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What to Do if you Failed the Missouri Bar Exam

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failed the missouri bar exam, missouri bar exam results

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

If you failed the Missouri bar exam, you are not alone. Bar exam passage rates have been falling nationwide. More examinees have been failing and looking for a new approach to the bar exam. A 260 out of 400 is needed to pass the Missouri bar exam.

Update: If you failed the Missouri Bar Exam, check out this new, excellent, and free guide on what to do if you failed the Uniform Bar Exam. 

If you failed the Missouri bar exam, it should come as some comfort that you are not alone.  In this article, we outline a step-by-step guide on what to do if you failed the Missouri Bar Exam.

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

Step 1: Take a break.

There is no feeling like failing the bar exam. It is a combination of dread, anxiety, disappointment, anger, frustration — among many other inexplicable emotions. Unfortunately, there is no quick-fix to getting past these emotions. However, they will get better in time, I promise!

If you failed the Missouri bar exam, allow yourself a break. Read this note to those who failed the bar exam. You may also want to read over this list of famous people who failed the bar exam and 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: Carefully review your Missouri Bar Exam score report.

The minimum passing scaled score on the Missouri bar exam is 260. Since Missouri is a Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) state, your score is broken down 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 only fell short by a few points on the Missouri bar exam, making some small changes may be all you need. If you failed by several points or if you have taken the Missouri bar exam several times, then you may need a totally new approach. Feel free to contact us here if you need help reviewing your score report.

Unfortunately, Missouri does not give you the option to review your MEE or MPT answers (as many states do) so you will have to closely review your score report and gather as much information as possible from it.

Step 3: Critically think about how you studied for the Missouri bar exam.

This step is not a “fun” step either, but it is very necessary if you want to pass the Missouri bar exam the next time you take it!  You want to collect as much information about your last approach so you can figure out what to change moving forward.

Some questions you should ask if you failed the Missouri 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?

This step takes some time but the more time you spend analyzing what went wrong, the better equiped you will be to come up with a plan for the next Missouri bar exam!

Step 4: Figure out what you need to change for the upcoming bar exam.

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 . . .) Do something different to achieve a different (and passing) result on the next bar exam you take.

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 decide what you need to change moving forward.

Below are some additional resources worth checking out. We have listed them in order of what you may need help with if you failed the Missouri bar exam. Our resources are extremely high quality and tailored to what is tested!

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