Final thoughts on PMBR post-bar and post-MBE scores

I certainly did good enough to waive into DC if that's where my career path ultimately takes me. As promised, here are my final thoughts on the MBE, PMBR, Barbri and the whole bar exam experience.

Only PA seems to have any hard data on the MBE average. From my scores, it appears that the curve was 16, which seems to be consistent with what my friends have said. I also heard that the curve was not as high if you scored on the high end (160s/170s) and higher if you scored on the low end (110s/120s).

As previously reported (according to the Pennsylvania bar results release), the mean national MBE scaled score for the July 2007 MBE was 143.73. Similarly, the scaled range went from 78-188.2. If you can assume that the curve of 16 points or so is about right, then the average raw score was about a 128, and the raw range was somewhere between a 62 to 172. Statistics, however, are easily manipulated, so take what they are for what they are.

So, is PMBR worth it? Here are my thoughts, for what they are worth. PMBR is going to give you 2000+ questions and Barbri is going to give you 2000+ questions. Some anonymous poster said she did all of them, which I find hard to believe, but so be it. I think if you are going to go with Barbri, those are plenty of questions, and I strongly suggest that you avoid the "advanced" questions all together in order to save yourself much grief during the summer.

I do not think the PMBR questions were representative of the real MBE, and the exercise of studying multiple choice generally is rather silly. I suggest buying an MBE book from the bookstore and doing the "beginner" and "intermediate" questions from Barbri only. If you do them, along with the Barbri 3-day and the two practice exams in the other Barbri book, that would give you about 1500-2000 questions over the course of the summer to work on, and that is more than enough. Spend the rest of your free time reading Conviser and studying for your essays. Don't spend too much time, if any, on things such as the MPT (unless you are just a bad writer, in which case, you've got bigger problems).

If you are good at multiple choice, I think you could do 30 questions a day and be fine. I did 50 and often found myself spinning in circles by the end and missing my free time. Although I passed, my time probably would have been more productive memorizing Conviser. Thus, I would advise you to spend more time learning the law than learning how to game the MBE. And, in the last week before the bar, don't stress out. (I know, easier said in hindsight than done in reality).

Because my simulated MBE exam scores (at the end) were somewhat representative of (if not slighly higher than) my real score, I think if you can spread them out that you take one at the end of June, one around the fourth of July, and another a week before (in addition to whenever the Barbri 3-day is scheduled), you would be fine - if you have trouble finishing the test within the 3 hour time constraints, then maybe you should work on that aspect of the test. Since Barbri has a 3-day exam, take that one and be done with it. If you aren't doing Barbri or PMBR, then it may be worth it to do the PMBR 3-day just so you get at least one full-length simulated MBE before the real thing.

Of course, some people I am friends with did both the PMBR 6-day and PMBR 3-day and thought they were helpful, so it really depends primarily on whether you are learner by hearing or learner by doing (or learner by reading). As my previous entries regarding PMBR should indicate, I did not get much out of the lectures and could have certainly spent my time and money on better things. To each his (or her) own. By the time you are studying for the bar, you should know your study habits and what works best for you. Treat June (or January) like a job, and July (or February) like finals, and you should be fine. The test is not impossible, and as evidenced by the thousands of people who passed this July, it's just a test. Chances are you've taken finals in college or law school that are much harder.

And honestly, the bar exam isn't that much different than any other law exam you have taken, except that it covers multiple subjects in a much shorter time frame. So, imagine having all of your first year finals in a 3-day span, and that's the bar. Unlike your 1L finals though, you've already learned this material once, and there aren't meant to be any tricks. Sort of makes paying for a 3rd year of law school a money making scam, doesn't it?

Obviously this is easy to say in hindsight. The important thing, and if you are searching whether to take the PMBR or Barbri courses, you really have to just decide what is best for you. If you walk into the bar exam thinking "I've done everything I could to pass this test and I don't know what else I could have done if I fail," you will pass. That isn't a guarantee, but that was my attitude going in, and I was happy to see my name on the list of passers.

I think my initial thoughts on the MBE after the test are fairly accurate, and based on the comments, I am not alone in those sentiments. The months that have passed since then only lead me to think that anyone can pass the bar if they put the time into studying for it. The harder decision, I think, is deciding (1) which bar to take, and (2) what do you want to do for the rest of your life. Questions like these make taking a 2 or 3 day test rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

So, with that, I will end my commentary on PMBR, the bar exam, and the like. For perspective for you narcissists out there who are curious as to where I fall on the scale and what the scale of the July 2007 MBE is, I offer these limited thoughts. Of my friends who passed, the range of scaled scores that I heard of was a 133 (exactly), up to a stellar 179 (just shy of the national record). Mine was in the 150s, which was about the same I had scored in the second PMBR and Barbri simulated 3-day exam. The bottom line with these previous two sentences? Who cares, and why are you searching for this?

Finally, if you have stumbled across some of my thoughts on the bar exam, I would suggest that you spend some time reading what my ongoing thoughts were about it, as well as some others, and then make an informed decision based on your personal situation. To be honest, you will be fine going with either PMBR or Barbri, and at the end, probably wish you had studied something else more. It's like that for everyone; all you can do is suck it up, take and finish the test (and hope that your computer doesn't screw up), and wait.

Don't forget: If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything (supposedly this is by someone by Win Borden). In other words, don't lose the forest for the trees when it comes to the bar exam. Good luck.

Tags: bar exam advice, july 2007 mbe average, pmbr or barbri, pmbr sucks