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I Failed the Alabama Bar Exam. What Should I Do?

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failed the Alabama bar exam

I Failed the Alabama Bar Exam. What Should I Do?

A Step-by-Step Guide on What to Do if you Failed the Alabama Bar Exam: Alabama bar exam results have been released. Alabama has very detailed information on its site regarding passage rates.  If you failed the Alabama bar exam, you can see that you are not alone. You may be wondering what to do next. Having a plan can be an immense source of comfort.

Update: If you failed the Alabama Bar Exam, read this free guide on what to do if you failed the Uniform Bar Exam. 

A Step-by-Step Guide on What to Do if you Failed the
Alabama Bar Exam

Step 1: Allow yourself time to grieve.

Alabama simply publishes names of the passers on its website. If you failed the Alabama bar exam, you will have to wait for your score report to arrive in the mail. During this time, allow yourself to feel whatever emotions you need to – anxiety, disappointment, anger, frustration — and anything else. It will take some time to get past the news and to move on.

In the meantime, we also recommend you read this note to those who failed the bar exam and this list of famous people who failed the bar exam so you know you are not alone!  Lastly, you may want to read over some quotes we recommend for those who failed the bar exam. Sometimes this step takes a day. Sometimes it takes a week or a little longer. If you find yourself in a deep depression or sadness after too long, it is worth it to seek professional help.

Step 2: Study how you performed on exam day when you get your Alabama score report.

The minimum passing scaled score on the Alabama bar exam is 260. Alabama 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.

Note that, technically, a “passing” score on the MBE is 130 for Alabama and a passing score on the written portion is 130 (to make up the 260 that Alabama requires). The farther you were away from 130 on the MBE or written section, the more you need to work on that section.

Many students just assume that it was, say, their MBE score that resulted in them failing. However, many times, upon closer examination, it was their essay score! So don’t just gloss over this score report — study it so you can change your approach moving forward.

Lastly, if possible, request your essays and MPTs from the Alabama state bar. 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 this written portion!

Step 3: Look at how you prepared for the Alabama bar exam.

Now that you have analyzed your Alabama score report and how you performed on the actual exam day, it is time to look at how you spent the days leading up to the bar exam.

If you have taken the Alabama bar exam more than once, analyze how you prepared for each bar exam.  You want to collect as much information about your past approach(es) so you know what you need to change moving forward.

Analyze how you studied for the Alabama bar exam as a whole. Ask yourself exactly how you prepared.  Did you spend enough time studying or did you have other obligations? Were you able to take enough practice MPTs, MEEs, and MBEs? Were you using released questions or did you use questions a course made up? Was your study schedule helpful? How many timed exams did you take? Did you memorize the law to the extent you needed to?

To see an even more extensive list, please see this post on what to do if you failed the bar exam.

Step 4: Figure out your plan for the upcoming Alabama bar exam.

In Step 2, you looked at your score report for the Alabama bar exam, your essays, and you analyzed how you performed on exam day. In Step 3, you looked at what you did leading up to exam day.

In other words, by now you should have an idea of where you fell short both in terms of the section(s) you fell short on (MBE, MEE, MPT) and in terms of your personal preparation (maybe your outlines did not prepare you well enough, perhaps your bar review course did not fit your study style, perhaps you did not get feedback on enough of your essays, etc.). Now it is time to figure out what you can do leading up to the next exam to change your exam score to a passing one! Hopefully, you have identified some areas you fell short on and need to work on.

Note: We do not recommend you do the same thing twice if you want a different result. And 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.

In conclusion, consider using a different approach for the next exam. Here are some additional resources worth checking out. We have listed them in order of what you may need help with if you failed the Alabama bar exam. Our resources are extremely high quality and tailored to what is tested.

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