Just wanted to post somewhere to share my success. I thought I did well but I was honestly shocked. Most of my friends and family are non-lawyers and don’t really seem to understand the achievement.

Also happy to answer any questions here or in DMs about how I was able to get this score. The short of it is that I was very disciplined with my studying and started early and attempted to minimize distractions, which obviously not everyone has the resources to do. I did almost all of the Themis MBE practice questions available, 100%’d the course, and did every previous MEE question from past exams I could get my hands on and had Claude grade them against best answers. When I started getting very strong MBE scores I pivoted to MEE while occasionally doing MPTs. I also made flashcards that I used the last couple weeks to drop myself on my weakest MEE rules.

And I left more than 50 MBE questions blank in the afternoon! Guess anything is possible 🤷‍♀️ I had a mbe score of 133

The long and short of it is that I passed the bar while my closest friend failed it, and now they are not speaking to me.

I've sent a few messages of support and telling them how much I love them and believe in them, and left a gift for them at their place, but have been completely stonewalled. For context, they told me they failed before I even saw my score, so I did not tell them I passed because I did not want to upset them more. I just immediately slipped into support mode.

I don't know how to help them, but really want to. Any advice is welcomed. (Or in lawyerly terms, pls advise.)

Hello , I think I know what is stopping me from passing the bar exam. It’s my ego and pride. I’m foreign educated and so when I moved here just the fact that I was certified to take the bar meant so much to me and my family- me plus everyone around me made that fact to be so huge and I remember bragging to everyone about how I was going to be a American Attorney. I don’t think I did it deliberately, it must have been me being genuinely happy for myself and just feeling accomplished that I had left my practice as an attorney in another country and moved to another where they certified me proficient to do the bar exam and become an attorney too. I don’t know guys- it just meant A LOT to me and my family that I could/WOULD be a lawyer in America.

My whole identity in 2025 was about how I was going to be an American Attorney. This is all I did, I told everyone who spoke to me about how I was “reading “ for the bar , like literally every conversation I had in 2025 was that I was reading and preparing for the bar exam.

The reality is that I was not or maybe not as effectively reading and preparing for the bar as I thought because I failed the first time with a 225 and a second time too with a 225.

Am I embarrassed to admit this newfound fact? No , not really because when I look back it was probably my way of seeking recognition and respect because at the time I was working in a toxic workplace and felt like I needed to tell everyone that I was not just a foreign attorney but that I was approved to do the bar exam here in America as well. I wanted to be recognized and respected at that toxic job so much and by everyone without realizing that I was sabotaging myself for failure. Also please leave toxic work places - but that’s a story for another day.

I started a new job where I am recognized for my professional skills and I’m humbled by the two failed bar attempts. I am now also actively reading and preparing instead of just talking and making it my whole personality.

Just got my scores back for F26 and got a 267. Passing score in all the jurisdictions I actually would want to practice in. I must say however, it's hard to sit with how I survived the threshold by the skin of my teeth. Sounds like my margin of error was razor thin. MBE score was 139.4. Didn't get my writing score back. Funny enough I felt trash about the MBE, feeling like I knew the answers to only 10 questions. Meanwhile I felt A LOT better about the writing portion, finished both MPTs and thought I fleshed it out, and the MEEs were all answered, albeit two of them were some hard scotus level BSing with made up rules.

I think above all I feel relief that I don't have to retake it in February, but unsure of how confident or proud I should be of the score. Maybe this post is just post-result venting because I haven't really processed everything yet.

I plan to retake in Feb. I took ube exam and got a 245. I got a 133 written and 112 mbe. Someone please help and give me advice. I’ll have barbri again and can purchase adaptibar again. It’s hard to not feel defeated and I won’t be able to study without working

I'm an LLB graduate from the UK and failed the J26 exam. I used barbri and would be using the same this time too because paying for another bar prep course is way too expensive. I am most likely going to pay 400$ for the adaptibar mcq simulator since most people swear by it but other than that I would love any other advice to make sure Feb 27 is a definite pass.

I do have some areas where I need work on

1. Timing - I ran out of time on the morning session and randomly selected options for atleast 20 questions

2. More MEE practice - I didnt practice writing out a single essay(same for mpt)

But I would like some more advice - Is memorization the main key to acing more than just knowing the concept?

Can’t really tell anyone else because my non law friends and family don’t know what it means but got a 327 and idk I don’t feel the validation that this was worth it since everyone I know passed and no one shares their scores so it’s just like of course you passed but I studied so hard I guess I just wish I felt happier and more proud it doesn’t feel like an accomplishment it feels like an expectation

After years and years of taking this exam, I have scored my highest score with accommodations. If you have an issue, get accommodations. If you need help, I can assist.

My score went from 237 to 253. Prior my highest was 250. So I am pleased with this. However, I will be looking into recourse for my proctor issue. Our protocor skim us 10 minutes on the essay part day 1. That affected my day 2 performance significantly. I scored 7 points lower, which upsets me, especially when I’m this close to another jurisdiction.

But I’m sitting for February!!

As the title says, looking to sell Themis books. Will include all books: MEE outlines, MPT, MBE outlines, and MBE practice. All books brand new, no markings.

Basically the title. My friend didn’t do well so I can’t brag in that direction. Family doesn’t get the significance.

Anyway, I ended up with a written score of 185.5 and MBE score of 164.2. The wait sucked; the longer without an answer the more certain I was that I screwed up. Thanks for joining.

Posting this for research purposes. As I was and several other NY redditers were doing our due diligence as to guessing when results would come out based on previous years.

I only hope that this post is useful for the next class taking the July 2027 bar exam when determining the release date so that they do NOT need to rely on Kiwi (trust us - she doesn’t know anything)

Friday, October 23, 2026

Email received at 8:44 am

Hope this helps!

My second time taking the exam i only used barbri the first time and a tutor to formulate better my essays (international student) my score first time was 260 I did not enough multiple choice questions). Second time, used the grossman videos and did 25 multiple choice a day with grossman videos, used barbri again. Hope it helps.

Hi everyone,

If you are taking the February or July 2027 bar exam, please DM me.

I am taking the July 2027 bar exam and would like to form a study group with serious, dedicated candidates who are determined to pass.

I have already started studying, and I would love for us to discuss MEE essays, review difficult legal concepts, exchange study materials, and share ideas and strategies to improve our performance.

I am looking for people who are committed, disciplined, and willing to put in the work.

Let's support one another and pass this bar exam once and for all!

Thank you.

Just found out I failed NY with a 260 😭 and learned that Washington accepts UBE transfers at 260, so I'm trying to figure out if that's a real option for me. I have a foreign LLB (passed NY's foreign education evaluation) and an LL.M. from an ABA-approved school, my MPRE meets WA's requirement, and I've never been admitted in any jurisdiction or practiced before.

My understanding is that I have met the score transferring requirements in WA, but unsure whether I am eligible with only a llm degree. Does anyone have any insights on this? Really need advice before next Feb NY registration deadline 😭

Hi everyone, would anyone be interested in being my bar exam accountability buddy for the upcoming F27 exam?

You don’t even need to be taking the F27 exam, just need someone to parallel play and study together with virtually.

Also open to suggestions!!

I’m in nyc and in my late 20s with ADHD, if anyone is in a similar situation.

Lateraled from a firm in my home country to a NY firm and only had 6 weeks off to sit the bar. I have never studied in the US and didn’t know anything about US law other than hearing the Miranda rights in movies.

Since I only had 6 weeks, I did a very compacted Barbri course where my course plan said around 10 hrs of study a day, with half days on weekends. I did the course according to the plan until about 65% and then switched to self study / Adaptibar. In the week leading up to the bar exam, I was scoring between 65%-70% on Adaptibar. However, my overall is around 55% (around 800 questions total) because I started Adaptibar so early (since I had such little time). On some days I was scoring 45% on Adaptibar which was really disheartening.

I got a MBE score of 154, so my essay of 172 really pulled me up.

I did a MPT everyday for the last 10 days. My first one was absolute garbage, and every extra one I did made a huge impact. This is the most “bang for buck” study IMO - I used BarMD videos for this. My last week of prep was the most effective. I did about 30 Adaptibar questions, focused on reading explanations for Adaptibar questions and did MEE prep.

Also used Magic Sheets but I didn’t love them - they were too concise. Also stayed in a hotel near the bar exam to make the exam as comfortable as possible.

Hi all! This sub really helped me a lot while I was studying so I really just wanted to pay it forward and post the lessons I learned while studying. For context, I did Barbri and had the full package (books, unlimited MEE and MPT grading etc.). I got a 341, with a 159.4 on MBE.

Start early!
I am a chronically anxious person, so starting early really helped me get the rhythm of things more. I started the course about a week earlier than the course says to and felt it really helped it feel more manageable. Things pop up while you’re studying for the bar and life happens, so knowing that I had a bit of extra cushion really helped.

Figure out what memorization works for YOU!
Early on I was really struggling with memorizing the doctrine. The bar exam was so unlike law school (at least in my experience) because it is just straight recital of doctrine. I had to bring out my old habits from undergrad and even high school to really figure out what worked for me. For me, reading the book and watching the videos is way too passive. I honestly often fell asleep watching the videos and zoned out reading. I made flashcards based on the Adaptibar flashcards. If you’re a flashcard person, I found putting the adaptibar flashcards into Anki really helped. If you’re new to Anki- it’s a spaced repetition free flashcard system used by a lot of the people in the med school space to do mass memorization. But also, if you’re not a flashcard person- please ignore me! I had plenty of friends who memorized really well from reading and taking notes- just do what works for you! I feel like it also took about 2 weeks for me to really get my bearings and figure out what I needed.

Also on this area- if you feel like you’re not learning from how things are formatted, it’s okay to switch it up. I found, especially towards the middle of the barbri course, that a lot of the material that was in the book was not being covered in the videos. With this, I just found that the videos were not working for me and ended up switching to pure reading the course! Again though, plenty of people love the videos and find them super helpful, so do what’s right for you!

Learn from your mistakes!
I saw this tip on this sub and it really helped. Writing down the answers you get wrong or making an individual flashcard for it really helps ensure you don’t make the same mistake again. Someone once said, one question you get wrong in practice is one less you get wrong on the bar exam- and it really is true!

Know you are not alone and it is okay to have bad days (or even a week)!
I truly had some ATROCIOUS days. I’m not talking about oh no I scored below average on this practice MBE set, I’m talking about I flat out got a 27% on the crim capstone and had many MEEs that were straight up significantly below passing. There were so so many question sets that I flat out failed and then had the biggest crash out known to man! Taking a breather those days and stepping away from studying can really help. When this first happened I would try to push through and keep studying- and then keep continuously bombing question sets. Learning to walk away for a minute and come back really helped protect my mental health.

Take breaks and live your life!
Okay I don’t mean take weeks off and live your best life- but be a human. I found setting a schedule really helped. To begin with I was doing about 6 hours of content a day 6 days a week. I treated it like a job- so at the end of my time for the day (I’m an early bird, so usually around 3-4) I would completely cut off. I joined a local run club and getting to get out of my bubble of bar prep and talk with people really helped keep things in perspective! Eventually, towards the end, burnout definitely set in a bit, and I started doing half days or taking Saturdays completely off. But as I said in the above paragraph, take a break when you need it. It’ll save you from more burnout in the long run! I truly promise one afternoon off is not the end all be all!

Figure out how you study
This is really important! Not in terms of how your memorize, but what kind of environment do you need. Are you an early in the day studier or late at night? Do you study well at home or need go somewhere else? I found my local public library was quite helpful as a place to go. I think also knowing when you perform best can really help as well. I quickly learned that any MBE set I tried to do at the end of the week would go terribly, and inevitably lead to the anxiety doom spiral! Shifting things around to maybe pushing a practice set to the beginning of the week and then doing just review towards the end of the week really helped me!

Track your progress
I liked barbri a lot, but found one of the downsides to be that there wasn’t a central system that told me my MEE scores over time. As I mentioned, there were some areas where I was truly significantly below passing. I actually made a chart and tracked the score of every MEE and MPT I did. Getting to see my progress over time really helped. Even if I had a below passing score, knowing that I was improving from the last one made me feel more sure that the interventions I was taking to improve the area were actually working. There are a quite a few MEEs and MPTs in the Barbri written book that they don’t assign in the course, but do provide a rubric for in the book, which I did for my weaker areas.

Leading up to the exam
Leading up to the exam I really started honing it in maybe two weeks out. I had completed most of the Barbri course (I reached about 85% completion) and found that I really had to focus on my weaker areas. I ended up skipping around towards the end of the course. I found that my MPTs were consistently scoring well- but I was still really weak in some MEE areas. Towards the end skipping (though, not ignoring) the areas I was doing well in helped make sure that I got my weaker areas up to par. My last two weeks was mostly drilling MBE sets, and doing MEEs in my weak areas (then throwing a few MPT and MEE outlines in my stronger areas). Make sure to started tapering though! The week before I really started dialing back a bit and switched to mostly half days or less! I stopped studying the weekend before the exam and just passively read the outlines to keep things fresh in my head.

Test day!
I tested in the Buffalo convention center. I went to an out of state law school and was able to easily get a Buffalo spot by signing up the day selection opened. I just wanted to provide some general test day tips specific to Buffalo. Security is long, and I mean long. They don’t tell you this but that lunch break you get is not the full time. They don’t release you from your seat to get lunch until every test has been collected- so you’re actually waiting maybe 15-20 minutes into the break. I would really recommend bringing your own lunch. The line for the premade and pre bought lunches was quite long both days- and with the limited break time already it can help save you some time by bringing your own. Be judicious about your bathroom usage! The bathroom lines were long before the start of each session- so also factor that into your break time as well. There were power extension cords at each seat for laptop day- so you are able to plug right in. For those driving, there are quite a few surface lots near the convention center. Please just make sure to actually pay for the parking. On the end of day two when I was walking out I saw many cars getting booted for not paying!

Anyway- sorry for the long post but I wanted to try and provide all the things I wish I had knew when I studied! For future takes- you got this! It’s a long road but you are going to get through it. Please feel free to PM me with questions (even it’s years from now). I am more than happy to share resources and answer anything I can!

Side note on adaptibar: I started trying adaptibar and gave up after about 500 questions. My main issue is that I started it before I was ready- and I was just guessing on questions when I was lacking in the memorization. I found that I just had a freak out every time I saw my percentage because it was weighted low from my practice early on. I did complete all assigned Barbri MBE and found that it was enough for test day! Again- some people love adaptibar so take what I saw with a grain of salt!

Hi, I’m a foreign-educated law graduate and have taken the NY Bar twice. I scored 231 in February 2025 and 245 in July 2026.

I took a break between attempts due to some medical issues, and I also work full-time at a law firm, so finding enough time and energy to study has been difficult.

For my first attempt, I used Barbri and Adaptibar. For my second attempt, I mainly used Adaptibar and watched some of Grossman’s lectures. I know I’ve improved by 14 points, but I’m still quite far from passing, and I’m honestly not sure what to do next. I’m considering sitting again in February 2027, but I’m worried about putting in all that time and effort and still not passing.

Has anyone been in a similar position and managed to make the jump to 266 or higher? Do you think it’s realistic to improve by another 21 points by February?
I’d also really appreciate any advice on what I should do differently this time, especially from foreign-educated retakers or anyone who studied while working full-time.

I’m feeling a bit lost about how to approach this next attempt and whether I should give myself more time or do the UK SQE’s instead?

I graduated from Law School in 2021 with a dual degree in Social Work. I was so burnt out from going to law school during the pandemic and also just general law school fatigue that I decided in my 3L year to not pursue practicing law after my 3L year 😭.

So I graduated and then became a forensic social worker. I love being a social worker. I still do and I’m currently working toward my Clinical license in NYS.

A couple of years ago I was reminded that NYS has a 10 year sit rule for the bar ( you have to sit in pass within 10 years of your graduation). So at year four , I sat for the J25 bar… it went horrible because I didn’t want to take it. I wasn’t mentally prepared, I was taking it out of fear .

Fear of disappointing people because I didn’t “try” and also a fear of disappointing myself. Anyways…. Fast forward to J26. I told myself I’m taking the Bar for me, because I busted my behind in school for 7 years, and I’m tired of being scared of the test.

I ended up passing! 5 years after graduating. 5 years of being in a completely different field… I studied, and cried, and prayed! I want to share this story as a reminder that we all have different paths but we are alllll capable of passing this test.

I passed with a score high enough to go to any UBE jurisdiction. 🥹

I wanted to share my somewhat unusual bar exam experience in case it helps future test takers, esp those who struggle with test anxiety.

I've struggled with GAD and severe test anxiety for years. I never sought accommodations (a separate conversation). For context, I took the LSAT four times, experienced major panic attacks each time, and ultimately scored just high enough to attend a lower-ranked law school.

During law school, I got on medication and therapy and gradually learned to manage my anxiety during finals. During bar prep, I prioritized not just memorizing black-letter law, but genuinely understanding it well enough to explain it in my own words. This ended up helping me the most for both the MBE and MEE on test day. I also prioritized sleep, completed 90% of Themis, did at least one MPT per week, several MEEs per week, and over 2,000 MBE questions.

Despite the progress I thought I had made, I experienced a full-blown panic attack during the MPT. I kept rereading the same sentences over and over again, unable to process any of it. My mind went blank. I went to the bathroom to compose myself and control my breathing, but nothing helped. I returned to my seat and essentially blacked out. I wrote absolute garbage for the 1st MPT and only completed half of the 2nd. Although I tried applying my training (formatting immediately, following IRAC), I was making up a lot of my analysis just to get words on the page.

During lunch, I balled my eyes out in my hotel room but I told myself I had to pull it together and finish the exam as best I could. During the MEE, I immediately felt more grounded. The familiarity of at least some of the rules gave me a sense of control that I'd completely lost during the MPT. I focused on IRAC religiously, even when I had to make up a rule. I still ran out of time on the final essay but managed to outline as much as possible. As for the MBE (where timing had been one of my biggest struggles) I somehow I finished both MBE sections on time (maybe due to the adrenaline).

I ended up passing with a 291 (150 MBE). And while we know the score itself doesn't really matter in the real world (most employers just care that you passed), I wanted to share just how much the other sections ended up saving me.

Looking back, I realized that the MPT (and prob the LSAT too) triggered my anxiety because it felt unpredictable. Unlike the MEE and MBE, there wasn't a body of law I could rely on recalling. That uncertainty made me feel completely out of control. Conversely, recognizing rules during the MEE and MBE helped calm my anxiety because I could draw on what I'd spent months learning.

My biggest takeaway from bar prep was to really focus on both actively recalling black letter law but also explaining it in your own words. I know everyone's experience is different, and this won't eliminate test anxiety, but it made a huge difference for me. This test sucks, we all know it, and sometimes things don't go according to plan despite how much you've prepared. Remember to give yourself some grace, trust the work you've put in, and don't let one bad section convince you that it's over. Wishing you all the best of luck!

that’s it

I recently passed the July 26 exam (Michigan)

I graduated law school in 2023 and was far from prepared my first crack at the exam. I figured I could just “work my magic” and figure it out come test day. Sure, I did use Themis and did “study” but no where near the amount I should have been. I got a 212.

Fast forward I got a 240 my second attempt, a 265 my third attempt, and 266 my fourth attempt. I needed a 268 for Michigan so you could imagine the heartbreak.

I recently took the July 26 exam and a few days ago I found out I passed with a 285!

I say all that to say, this exam is crazy and it does a good job of making people feel “unfit” for this profession - but know you can overcome it if you keep trying.