Good news, everybody!

May 5, 2006

I passed the NY bar exam. Boy, am I relieved.

NYLJ: 46 Percent Pass February Bar Exam. 46%? Ouch. Take that, California.

Update (5/11): And New Jersey (62% overall passing rate), too! Woohoo!

Posted by Andrew Raff at May 5, 2006 1:26 PM
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Congrats! Let's celebrate

Posted by: Val on May 5, 2006 1:32 PM

CONGRATULATIONS on passing the bar exam! What did you do to prepare for and pass the exam?

Posted by: July 2006 exam taker on May 12, 2006 3:24 PM

Over the summer I took Pieper and PMBR.

After coming up short in July and while preparing for February, I did not take another bar review class, but simply practiced more. In July, I did some essays and mbes. For february I read over all of my notes from the Pieper class, read all of the Pieper materials, did all of the practice MBEs I had and wrote some, but outlined all of the essays (both Pieper's practice essays and the last 10 years of released bar exams.)

I also took NJ in Feb, which I didn't in July, so having to be on for that third day probably kept me more focused for the afternoon MBEs.

Probably the biggest difference between the two exams was that I typed in February, while I handwrote in July. My biggest problem in July was that I spent far too long on Essay #1 and the MPT, because by the time I neatly wrote out everything I had to say, I was well over the 50 minutes it should have taken, leaving me with about 10 minutes each for essay #3 and essay #5. Taking the exam on the computer was completely different, making it possible to move sections around (especially on the MPT) and just write down everything I had to say within the time allotted and read it over to make sure I didn't just gloss over the legal analysis and making sure that my answers were actually in English.

Another key difference was that in July I studied to get 66.5% of everything right and hopefully learn something that would be useful in the future. For February, I studied so as to learn all the material to the best of my ability-- not just try to learn enough to get by.

For NJ, I looked over the released questions on their website on Sunday (two days before starting the exams.) But I did no special preparation for NJ and also handwrote NJ.

Posted by: Andrew on May 12, 2006 5:43 PM

From another BLS alum. congrats on getting past the NY bar...that is one really wretched exam. Best of luck with the job search, the market is def picking up now..

Bklyn Law grad/NYC Esq.

Posted by: Legal Diva on May 19, 2006 1:29 AM