Five Signs You Passed The Bar Exam

Five Signs You Passed The Bar Exam

Waiting 2-3 months after taking the bar exam for your results can be excruciating!  In this post, we provide some signs that you passed the bar exam to help ease the anxiety as you wait!

Five Signs You Passed The Bar Exam

While there is no guaranteed way to know whether or not you passed the bar exam before results are released, there are some indicators that can (hopefully) help you feel a little less anxious as you await your results.

1. You did well in your first year of law school.

Many of the subjects tested on the bar exam (particularly those tested on the MBE portion of the exam) are the core classes you took your first year of law school.  Even if you didn’t remember many of the details from class, if you did well in your 1L classes, you probably showed up to bar prep with a solid foundation and general understanding of the topics.  This, in turn, likely allowed you to dive right into the nuances that you needed to learn for the bar exam, rather than struggle to understand the big picture as you were studying.  As such, you are more likely to have walked into the bar exam with the knowledge needed to pass!

2. Your performance on practice questions.

If you used real, released MBE questions in your practice, your performance on those practice questions is a good indicator of how well you did on the actual exam.  On the MBE, a passing score usually equates to about 58-67% correct, depending on the passing score for your jurisdiction.  So, when you were doing practice questions, if you were comfortably getting about 70% correct (and you were using real questions!), you were probably right on track to achieve a passing score on the MBE (assuming that you didn’t have any anxiety or timing issues during the exam)!

3. Your comfort level with the subjects tested on the essays.

Most people walk into the bar exam hoping that certain subjects will appear on the essays and dreading others.  Did you feel adequately prepared to answer the essay questions on the subjects you received?  Did anything seriously surprise you?  Sometimes students skip studying subjects that they don’t think are likely to appear on the exam.  This strategy inevitably backfires as it is impossible to accurately predict every subject that will be tested on the essays.  If you felt that you were able to write a competent, coherent response to each and every question (and you felt comfortable with the subject matter), these are signs that you passed the exam!

4. No unexpected issues during the exam.

Most people have heard some horror story about someone who took the exam and unexpected events occurred: a nose bleed, going into labor, getting sick.  While uncommon, these things can be incredibly distracting. If something unexpected occurred during the exam, even if you were able to finish the test, you might have been distracted and failed to give the test 100% of your focus and attention.  So, if everything was smooth sailing during the exam, that is another great indication that you are on your way to a passing score!

5. You finished the test.

Ask yourself if you actually answered every single question on the exam.  If you actually answered every single multiple choice question, provided a relevant, complete answer to each essay, and finished the performance test (if your jurisdiction includes that on the exam) you set yourself up for the best possible outcome on the bar exam!  The exam is specifically designed to be completed in the allotted amount of time.  If you finished right around the time provided (not too early, and you had enough time to finish), that could be a sign that you passed the bar exam!

Be sure to also check out our post on 7 Things to Do While Waiting for Bar Exam Results!

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