Should I Talk about Bar Exam Questions after the Bar?

Should I Talk About Bar Exam Questions After the Bar?

After you’ve completed the bar exam, it can be extremely tempting to talk about bar exam questions with other takers.  It is certainly human nature to want to dissect the questions you were just asked and assess your performance.  However, that can do a lot more harm than good!  It is important to resist the temptation to talk about bar exam questions after the bar.

Below, we tell you why!

• For the MBE, it’s not allowed!

The NCBE rules prohibit you from talking about specific MBE questions after the exam.  Since questions are re-used every so often, they don’t want to risk active questions being out there for other takers to find.  Of course, this is rather hard to enforce, and many try to get around this by offering vague discussions of a question.  But it is not worth it to take the chance and talk about bar exam questions that you just saw on the MBE.  As a lawyer, you are expected to follow the rules.  There is no need to test the boundaries for something trivial like this.

• Essay portion problems: discovering differences in responses

While the essay portion does not have the same prohibitions regarding discussing questions, it is still unwise to talk about bar exam questions after you are done.  While it might feel good to receive confirmation from someone else that you both talked about the same issues, you might hear something completely different from another taker.  For example, on my (Laura’s) bar exam, we had one question where it was difficult to discern if torts or civ pro was being tested.  The topics discussed would vary widely depending on who you talked to.  It is very disconcerting and nerve-wracking to start wondering if you identified the proper issues at all, let alone reached the right conclusion.  It can completely throw off your mindset for the MBE portion.  Further, there’s no point in worrying about something that you can’t change.  Your essays have already been submitted, so what good is agonizing about missed issues going to do?  Put it out of your mind and don’t talk about bar exam questions!

• MBE portion problems: vicious debates over answer choices

If by some chance you can’t resist the temptation and want to talk about bar exam questions from the MBE, you might get into some rough arguments.  There are forums online where many law students and bar exam takers like to vent about their experiences, and the bar exam itself is no different.  Occasionally you will run into a few individuals having quite the debate about an MBE question while trying not to reveal too much.  As tends to happen when tensions have been high, patience is non-existent and tempers flare easily.  Bar exam takers can get very defensive over their answers and what they believe to be their superior knowledge, and the ensuing arguments can spiral out of control rapidly.  Do yourself a favor and avoid this mess.  You’re not going to learn anything, you’re not going to feel better, and you’re not going to change your score.  You don’t gain anything from engaging in a talk about bar exam questions, so don’t even involve yourself!  Move on – it’s over, it’s done, and you’ve done all you can do!

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