The mailman must’ve sensed he was in imminent danger of a bitchslapping if he didn’t deliver my Colorado scores today, because they finally arrived! Here goes:
MBE
My raw score was a very painful 97. That means I got over a HUNDRED questions wrong! I did the worst in Torts and Contracts on last July’s MBE, so I tried to bone up on those for February’s MBE. Well, I did worse on Torts this time around. So bad that only 0.2% of all MBE takers did worse than me on Torts! Ouch. Obviously my MBE strategy for February was a complete disaster so I’m glad I’m overhauled my strategy this time around.
Here’s the MBE breakdown:
Constitutional Law
Raw score – 20 out of 33
Percent below me – 36.3%
Contracts
Raw score – 16 out of 34
Percent below me – 6.7%
Criminal Law
Raw score – 18 out of 33
Percent below me – 39.0%
Evidence
Raw score – 17 out of 33
Percent below me – 27.7%
Real Property
Raw score – 16 out of 33
Percent below me – 11.9%
Torts
Raw score – 10 out of 34
Percent below me – 0.2% (ouch)
Essays and MPT
I thought I had done well on all but 1 of the 9 essay questions. Apparently I was wrong. Even though I got a total score of 151 out of 200 for the essays and MPT, I’m still not happy with my shortcomings. For instance, Agency and Partnership is one of my favorite essay topics, and Essay 1 was based on that. However, in my stupidity I confused Partnership with Agency, and wrote an Agency-based response when I should have written a Partnership-based response instead. Argh! I really want to kick myself after seeing all the mistakes I made on the February bar. Colorado apparently regraded my essays and MPT because I was so close to passing, but I’m not surprised by that since they did it for my July essays and MPT too. At least I did well on the MPTs and rocked several essays, just not as many of them as I’d thought.
Essay 1 (Partnership) – 2 (overall mean 4.5)
See above about how I stupidly confused Partnership and Agency.
Essay 2 (Sale of Goods) – 2 (overall mean 3.39)
Yeah, didn’t do so hot here either.
Essay 3 (Contracts) – 8 (overall mean 5.47)
Essay 4 (Criminal Law) – 12 (overall mean 8.53)
I would’ve gotten a perfect score for this one but I gave the wrong definition of Manslaughter (correct defintiion: “killing provoked by heat of passion, which is provocation arousing sudden and intense passion without sufficient time for cooling off”).
Essay 5 (Admin Law) – 7 (overall mean 5.6)
This was a pretty random topic since Colorado hadn’t tested it since July 2005. Luckily I had prepared for this one.
Essay 6 (Torts) – 10 (overall mean 8.46)
I got a great essay score on Torts last July too. Interesting how I completely bombed Torts on the MBE, but got great Tort essay scores both times.
Essay 7 (Evidence) – 2 (overall mean 3.03)
Screwed up character evidence.
Essay 8 (Property) – 4 (overall mean 4.08)
This is the one essay I thought I had completely bombed, but apparently I did well on this one.
Essay 9 (Con Law) – 8 (overall mean 8.08)
MPT 1 – 13 (overall mean 12.35)
MPT 2 – 17 (overall mean 12.37)
Yay, I kicked ass here!
Frustrated Bar Examinee 
The more I did MBE questions, the better my score got. But it was never quantity that made the difference. It was quality. If you get a text that explains all four answers, that is such a tremendous help in understanding what exactly you got wrong. I also found that a low MBE score was a sign that I didn’t know the law at all. That is why during my third time, when I took a second full scale bar review course, and doing very few MBE’s, my score shot up about 25 scaled points. But I think that if your time is limited (because you have to work), then the focus should be in practicing as much as you can and studying the answers super carefully.
fbe..even though I signed up again for Adaptibar at the alumni rate, I have been advised by several reputable tutors that it is not the best program. Everyone in bar review-land still recommends Micromash and PMBR. One told me that Barbri’s mbe’s are too easy.
I have MM on my computer from last year, and it still works fine. I am thinking of supplementing that with PMBR 3-day, as that gives you the chance to sit for the simulated exam one week away from the actual mbe day.
Hi again,
About making outlines- I made some last time and I am making some again this time for subjects I dont particularly understand too well being a foreign attorney. Foe eg I know that my understanding of Evidence probably is not in depth. Hence this time I have made notes while studying Evidence.
Its not a waste of time…. Keep it short and yes read them again before you go on to the next one.
One more thing . Every time you finish making an outline- Do 50 questions on that subject (If u r using Barbri then 50questions of Intermediate level)
So basically make outlines- do 50 q’s, then make another outline.
Practtise is important. My scopre shot up by 35 points on scale score since last time due to practice. ( I ruined the essay part)
BY the way I also have a question for you. I did not get my raw scale but my scaled score is 125.6. Any idea how much would it be the raw score?
Hi there….thank you for asking about me….I am not doing very well….I am more PISSED OFF than anything else at this point….. Good luck in your studying…I will be reading and keep track of you!
Legis, I have been typing out all answer explanations for every single MBE practice question, whether or not I got it wrong. It seems to be helping a lot so far.
CalBarRepeater, I’m still thinking about AdaptiBar, just because it only uses actual MBE questions and I don’t have anything else that is exclusive except for the printouts. Because I study at work I need a paperless method of studying so I won’t get busted.
Dew, thanks for the advice. I ended up starting on the Crim Law/Pro outline after my post because I realized I needed to know the elements of the crimes, etc anyway. I don’t know if I will finish the Property outline or do the Con Law outline. I’m just going to finish the Crim Law/Pro outline and see where I stand. I will definitely be doing Crim Law/Pro questions today as I go along. Also, my scaled score was a 119 but my raw score was a 97. So I’m guessing your raw score is probably like 20 points less than your scaled score? Just a shot in the dark.
Blonde Blogger, I know the feeling of being pissed off. I was pissed when I found out I didn’t pass again, and I was pissed when I got my scores on Saturday. I read one of your old blog posts about new subjects being added to the CA Bar, so I was REALLY hoping you would get lucky this time. I would be pretty upset if CO changed its bar exam like that! What is your next move? How was your MBE score? Maybe you can transfer it to an easy state? 🙂
I just found your blog. Thank you for it. Sorry to hear of your scores.
I have just been dismissed from law school after my 2nd semesterm – because I had an F in Contracts I the first semester. Everything else was Cs, nothing lower.
This semester was better – C+ average. But, it didn’t quite bring up my first semester avg.
I’m completely and utterly disappointed. How do I get back in? Where else can I find support? Who else is in my shoes?
Thanks.
shelby
shelbydupree.blogspot.com
Shelby,
I’m very sorry to hear about your dismissal from law school. I know all too well how that felt, like the world was ending. Look at your law school’s policy. There should be something in there about applying for readmission after being dismissed. Likely you might have to repeat your 1L year but there should be some sort of procedure for getting readmitted to law school. Is there anyone in your law school’s administration that you can talk to? If you truly are determined to graduate from law school, do everything within your power to get back into law school. Even if it might not work out, at least you’ll know you did everything you could. There are many, many people who were dismissed from law school but got readmitted and went on to graduate from law school, so all hope is not lost. Please feel free to e-mail me if you’d like to discuss this more in depth.
Can I email you privately, I would like to discuss readmission to law school.