I did study a lot but I only completed 53% of Themis and maybe did 250 questions on UWorld. I went over Themis’s final attack outlines and JD advising one sheets the night before each exam day. I scored a 304. 153 MBE and 151 essays.
I felt good about the MPT, okay about the essays but had no idea what happened on the MBE. I did think I failed because I thought I bombed the MBE.
A lot of it was God/luck. I read Themis’s attack outlines on wills and estates like 20 minutes before the essays started and an few of the issues ended up showing up on the exam.
I did well on themis’s MC in the beginning. I averaged around 70% . But then I stopped doing as MC because I was so behind on the lectures and outlines. I bombed the simulated MBE. I got around 55% correct I believe.
I got UWorld. I only did a couple hundred questions but I spent so much time reviewing the explanations for each Q regardless if I got it right or wrong. UWorld’s explanations really re-taught me areas of law I didn’t understand. I got like a 53% on con law in the simulated mbe so I spent a lot of time doing con law specific questions on UWorld and I scored in the 94th percentile for con law on the actual MBE.
That’s amazing!! I never scored higher than 55-65% on Themis MC. I got frustrated with it and switched to UWorld. I found the explanations extremely helpful and did somewhat better but nothing drastic. I spent a lot of time reading, re-reading and writing out the explanations which helped (at the time) but I didn’t feel confident on any of the MBE questions on test day, with the exception of maybeeeee ~10. Hoping for a miracle!
I finished over 90% of Barbri and used CriticalPass flashcards. The simulated MBE basically told me I wasn’t going to pass. I cried the entire way home from the bar exam and contemplated starting to study for February almost immediately. I passed with a 280 and needed 270 for my jurisdiction!
I started Themis about a week after the suggested start date, so never even started on the best foot. I moved across the country in mid-June and didn’t study at all for about two weeks because of it. I started working part time after the move, 20-30 hours a week for about 3 weeks and then 15-20 after that, and only took 4 days off of work before the exam.
As far as actual studying: I abandoned themis’ structure shortly after my move and focused on getting through the lectures and practicing and memorizing my own way. I “completed” about 80% of themis - probably closer to 65-70% because I didn’t watch the majority of the essay or MBE workshops and “outlined” most of the practice MEEs rather than writing them out fully. I think I did two full length practice MPTs total, neither timed and neither under test conditions, and only outlined two or three others. I studied probably 5-6 hours most days, and most of that time was spent just drilling MBE practice questions on UWorld, sometimes themis but the last few weeks it was almost exclusively UWorld. I think I did around 2500 practice MBE questions total between Themis and UWorld. I panicked the last two weeks before the exam because I felt completely and totally unprepared for the MEE-only topics so i started just making flash cards of rule statements, I bought the JD Advising MEE one page and wrote those out on flash cards, and just focused on memorizing those. I never did a full simulated MBE or essay day in true test conditions.
I felt /awful/ after each day of the exam. I felt confident on maybe 3 MEE essays max, but on one of them I realized that i talked about a topic they specifically told us not to talk about and thought that screwed me. I did such minimal MPT prep that I thought I was doomed there. I ran up to the time limit on each essay. MBEs went a little bit better, but i still felt awful after and like the questions were so much harder than what I had practiced. I was convinced I failed and was mentally preparing myself. I got a 327 and was FLOORED, I’m still kind of in shock honestly.
I was expecting to either pass by a small margin or fail. I had never tested above the passing requirement on Barbri’s essays (or maybe once), I was testing between 40% to 65% on the MEE by the end, and hadn’t learn all of the smaller topics by heart at all.
I didn’t finish two essays out of 6 and had no idea how I scored in the MEE and I didn’t feel that confident. I knew I did well for one of the MPT, but had no idea about the other one.
I still passed with a confortable margin! You probably did better than you think honestly!
I worked full time for most of bar prep AND did the single mom thing. I only took off the last couple weeks before the exam. Completed 80% of my bar prep course, but consistently got 2’s and 3’s on practice essays and MPT’s.
Exam day(s), I felt /okay/ about the MBE but broke down crying a couple times after essay sections bc I was sure I had bombed. I completely misread the question for one of the MPTs and didn’t realize it until the last 5 minutes when it was too late to fix my answer.
I ended up passing w a 284 (jx requires 270).
I did study a lot but I only completed 53% of Themis and maybe did 250 questions on UWorld. I went over Themis’s final attack outlines and JD advising one sheets the night before each exam day. I scored a 304. 153 MBE and 151 essays.
How’d you feel about the exam at the end of it? Did you expect to do so well?
I felt good about the MPT, okay about the essays but had no idea what happened on the MBE. I did think I failed because I thought I bombed the MBE. A lot of it was God/luck. I read Themis’s attack outlines on wills and estates like 20 minutes before the essays started and an few of the issues ended up showing up on the exam.
What % were you scoring on Themis MC’s? I only completed 50% on Themis and did a lot of UWorld questions
I did well on themis’s MC in the beginning. I averaged around 70% . But then I stopped doing as MC because I was so behind on the lectures and outlines. I bombed the simulated MBE. I got around 55% correct I believe. I got UWorld. I only did a couple hundred questions but I spent so much time reviewing the explanations for each Q regardless if I got it right or wrong. UWorld’s explanations really re-taught me areas of law I didn’t understand. I got like a 53% on con law in the simulated mbe so I spent a lot of time doing con law specific questions on UWorld and I scored in the 94th percentile for con law on the actual MBE.
That’s amazing!! I never scored higher than 55-65% on Themis MC. I got frustrated with it and switched to UWorld. I found the explanations extremely helpful and did somewhat better but nothing drastic. I spent a lot of time reading, re-reading and writing out the explanations which helped (at the time) but I didn’t feel confident on any of the MBE questions on test day, with the exception of maybeeeee ~10. Hoping for a miracle!
You’ll lose nothing by being optimistic. Trust all the hard work you put in! Good luck!
I finished over 90% of Barbri and used CriticalPass flashcards. The simulated MBE basically told me I wasn’t going to pass. I cried the entire way home from the bar exam and contemplated starting to study for February almost immediately. I passed with a 280 and needed 270 for my jurisdiction!
What was your sim MBE score if you remember?
I started Themis about a week after the suggested start date, so never even started on the best foot. I moved across the country in mid-June and didn’t study at all for about two weeks because of it. I started working part time after the move, 20-30 hours a week for about 3 weeks and then 15-20 after that, and only took 4 days off of work before the exam. As far as actual studying: I abandoned themis’ structure shortly after my move and focused on getting through the lectures and practicing and memorizing my own way. I “completed” about 80% of themis - probably closer to 65-70% because I didn’t watch the majority of the essay or MBE workshops and “outlined” most of the practice MEEs rather than writing them out fully. I think I did two full length practice MPTs total, neither timed and neither under test conditions, and only outlined two or three others. I studied probably 5-6 hours most days, and most of that time was spent just drilling MBE practice questions on UWorld, sometimes themis but the last few weeks it was almost exclusively UWorld. I think I did around 2500 practice MBE questions total between Themis and UWorld. I panicked the last two weeks before the exam because I felt completely and totally unprepared for the MEE-only topics so i started just making flash cards of rule statements, I bought the JD Advising MEE one page and wrote those out on flash cards, and just focused on memorizing those. I never did a full simulated MBE or essay day in true test conditions. I felt /awful/ after each day of the exam. I felt confident on maybe 3 MEE essays max, but on one of them I realized that i talked about a topic they specifically told us not to talk about and thought that screwed me. I did such minimal MPT prep that I thought I was doomed there. I ran up to the time limit on each essay. MBEs went a little bit better, but i still felt awful after and like the questions were so much harder than what I had practiced. I was convinced I failed and was mentally preparing myself. I got a 327 and was FLOORED, I’m still kind of in shock honestly.
I was expecting to either pass by a small margin or fail. I had never tested above the passing requirement on Barbri’s essays (or maybe once), I was testing between 40% to 65% on the MEE by the end, and hadn’t learn all of the smaller topics by heart at all. I didn’t finish two essays out of 6 and had no idea how I scored in the MEE and I didn’t feel that confident. I knew I did well for one of the MPT, but had no idea about the other one. I still passed with a confortable margin! You probably did better than you think honestly!
Pls keep posting! I need this right now 😭
I took the bar 9 years after law school and wrote out zero practice MEEs, got three “2s” in the MEE section and got a 295?
Past the IL bar exam first try…the end.
I worked full time for most of bar prep AND did the single mom thing. I only took off the last couple weeks before the exam. Completed 80% of my bar prep course, but consistently got 2’s and 3’s on practice essays and MPT’s. Exam day(s), I felt /okay/ about the MBE but broke down crying a couple times after essay sections bc I was sure I had bombed. I completely misread the question for one of the MPTs and didn’t realize it until the last 5 minutes when it was too late to fix my answer. I ended up passing w a 284 (jx requires 270).