3 Reasons You May Have Failed the Uniform Bar Exam – and How to Pass the Next Time!
3 Reasons You May Have Failed the Uniform Bar Exam – and How to Pass the Next Time!
If you failed the Uniform bar exam, you are not alone. We have helped hundreds of students who failed the Uniform Bar Exam pass it on their next attempt. In this youtube video and below post, we cover the three most common reasons that we see students fail the Uniform Bar Exam. If you failed the Uniform Bar Exam, you may very well have failed for one of these reasons. If that is the case, we tell you how you can tackle the UBE the next time to make sure you pass!
Here are the top three reasons you may have failed the Uniform Bar Exam:
First, you may have not have put in enough time memorizing your bar exam outlines.
A lot of students do not realize this but this is one of the most common reasons we see students fail the bar exam. They have a great idea of the general principles of law, but they do not have the nuances memorized. In order to succeed on the bar exam, you need to have the nuances memorized.
The good news is, it is a pretty easy fix: If you do not know the nuances, you need to learn how to memorize your bar exam outlines. Once you get into a good “system” of memorizing your outlines, you will be all set.
Wondering if you have your outlines memorized? See if you can write out the answers to these questions:
- 1. What are the elements of a prescriptive easement?
- 2. What are the elements of a civil battery?
- 3. What are the elements of a dying declaration?
The answers are at the bottom of this post.
Second, you may have focused on doing a lot of MBE questions but you did not necessarily do them “well.” And as a result, you did not see your score improve.
Many students race through MBE questions and focus too much on quantity rather than quality. If this was your issue, slow down and try a different strategy for improving your MBE score. Rather than racing through questions, do them one-by-one. And dissect each question and go through it slowly when you practice. This is how you actually improve your MBE-taking strategy.
Also make sure you are using real MBE questions when you practice in order to best prepare yourself for what you will see on test day.
Third, you may have focused too much on one part of the exam.
Many students focus excessively on the MBE but, in so doing, neglect the multistate essay exam (MEE) and multistate performance test (MPT) portion. The MBE is 50% of your score – but the MEE and MPT make up the other 50% of your score! It is often much easier to raise a written score than it is an MBE score (especially if you are a traditional law student). So rather than focusing only on your weaknesses, make sure you are capitalizing upon your strengths as well. Do not ignore any portion!
Ultimately, there is no “minimum” passing score for the MBE, MEE, or MPT. Any combination of the three that gets you your 260 or 266 or 280 (or whatever the score may be) means that you pass the bar exam!
Answers to Above Quiz:
1. A prescriptive easement is one that is possessed by continuous, open and notorious, hostile, actual possession of the land for the statutory period (20 years on the MBE). Possession need not be exclusive as it does for adverse possession.
2. A battery is an act with intent to commit a harmful or offensive contact or imminent apprehension of that contact and a harmful or offensive contact directly or indirectly results.
3. A dying declaration requires (1) the declarant is unavailable; (2) the declarant said something under a belief of impending death; (3) the case is a homicide or civil case and (4) the statement relates to the cause or circumstances of death.
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