5 Steps to take if you Failed the New Mexico Bar Exam

A Step-by-Step Guide if you Failed the New Mexico Bar Exam: If you failed the New Mexico bar exam, you are not alone. Bar exam passage rates have been falling nationwide. You may wonder what the next step is. In this article we tell you five steps to take if you failed the New Mexico bar exam.
Update: If you failed the New Mexico Bar Exam, check out this new, excellent, and free guide on what to do if you failed the Uniform Bar Exam.
I Failed The New Mexico Bar Exam. What Should I Do?
1. Take time to take a break.
It is a dreadful feeling to fail the bar exam. You probably feel disappointment, anxiety, and dread at having to handle it again.You may wonder what you should do next. Before making any big decisions, take a break to let you feel all of the emotions you need to feel so you can move on! We recommend you read this note to those who failed the bar exam. You may even want to read over this list of famous people who failed the bar exam so you know you are not alone!
2. Look over your New Mexico Bar Exam score report.
The minimum passing scaled score on the New Mexico Bar Exam is 260 (out of a possible 400 points). Since New Mexico is a Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) state, the breakdown of your score is as follows:
- the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) is worth 50%,
- the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) is worth 30% and
- the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) is worth 20%.
To see what your score report means, check out this post called “What does my Uniform Bar Exam Score Report mean?” When looking at your score report, analyze what area you fell short on – the MBE, the MEE, the MPTs, or some combination of them. This will help you decide where you need to change your study strategy. If you need help with this step, feel free to contact us here.
3. Review your essays and MPTs if possible.
New Mexico’s website does not make it clear if you can order your essays and MPTs (or set up a time to look at them) if you failed the New Mexico bar exam. However, if it is possible, make sure to do so. (If you are permitted to do this, instructions on how to request your written answers will likely be with your score breakdown that is mailed the day results are released.)
Nobody likes to relive what they wrote on exam day. However, this information can be invaluable. Perhaps you did not organize your essays well, or you wrote too little, or recalled too little law. You can gather a lot of valuable information by reviewing your New Mexico essays!
4. Ask yourself some questions to determine why you failed the New Mexico bar exam.
This step is not a “fun” step either, but it is very necessary if you want to pass the bar exam the next time you take it!
Some questions you should ask if you failed the New Mexico bar exam are as follows:
- Did you study effectively and productively?
- How long did you study for? (Was it enough time?)
- Was your bar prep course (if you used one) helpful in preparing you for both the MBE and written portion of the exam?
- Did you practice using real MBE questions and real essay questions?
- Did you practice enough MPTs? (A lot of students don’t!)
- How many timed exams did you take?
- Did you memorize the black letter law for the most highly tested issues?
Answering these questions takes time. However, it is an important step in figuring out your approach to the next exam.
5. Change your approach for the upcoming bar exam.
Look into resources that will help you pass the New Mexico Bar Exam the next time. We do not recommend you do the same thing twice. (We truly do not recommend you take your commercial course again and you can read more about that here . . .) You need to do something different if you want a different (and passing) result on the next bar exam you take.
If you found you struggled with the MPT portion, for example, make it a point to practice MPTs early and often. If you need a lot of help with the MBE, consider private tutoring or a different approach.
Below, we list some additional resources worth checking out. We have listed them in order of what you may need help with if you failed the New Mexico bar exam. Our resources are extremely high quality and tailored to what is tested!
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