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What to Do if you Failed the Kentucky Bar Exam

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failed the kentucky bar exam

Kentucky bar exam results are going to be released today for the February 2017 bar exam administration. Update: February 2017 Kentucky bar exam results are out! See the pass list by seat number here. If you failed the Kentucky bar exam, you may wonder what to do next. In this article we tell you five steps to take if you failed the Kentucky bar exam.

I Failed The Kentucky Bar Exam. What Should I Do?

1. Take time to take a break.

It is a dreadful feeling to fail the bar exam. If you are reading this shortly after bar exam results are released, 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 so you can 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!

This step is important as it will help you move on and it will prevent burnout!

2. Look over your Kentucky Bar Exam score report. 

The Kentucky bar exam is composed of three parts:

  • the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)
  • the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) drafted by the NCBE
  • the Kentucky essay portion (drafted by Kentucky)

A 132 is considered to be a passing score in Kentucky. A 75% is considered to be a passing score on a given essay question.

If you passed one portion of the exam, you may have the option of not sitting for that portion again and only sitting for the portion you did not pass.

When looking at your score report, analyze what area you fell short on – the MBE, the MEE, the Kentucky-specific portion, or some combination of them.  This will help you decide where you need to change your study strategy. Many students just assume they fell short on, say, the MBE. Or they didn’t do well on the essays — when in fact their score report will say otherwise! So carefully analyze your report!

If you need help with this step, feel free to contact us here.

3. Review your Kentucky bar exam essays if possible.

Kentucky’s website does not make it clear if you can order your essays (or set up a time to look at them) if you failed the Kentucky 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 Kentucky essays!

4. Ask yourself some questions to determine why you failed the Kentucky 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 Kentucky 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?
  • How many timed exams did you take?
  • Did you memorize the black letter law for the most highly tested issues?

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

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 Kentucky bar exam. Our resources are extremely high quality and tailored to what is tested!

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