  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has authorized a limited license for July 2020 PA Bar Exam applicants.  More information can be found here .

• Components and Subjects:
• Business Organizations (including corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, and professional corporations)
• Employment Discrimination (limited to Title VII, ADA, and ADEA)
• Professional Responsibility
• Civil Procedure (Pennsylvania and federal)
• Evidence (Pennsylvania and federal)
• Real Property
• Criminal Law (including related Pennsylvania and federal constitutional issues and DUI)
• Conflict of Laws
• Federal Constitutional Law
• U.C.C., Art. II — Sales
• Federal Income Taxes (personal only and limited to taxable and non-taxable income, deductions, proprietorships, and capital transactions)
• Wills, Trusts and Decedents' Estates (including related fiduciary responsibilities)
• PERFORMANCE TEST: one Performance Test (PT) question, developed by the Board, may be used in lieu of a Multistate Performance Test question as a component of the essay portion of the bar examination. The Performance Test (PT) is intended to test an applicant's ability to use basic skills that a lawyer should possess to perform a task that a newly admitted attorney would be expected to perform.
• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law & Procedure
• Recent Pennsylvania Bar Exam Questions Links to the past 3 years of sample essay questions, answers, and examiners' analysis.
• Passing Standards The six answers to the essay examination and the PT (valued at 1.5 times an essay question) will be graded, totaled and scaled to the MBE. The combined essay and PT scores will be weighted at 55%, and the MBE score will be weighted at 45% of the total scaled score. The scaled scores of the PT/essay examination and MBE will then be combined to determine whether a scaled score of 272 or higher has been attained.
• Bar Exam Results Results of the February Bar Exam will be released in April, and the July Bar Exam in October.
• Pennsylvania Bar Exam Statistics All files are in PDF format.
• Pennsylvania MPRE Information
• Preparing for the MPRE The MPRE is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice examination developed by NCBE that is administered three times per year.

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• Last Updated: Jul 13, 2021 10:14 PM
• URL: https://psudickinsonlaw.libguides.com/barexamresources

Bar Exam & MPRE Resource Guide

• Introduction to the Bar Exam
• DE Law School Bar Review Resources
• Library Resources
• Delaware Bar Exam
• Pennsylvania Bar Exam
• New Jersey Bar Exam
• Commercial Bar Prep Courses
• Online Resources & Apps

Structure of the Pennsylvania Bar Exam

• The first day of the examination consists of one Performance Test (PT) question and six essay questions that are prepared by the examiners and approved by the Board.
• The second day of the examination is the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE).

 Additional Information

The bar examination is administered twice a year, the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July. The examination is administered in two locations in February and July ( Eastern and Western areas of the state).

The February bar examination results are released in mid- April, and July bar examination results are released in mid- October.

http://www.pabarexam.org/bar_exam_information/bebasics.htm

Old Exam Questions

The prior three year's bar exam questions with sample answers are available from the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners website at:

https://www.pabarexam.org/bar_exam_information/essay.htm

Subjects Tested

Essay Exam - six essay questions that consist of one or more of the following topics:

• Business Organizations (including corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and professional corporations)
• Evidence (Pennsylvania and federal)
• Federal Income Taxes (personal only and limited to taxable and non-taxable income, deductions, proprietorships and capital transactions)
• Civil Procedure (Pennsylvania and federal)
• Criminal Law (including related Pennsylvania and federal constitutional issues and DUI)
• Professional Responsibility
• U.C.C., Art. II - Sales
• Conflict of Laws
• Employment Discrimination (limited to Title VII, ADA and ADEA)
• Federal Constitutional Law
• Real Property
• Wills, Trusts and Decedents' Estates (including related fiduciary responsibilities)

Multi-State Bar Exam

• Civil Procedure
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law and Procedure

Performance Test - "By Order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,one Performance Test (PT) question, developed by the Board, may be used in lieu of a Multistate Performance Test question as a component of the essay portion of the bar examination."

"Examples of tasks that might be required to be performed include preparing: letters to opposing counsel, opinion letters to clients, contract or will provisions, briefs, memorandum to a partner, legal memoranda, petitions, motions, and other tasks that a lawyer might be expected to perform."

Please see http://www.pabarexam.org/bar_exam_information/testsubjects.htm for further details.

Helpful Links

Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiniers

Pennsylvania Jurisdiction Information

NCBE Study Aids - this will help you find study aids for the MRRE, MBE, MEE, & MPT. It also has sample test questions and answers.

MPRE is required in the state of Pennsylvania and a minimum passing score is 75.

MPRE Score Services

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Common Bar Essay Problems and How to Avoid Them

June 2, 2015 By Alison Monahan 2 Comments

When you review a lot of bar essays, you begin to see what sets the good ones apart. The answers that score the highest have some telltale traits that really start standing out the more of them you read. We here at the Bar Exam Toolbox have seen a lot of bar essays: top scores, failing scores, and everything in between. We’ve also come up with some common pitfalls that tend to make an essay score lower. What makes a bar essay bad, though? Or, more importantly, what can you do to make yours good ? Here are some of the most common problem areas we see year to year, and how you can improve them.

Misconceptions About What the Graders Want

The kind of analysis the bar graders are looking for vary from one jurisdiction to another, and can differ vastly from what you might have been writing on final exams in law school (even if you did well in your classes). One thing is for sure, though, bar graders are looking for something very specific. A lot of first-time bar takers think that so long as their essays are coherent, relatively correct, and hit the correct issues they have it made. It takes more than that, though. It’s important to find out exactly what the graders in your jurisdiction value. How do you do this? Review the posted sample answers. Review as many of them as you can and look for commonalities.

Lack of structure

You may have some memories from your law school exams of writing whatever came to your head as fast as you could. You may have even done relatively well. This is probably because a lot of law school professors are more willing to hunt and peck through stream-of-consciousness babble to find the correct points of law buried within. These days are over. Bar exam graders simply will not do this. They will read your essay critically and very quickly (usually in just a couple of minutes!). What does this mean for you? It means you need to make it as easy as possible for them to give you points. How do you do this? By being organized.

Find a format that allows you to call out the issues you’re discussing in each paragraph. Make them salient. Employ easy-to-follow approaches, such as IRAC . Organize your answer based on the call of the question. Use attack plans. A more structured answer is easier to read quickly, and it’s easier to see at a glance whether the writer is hitting all of the necessary benchmarks. Your bar exam grader is not going to give you the benefit of the doubt and search for the gems in your answer. It’s your job to put those gems on display.

Not Using the Facts Precisely or Completely Enough

You may have heard that using the facts on the bar exam is important . This is actually a big understatement. If you’ve talked to any of us at the Bar Exam Toolbox, you’ve probably heard many, many times how crucial the facts are! What does it mean to use the facts, though? A lot of bar takers think that using the facts is the same as just throwing them into your answer in some way—just making them show up somewhere. It’s not.

As we’ve said before, the fact patterns on the bar are incredibly precise and well-crafted. The talented people who write these hypos are painstaking about what they put in and what they leave out. How do you use the facts you’re given then? In a nutshell, you need to pinpoint which specific rule element(s) each fact “matches up” with. Then, you need to use the facts to “check off” each element (or say why it is not satisfied based on the facts you have). Regurgitating facts just for the sake of throwing them into your answer is a waste of time. This likely won’t get you any extra points. Matching the facts with precise issues (better yet, with rule elements or requirements)—this is what to aim for.

Lack of Planning

Did you plan the essays you wrote on your final exams in law school? A lot of students did not. Writing bar essays is different, though ( see above). Your audience is different, and you’re being tested on different skills. In order to get the precise, formulaic structure we discussed above, you need to have a plan (and you probably need attack plans and lots of practice too!). If you’re going to figure out how to use all of the facts you get, this definitely takes planning before you begin writing. Coming up with a plan for your essay before you start typing furiously is the best way to make sure you’re getting as many points as possible, and it’s also one of the only ways to avoid the dreaded stream-of-consciousness writing we talked about above.

Missing Issues

Most bar takers know they need to spot as many issues as possible to do well on the exam. A lot of students, though, think that so long as they memorize a lot of law, these issues will just start popping out at them when they read through the fact patterns on exam day. Not quite true. There are a lot of intermediate steps in between. It’s true, you can’t do too well spotting issues if you don’t know the law. You have to know the law. You also need to practice issue spotting , and you must practice your ability to determine which kinds of facts trigger which types of issues. How do you do this? Come up with your essay writing plan and do as many closed-book practice essays as you can. Don’t just practice identifying issues, practice writing out full, timed exams so you are getting good at writing analysis and allocating your time too ( see below).

Misallocating or Wasting Time

Timing is huge on the bar exam. I’ve seen quite a few failing essay answers that probably would have passed if they were actually completed. Running out of time is a very real concern, as is misallocating time between planning and writing, or giving more time to one question instead of apportioning time equally. So, how do you get good at managing your time ? Not surprisingly, the answer here is practice. Use a clock. Cut yourself off when your predetermined planning time is over and it’s time to move on to writing. Cut yourself off when the allotted time for the essay ends. Practice some essays back-to-back so you can get a feel for what you can accomplish in an hour. Discipline yourself to move onto the next essay so none of them are lacking. Be strict with your time you’re allowed, the bar exam will be.

Failure to Critique and Review

Writing practice is only half the battle when it comes to getting good at bar essays. More often than not, I see students improve the most dramatically when they start critically reviewing their own work—and when they actually re-write essays that they miss the mark on. Why is this? Well, first of all, it’s almost impossible to learn from our own mistakes if we don’t know what those mistakes are ( if you’re a repeat bar taker , this is especially true—go get those essays you had returned to you and critique them ruthlessly!). Second, it’s difficult to apply what you’re learning on one essay to a new, completely different essay since the new essay might test very different areas of law (even within the same subject). If you write the same essay a second time, you can instill knowledge about those legal issues and cement your attack plan and process so next time you see that issue, you feel more comfortable with it.

Getting critical reviews of your essays from a trusted source like a bar program, a professor, or a tutor is also a great way to ensure that you’re seeing your missteps and fixing them. Often, bar students are over confident in their abilities. Even when they make mistakes, even when they miss issues, they may somehow convince themselves they were closer to getting it right than they actually were. Sometimes getting a tough critique early on from someone who knows what the graders are looking for is the very best thing you can do for your writing.

Do you need help with the essay portion of the bar exam? BarEssays.com is a great study tool for the essay portion of the California Bar Exam. And Bar Exam Toolbox readers get a special on membership ! Email us to get the coupon code.

Want more useful bar exam advice? Sign up for our  free mailing list  now!

Did you find this post helpful? Check out some other great articles:

• The Ins and Outs of Studying for the Bar Exam 
• Bar Exam Essays – You Must Become an Expert at Reading the Facts
• 10 Tips for Working and Studying for the Bar Exam
• Warning Signs You May Need Extra Help as a First Time Bar Exam Taker

Photo credit: Hururg/Shutterstock

Ready to pass the bar exam? Get the support and accountability you need with personalized one-on-one bar exam tutoring or one of our economical courses and workshops . We’re here to help!

About Alison Monahan

Alison Monahan is the founder of The Girl's Guide to Law School and the co-founder of the Law School Toolbox . Alison is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a member of the Columbia Law Review and served as a Civ Pro teaching assistant. You can find her on Twitter at @GirlsGuideToLS or @LawSchoolTools .

Reader Interactions

These are some great tips for passing the bar’s essay questions. I think you are right about having misconceptions as to what the graders want to hear. Reviewing study questions and finding commonalities in the sample answers is a great way to study.

We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You have done a formidable job and our entire community will be thankful to you.

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How to Interpret Your Bar Exam Score Report

Here, we tell you how to interpret your bar exam score report and how to avoid some of the common mistakes that students make when they attempt to interpret their bar exam score reports! If you passed the bar exam, you may be curious about how well you did. If you failed the bar exam, figuring out what your score means is the first step to making sure you pass the next exam!

A bar exam score report will typically have a few things you will want to pay attention to your overall score, your MBE scaled score, and your written score. States give a varying level of detail. Some states (like Illinois) won’t tell you your score at all if you pass. Others will only tell you your overall MBE and essay score. Some (like New York and Washington) break down exactly how you did on each essay, each MPT, and each subject on the MBE! We will try to give you a general idea of how to figure out what your score report means, assuming your state provides you with some detail!

Note: if you are in New York, please check out this post on how to dissect your New York Bar Exam score report . 

Your overall score

The first thing you will probably look at is your overall score, as this will tell you if you passed or failed the bar exam. (Your bar exam score report should indicate this pretty clearly.)

Uniform Bar Exam states require a score between 260 and 280 to pass the Uniform Bar Exam . So, if your score was above 280, you technically received a score that is considered passing in every Uniform Bar Exam state. Congratulations if that is the case.

One thing you may wonder about when examining your overall score is what percentile you scored in (that is, how did you score in relation to other test takers?). If you read this post on UBE percentiles, you can figure out your approximate percentile . A few numbers to guide you if you are in a Uniform Bar Exam jurisdiction (note: these numbers change every administration, but not significantly; we have updated the below numbers to reflect the February 2019 bar exam. You can also see these in the chart below.)

• A 330 is the top percentile (99th percentile for the February 2019 Uniform Bar Exam)
• A 300 is approximately the 90th percentile
• A 280 is approximately the 72nd percentile
• A 270 is approximately the 58th percentile
• A 260 is approximately the 44th percentile
• A 250 is approximately the 26th percentile
• A 240 is approximately the 16th percentile
• A 230 is approximately the 8th percentile
• A 220 is approximately 4th percentile
• A 210 is approximately the 2nd percentile

Your percentile tells you the number of people you scored higher than. So, if you are in the 40th percentile, you scored higher than 40% of examinees (and lower than about 60% of examinees). If you failed the bar exam, your percentile can tell you how much work you need to do to pass! For example, if you are in the 2nd percentile, you have a lot more work to do compared to someone who is in the 44th percentile.

If you are not in a Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) jurisdiction, see if your state bar releases any information about percentiles. Many states do not. If that is the case, look at your MBE scaled score because you can figure out your percentile on your own for at least the MBE portion!

Your MBE scaled score

You will not get your MBE “raw” score (i.e., the exact amount of questions you answered correctly). Rather, you will get a scaled or “converted” score. The scaled score is converted from the raw score but the National Conference of Bar Examiners does not reveal the formula it uses to do this. So you will not know the exact percentage of questions you answered correctly.

It is very important to dissect your MBE scaled score to see how well you did. For example, review this chart below from the February 2019 bar exam. (This was promulgated by Illinois.) On the very left side, find the column titled “Scale Score” then see “MBE Percentile” right next to it. Compare your scaled score to your MBE percentile.  This will tell you about how you did even if you did not take the Illinois bar exam. 

If you scored a 105 on the MBE, you are in the bottom 2 percentile, meaning you have a lot of work to do. If you scored a 140, however, you are in the 73rd percentile! So, that is quite good. (Note: percentiles change from administration to administration, but this is a decent guide as to where you stand.)

The MBE is curved, so just because you scored “close” to passing doesn’t mean you are as close as you think. For example, a 125 is the 32nd percentile, and a 135 is in the 57th percentile. That is only a 10-point difference in score, but is a 25-point difference in percentile! So, if you are in the 120’s on the MBE, you may still have a lot of work to do to move your score up.

In most states, you want to aim for a score between 130 and 140 to “pass” the MBE. If you are not sure what score you should aim for, and you are in a Uniform Bar Exam state, just take the overall score needed and divide it by two. So, for example, in New York, you need a 266 to pass the bar exam. If you divide 266 by two, that is 133. So you should aim for at least a 133 on the MBE. (You also can check out this post on passing MBE scores by state if you don’t want to do the math!)

Note: Some jurisdictions also tell you how you scored in each MBE subject. This is worth paying attention to as it can reveal where your weaknesses are! If your jurisdiction tells you that you scored in the 70th percentile in Evidence and in only the 5th percentile in Torts—that’s a sign you likely need to work on Torts!

Your written score

In a Uniform Bar Exam score report, you may also see six scores for your Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) answers, and two scores for your Multistate Performance Test (MPT) answers. Not all states release this information, but most do. The vast majority of states grade on a 1–6 scale. (Some states grade on a 1–10 scale, and other states, like New York, do their own thing, which you can read about here .) Your score report may look something like this:

So, the first six scores generally are your MEE scores. And, the last two scores are your MPT scores. Remember that these are not weighted equally! The six MEE essays are worth 60% of your written score. The two MPTs are worth 40% of your written score! So, the MPTs are worth more.

In most states that grade on a 1–6 scale, a 4 is considered a passing score. Here is the exact number a passing score for each essay:

• A 3.9 is considered passing in Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions that require a 260 to pass.
• A 4.0 is considered passing in Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions that require a 266 to pass.
• A 4.1 is considered passing in Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions that require a 273 to pass.
• A 4.2 is considered passing in Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions that require a score of 280 to pass.

Most students make the mistake of just assuming they passed the MPT and MEE portion of the exam when in reality, they have work to do! Make sure to carefully examine your score report to see if you actually passed either portion of the exam!

If you are not in a Uniform Bar Exam state, please consult with your jurisdiction for its grading scale and what a passing score is.

Final thoughts

If you did not pass the bar exam, we recommend you read this detailed post on what to do if you failed the bar exam . The last thing you want to do is make the same mistakes and fail it again!  We tell you how to avoid that and how to study better!

New: We have an excellent On Demand course available for those looking for a fresh new approach on the bar exam. Check out the advantages of our course here . It is on sale for a limited time!

If you have questions about how to interpret your bar exam score report, feel free to post in the comments below or contact us .

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• Board index Law School Bar Exam Prep and Discussion Forum

How hard is it to get 65 on California essays (Barbri is confusing)? Forum

How hard is it to get 65 on California essays (Barbri is confusing)?

• Anonymous reply with quote

Post by tbird » Wed Jul 06, 2016 10:28 pm

Re: How hard is it to get 65 on California essays (Barbri is confusing)?

Post by rcharter1978 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:20 am

Post by MsAvocadoPit » Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:35 pm

Post by thegrayman » Thu Jul 07, 2016 6:09 pm

Post by james11 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 6:13 pm

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Post by barjamie8 » Fri Jul 08, 2016 3:11 am

tbird wrote: Long story short, Barbri has graded four of my writing assignments, and I got a 60 on all of them. They gave comments saying "good," "great rule statement," "good analysis." But then I missed maybe one or two minor tangential issues that barely even seemed to be part of the interrogatory. And they still gave me a 60 saying to state the minority position in one rule, and that my analysis could have been stronger in a couple of my sections. It seems like they expect perfection to award a passing score. Do the real bar graders really read this closely? Is Barbri just full of crap trying to scare people into continuing to study hard? When I self grade, I usually have more than enough points to get a passing grade according to their rubrics, but now Barbri is hurting my confidence, and I don't really know what is expected on the real thing. If anyone can answer these questions who really knows: 1. Do my rule statements need to be word for word to get credit? I am now consistently seeing all or most of the issues, and generally know what the rule or test is that applies, although not always word for word. Is that enough? 2. If my analysis is good following an imperfect rule, do I still get points for analyzing according to my rule statement? 3. Is it really this hard to be minimally competent? I am very surprised that on a scale that goes up to 100 it is this difficult to get a 65. 4. I have read places that the graders only devote 1-3 minutes per question to grading. Am I wrong to think that they likely look at what headings are there to make sure you got the issues, glance at the rule and make sure it is generally right, and then make sure the key facts have been applied to that rule and section? And if that is all there then you are passing? I am having a hard time buying into what appears to be Barbri's approach that I need to match their "model answer" in order to pass the bar. There is no way I could write everything that they write within the recommended hour.

Post by storge » Fri Jul 08, 2016 3:02 pm

Post by tbird » Fri Jul 08, 2016 3:27 pm

Post by dtruong23 » Fri Jul 08, 2016 10:03 pm

Register for access!

Did I mention it was FREE ?

Post by tbird » Fri Jul 08, 2016 11:16 pm

Post by El Pollito » Sat Jul 09, 2016 12:11 am

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 12:32 am

MsAvocadoPit wrote: I had the same concerns! I did the graded torts question for barbri last week, I felt like I KILLED IT. Only missed IIED and contributory negligence, which I thought were very very small issues. They noted those missing issues and gave me a 60 but said everything else was great. I was so sure I would've got 70 or higher on that based on my own scoring. If this is a barbri scare tactic, and not real grading, I don't think it's productive. We should be studying broadly, and not for the smallest details, right? Ugh! I may, bite the bullet and maybe pay for a grader. My school gives us a free baressays.com account, and I noticed that they sell grading packages. The smallest is for 2 essays, but that's $99, ouch!

Post by El Pollito » Sat Jul 09, 2016 12:34 am

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Post by james11 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:08 pm

El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 4:51 pm

james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

Post by El Pollito » Sat Jul 09, 2016 5:00 pm

Post by james11 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 5:42 pm

lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

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Post by LurkerTurnedMember » Sat Jul 09, 2016 6:41 pm

james11 wrote: lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 6:47 pm

Post by james11 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 6:48 pm

LurkerTurnedMember wrote: james11 wrote: lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 6:50 pm

james11 wrote: LurkerTurnedMember wrote: james11 wrote: lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

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Post by james11 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 6:52 pm

lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: LurkerTurnedMember wrote: james11 wrote: lacrossebrother wrote: james11 wrote: El Pollito wrote: i didn't learn much state law. i made up most or all of the law for the non-PT essays and just applied made up law. you can get a lot of points for doing that.

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:01 pm

Post by james11 » Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:05 pm

lacrossebrother wrote: You seem like a moron. Did you fail this exam before? Nobody is denying that knowing more rules gets you more points on a single subject essay. But aiming for 85s is a bad strategy. Especially on non-mbe subjects.

Post by lacrossebrother » Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:08 pm

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

Now there's a charge. Just kidding ... it's still FREE !

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SOS - I have never posted on Reddit before (and not entirely sure how this even works), but as a repeat examinee who has taken the PA bar exam FOUR times now, I'm hoping that some of you may have some insight for me, or can talk me off the ledge.

I graduated law school in 2021. I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 9, and have a well-established, documented history of the impairments this disability has caused me throughout my academic career. In my first year of law school, I was diagnosed with anxiety as well as depression, and the combination of these mental and intellectual disorders severely impacted my ability to complete final exams under timed conditions. After my first semester (and receiving grades that were entirely not reflective of my knowledge of the law), I applied for accommodations in the form of a distraction reduced environment and 1.5x time extension. They were granted and I was able to finish law school with an exceptional GPA. Then, the bar exam happened.

Before my first attempt at passing the PA bar (in July '21 prior to PA's adoption of the UBE), I applied for accommodations via the process required by the NCBE. I obtained over 200 pages of proof from my doctors, every school I had ever attended after the age of 9, my SAT scores, LSAT scores, notarized letters from the dean of my law school and director of student affairs... yet, the board denied my request. I ended up failing by 10 points - and while I chalked it up to my nerves and the fact we had to take the test at home that summer, the real issue was the fact that I failed to complete 2-3 of the essays, and part of the MPT. I thus reapplied for accommodations, as it was clear that it was not a competence-based failure, but based solely on lack of timing. Again, denied. I retook the exam the next July and studied for MONTHS, but just missed the mark with a 269 (which enabled me to transfer my score for admission to New Jersey) - again, the problem was that I did not finish the MEE. Then came February of 2023, and I, yet again, did not finish the MEE. I failed by 8 points that time.

And now here I am again, feeling like more of a failure than I did any of the previous times I took this god forsaken exam. I flipped through the MEE questions and was immediately filled with joy because I knew the intricacies of every single one of these essays. YA'LL - I didn't write a WORD down on the __ essay, nor the __ essay. For the last essay, I was able to spit out some trigger words, but I simply ran out of time. Of all the times I have taken the bar exam, I have never left the center feeling as defeated, and downright ANGRY, as I did today. I have done everything I can do. This is not competency, lack of knowledge or inability to organize/IRAC my essays. It is SIMPLY THE LACK OF TIME.

So now that my introduction-rant is over, I was wondering what you guys think. I killed the first MPT, and I did decent on the second MPT although I ran out of time while finishing my analysis. I am predicting a MPT score that would get me to around a 12-13% out of the 20. But the MEE portion...what. in. the. hell. do. I. do/think. I feel incredibly confident about the three essays I did complete, however no essay is ever "perfect" so I'm predicting maybe a 13-14%, max?

So I am starting the MBE tomorrow with a pretty solid understanding that, even if I get EVERY SINGLE QUESTION CORRECT (which we all know is impossible), I still lost about 25% of the total points today.

Do you guys think this exam is even possible to pass at this point? I am not very good at math (lol) and I know the scaling effects our overall score anyway, but I guess I am just seeking some ideas/words of encouragement (or even, blatant honesty that - no you probably will not pass this damn thing). I am not a quitter, so in any event I will UNDOUBTEDLY be returning tomorrow. And, if I do fail, I will have standing (lol) to raise absolute HELL to the board. Hell, isn't THIS discrimination? I have spent nearly $10,000 on prep courses, test fees, CBT fees, hotel/air b&bs (when I had to take the test in Lancaster this past February). NOT. AGAIN. F U NCBE.

This system has failed me and I KNOW I am not the only one. I refuse to take this test again without accommodations, as I will just waive in from Jersey in 4 years. BUT, mark my words -- if you see someone picketing with a sign outside the convention center next year stating "abolish the bar exam," you will know who I am :)

For all of those who do read this, THANK YOU. And for those of you who (at 9:30 pm post-day 1) have the capacity to talk me down from this hill of insanity, I LOVE YOU.

XOXO angry re-examinee x 4

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