July 2015 Michigan Bar Exam Essay Recap
The July 2015 Michigan bar exam had pretty standard subjects but unusual issues.
Specifically, the July 2015 Michigan bar exam tested all of the MBE subjects, Worker’s Compensation, Domestic Relations, Personal Property, Corporations, Professional Responsibility, and Trusts (which we predicted would be tested in place of Wills). There were no questions about Secured Transactions, Conflicts, Agency, Partnership, No Fault, Equity. . . or anything else very unusual.
Some of the questions weren’t too bad (Torts – Assault and Battery, Crim Pro – Search and seizure). For students following our predictions, we accurately predicted a little over 1/3 of the issues (which is about standard – when we are lucky, we get closer to half, but this was kind of a strange exam!).
While the subjects were standard on the July 2015 Michigan bar exam, many of the issues were odd. The Workers’ Compensation question tested some things that have never been tested before. The Personal Property/Contracts/Sales/whatever question was strange because they had never quite tested Personal Property like that. Some questions were difficult (Evidence, Civ Pro) or very nuanced (Corporations). Nobody knew what the hell to say for Con Law (but that is pretty standard :))
A lot of people seemed to run out of time to answer one or more questions in the morning half (probably due to the complicated – and numerous – issues)! If you ran out of time, that’s okay. Just make sure to keep track of time during the MBE! (If you aim to answer 9 questions every 15 minutes, that should keep you on track with ten minutes to spare!)
If you feel good about the essays, good! If you are nervous you did not pass the essays, that is okay too. Feelings can be deceiving. You may have received more points than you thought on certain essays ((you would be surprised by the undeserved high scores that students receive on essay questions every time)! After all, you are in the same boat as everyone else taking the exam — many of whom ran out of time or didn’t know the issues. But even if you don’t pass the essay portion, you can make up for it with a higher MBE score.
So matter what you wrote (or didn’t write) for an essay answer, put it behind you and move onward to the MBE! Best of luck!!
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