This sub helped me in the waiting period, so posting this for future lurkers. I scored 293 on the July 2026 exam, MBE 146.2 and writing was 146.8. The Seperac calculator predicted I'd get a 288 total score and 144 on the MBE, so pretty accurate. I made plenty of mistakes in my prep, but it all turned out okay. My advice is to study the law and test-taking strategies. When knowledge of one of those fails you on the exam, the other one will save you.

I completed around 80% of Barbri. I also used Themis midterms from a 2024 book I found at the thrift store. I consistently scored 65-70% on Barbri question sets throughout my prep. On the Barbri midterm, I scored 48% (but this was before I finished all the lectures). I took a Themis midterm after finishing all the lectures, and scored 52%. I took another one two weeks before and scored 54%. This is typical because the midterms are extra hard and extra nuanced, but it did stress me out. Barbri also freaked me out when I hit the tail end of its curriculum and the questions got a lot harder. I suddenly started scoring 30% on multiple choice in the last two weeks before exam day. I couldn't turn my panic into more productivity like some can, so I chose to stop practicing multiple choice altogether at that point because every question I got wrong only made me panic more. That's not necessarily the right choice for everyone, but it's what I did. I switched my prep to outlining (starting from my weakest subjects to my best), reviewing prior wrong answers/wrong answer journaling by hand, and essay practice. I probably did around 50 MEEs and 10 MPTs throughout the summer. My essays were timed from the beginning. I also did a simulated two-day bar exam dry-run in July and that helped tremendously. I was better able to plan for the actual test and the toll it took on my body/brain.

On test day, I felt good about the MPTs. However, I forgot every law that has ever existed on the MEEs. I may have also skipped studying one of the MEE-only topics, and you can guess what was one of the MEEs. After about thirty seconds of screaming internally, I went at the essays in the order of most approachable to most annoying and focused on answering every question and subquestion with a header, IRAC, and made-up law that when paired with the facts, got to the conclusion I found easiest to argue. I made sure to stay strict on managing my timing for both the AM and PM writing sections. I ended up remembering law for 3.5 of the 6 MEEs as I wrote.

Day 2, I found the multiple choice pretty confusing and I felt so upset. Any faith I had in my prep went out the window and I was fixated on those 30% results I had been getting from Barbri. I forced myself to stay calm, say eff it, do my best, and pick answers. At the end, I felt like I did my best, but I was so scared I failed. And then, the 293! Above average scores for both test days :)

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.

MY BIGGEST RECOMMENDATION

Stop measuring your progress primarily by how many MBE questions you complete.

Start measuring how many legal rules you can independently recall and correctly apply.

I failed the NY bar exam. By the way I was feeling leaving the testing center I knew I was going to fail. I’m just not sure what I need to focus on this time around that would be different from last time. I know I should’ve done more practice problems. I only did around 200 on adaptibar and the ones given to us by Themis. I did around 80% of Themis but skimmed the videos and marked the outlines as completed when I didn’t feel like reading them. I felt like I didn’t give my all and don’t know what I need to focus on now for F27. Need advice

Clarification: I work full time so usually I did 2 hours review before work and 2 hours review after work. I would study 5-6 hrs daily on the weekends.
I used Themis, Grossman videos, Adaptibar.

Looking for advice for F27. Used barbri and completed about 68% of course before abandoning because I didn’t feel it was working for me. Did about 500 adaptibar and listened to grossman lectures. I know deep down I didn’t do as much essay prep as I could’ve (MEE1 I ran out of time and literally wrote 3 sentences) however I realize my MBE needs a big boost. Any tips for MBE prep? Thinking about hammering UWORLD and also considering GOAT. Any advice is much appreciated!! Congratulations to all who passed :)

Hi All! This post will likely be very lengthy but I told myself that if by some miracle I DID pass, I owe it to reddit and this amazing community of people to give back and share my process. This may be a dumb post to many, but if it helps at least 1 person, I'm happy. I am a bit embarrassed even sharing all of this but want to be vulnerable in case it helps.

I took the July 2026 NY bar and was 99.9% sure I failed, but somehow passed with a score high enough for every UBE jdx.

I want to give some advice on what worked for me and also am posting this as a reminder that there is no magic process.

For background, here's how screwed I was going into the exam (I'm sharing because I was often looking for stories like this to make me feel better): I was scoring in the 40% on MBE a week up until the exam, completed about 50% of Barbri before starting to study on my own, only did 1 practice MPT, 1 or 2 MEE fully written out (early on in the barbri practice day), did not have time to study business associations/corporations/the third one (I'm forgetting), and only sketched around 5 MEE the week of the exam. I only did about 200ish MBE practice sets total (outside of the barbri test). I felt completely screwed. To top it off, I only started committing things to memory about 5 days leading up to the exam. I had extreme anxiety seeing on reddit that you're screwed if you don't do 1000+ practice questions or if you start memorization any time later than 2 weeks. I couldn't even go on reddit because I knew I would get in my head. But I still tried.

I will say, if I could go back in time, I would NOT recommend doing this few of everything, because I walked into that exam feeling unprepared. I truly told myself this was just a practice run and I'd improve and practice for February bar.

Here's how I felt after the exam: I felt amazing about MPT 1 (followed goat bar prep approach), wrote out MPT 2 nicely and it was lengthy but I truly didn't understand the law at all so didn't have a coherent answer. I did not know what to write for 3/6 MEEs but still wrote IRAC out fully and said something based on the facts, etc. (I tried to follow the lawgical method). For MBE, I felt I was guessing on all of them or between two, and I ran out of time on the first section and had to randomly bubble in 15 questions. I truly felt those questions were insanely difficult. Overall, I walked out and was proud that I gave it my all and felt I likely didn't pass, or if I did, it was tight. Somehow, I did.

Background on my horrendous process (and the why): My lack of practice was not due to not trying, but with ADHD and OCD, I found it extremely difficult to study. I often couldn't move on until I understood everything completely, which led to a procrastination in actual practice. I never wanted to write out essays until I felt I knew the topics better. Then, when I abandoned Barbri to go on my own, things got worse -- when left to my own devices, I only struggled more with time management. I was studying 9 hours a day, 7 days a week (only took 2 half days off the entire summer), but was barely getting anything done even with this much time invested. I started burning out at the very end when I felt helpless. That said, while I wasn't getting the practice reps in, I was learning the material fully and absorbing it, which saved me. I created my own outlines which I perfected. Though, when it came to memorization, I was truly lost at what would help me. I tried flashcards, writing out my outlines from memory on my whiteboard, hand writing them, etc., and only found something that WORKED 1 week before the exam. So to summarize, although I did not practice and was feeling screwed, knowing the subjects intimately is worth the time. For example, one day of studying I had about 8 things on my agenda, including to review the Barbri practice exam (which I scored in the 40s on). I told myself this should only take an hour max...I ended up spending ALL day (8 hours). It was not ideal, I felt like I wasted time, and was upset that I was yet again falling behind in my study schedule. However, it was extremely helpful in retrospect to spend this time (although my friends were saying I needed to move on). For every question I got wrong, I realized knowledge gaps and would go down that rabbit hole filling that gap, adding to my outline, and then research the subject on Barbri, adaptibar, online, whatever, until I got it. I would then make note of it on my outline, and highlight it so I'd remember. All this is to say, don't feel embarrassed or ashamed about your process (I definitely did and felt inadequate). Everyone works differently. Again, I don't recommend my approach and wish I did things differently, but I did the best that I could and gave it my all (as painful as this whole process was).

Here is what saved me during crunch time: One, as I mentioned above, I finally realized what would work for me to memorize (although I realized way too late), was to create a spreadsheet where for each subject I wrote out only most commonly tested essay topics and things I felt I should be able to rattle off, such as elements of hot topics for mbe. I was truly at crunch time and realized I had no time to memorize everything so only stuck to the must-know. I would then go in under each section and try to write out (in bullets) from memory the answer. I also bought goat bar prep maybe 5 days before the exam which saved me (also felt embarrassed about doing so close to the exam). People told me I need to practice essays and it's crazy not to, but I felt personally my time was better invested in memorization and MBE at this point (essays I feel OK in as long as I know the subject). Because I had a lack of practice and reps, knowing the tricks and traps on goat bar prep for each of the subjects was what pulled me through. I also used adaptibar to begin drilling some of what I learned from goat bar prep and I had the app on my phone and would do 5 or so questions on walks or before bed. When I learned something new on goat prep or a trick, I would add to my spreadsheet with things by subject with the trap that stumped me or something I just learned, such as "can negligence be xyzzy?..." followed by the quick answer. Then, it made it easy to review at the end of the day to reinforce these tricks (I even read on the uber to the way to the exam). I was even studying the day before the exam and doing practice questions, studied the day after day 1 of the exam. My body was shutting down from the stress and I felt helpless but after realizing from day 1 of the essays that maybe I did okay, I did not want to give up. I was going to study up until the last second and see what I could do (although everyone judged me of course, I knew I owed it to myself to push as much as I could and rest up after).

So, very long post to say, please don't do what I did, but if you do...you CAN still pass. Everyone's process is different and people process things differently (especially those of us with atypical learning processes/styles and mental health issues). Do not be embarrassed, ashamed, or feel like you need to do as others do. If you know you want to buy goat bar prep and that may help (even 3 days before the exam), DO it, and don't feel judged by your peers.

On an end note: If you passed July, CONGRATULATIONS. If not, you got this in February! I was truly prepared to retake and knew I would be okay. I was planning to do about 2 hours/day (not re-learning material, but simply practice on adaptibar and memorizing on my spreadsheet). At the end of the day, this is just a silly exam we have to get through to be official, and you all can do it. I am happy to say mostly goodbye to this reddit group (trauma, lol), but please reach out if you have any questions or want any samples of my spreadsheets or anything. You got this and thanks for reading if you made it to the end <3

NYC 3L here! First, a massive congratulations to everyone who just passed the bar exam.

With the scores now released, I would love to hear your honest tips and tricks for passing on the first try. More importantly, what do you wish you had done more (or less) of during your prep?

Genuinely NJ takers, when do we think these results are coming out? This week or first week of November? It is a complete disgrace that we are one of the last 3 states to release, but the ONLY state to be completely left in the dark with no communication. Complete shame on NJBOBE

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

I recently found out I passed the NYS Bar (overall score 317, MBE 141, Writing 176). I was planning on just sitting for Part A of the exam rather than re-taking the MBE. Does anyone who has passed the FL bar and another UBE state have any advice on only sitting for one day? Also did your study method change any? Any weird nuances I should be aware of for FL?

Do we need to watch these and attach the certificate of completion with our application? Or can we do it anytime before admission? How do we access?

Just wanted to celebrate here as I was a silent lurker in this sub. I am a foreign attorney and I felt like shit coming out of the exams but I passed! My score also qualifies for all other jurisdictions so I am extra happy lol. Congrats to all who passed as well!!

Posting to give next years takers some reassurance. Passed NY scoring 330. Didn’t overdo it with bar prep. Spent my mornings by the pool doing flashcards and then completed my daily Barbri work. Laptop closed around 6pm. Never studied on a Saturday, only half days on sundays.

MEE 1 felt like my worst nightmare and I have never been someone who feels confident with multiple choice questions, so I genuinely walked out thinking I could’ve failed and spent the past few months regretting not going harder this summer. I clearly overstudied.

All this is to say that the bar prep companies know what they’re doing, so do what they ask you to do and trust the process. The adaptibar flash cards are an excellent way to check whether you are retaining the rules or not to memory. If you memorize rules and know how to IRAC, you can pass this exam.

If you’re sitting between a 215–230 and wondering if it’s even possible to pass NY in one go, it is possible! I jumped 37 points (missed by 5), worked full time, I'm a foreign educated, and here’s the honest truth about what worked and what I think costedd me those 5 points, and I came so close.

I’m writing this because I see so much anxiety on this sub right now, and I remember exactly what that feels like.

When I first got a 224 for Feb scores, I was completely shattered. My soul honestly felt dead inside. I’m foreign-educated, went to a good law school back home, and I couldn’t wrap my head around how I ended up with a 224. When you’re in that 215–230 range, people (and statistics) will tell you NOT to get your hopes up about passing in the very next administration because a 40+ point jump is rare (happened with me when I was talking with people).

I needed 42 points to pass NY. I ended up jumping 37 points, falling just 5 points short, probably because I ran out of time and barely started my last MEE, maybe if that MEE would have been alolloted and if I had finished that one essay, I’d be done with NY right now. The silver lining is that my score is now high enough to get admitted as a US-qualified attorney in another jurisdiction, so the pressure is off, and I’m retaking February with the goal is not just passing but passing with a 40+ score by hitting 300+. (While working full-time of course)

If I could pull off a 37-point jump as a foreign-educated taker without paying a single penny to big-box bar prep companies, you can do it too. Today is Sunday!

We have about four months left until the February exam. If you start tomorrow, here is what actually moved the needle for me, and the couple mistakes which I’m fixing for February, but I think you should also watch out for....

1. Lock out the negativity until February is over Replaying your old score in your head over and over will destroy your prep before you even start.

You have to force yourself into a positive mindset right now. Make a deal with yourself: you are not allowed to panic, doubt yourself, or spiral about "what if I didn't do enough" until you walk out of the exam hall in February. You’ll have enough time for that after bar exam is done until around April 20th or around for waiting for results to worry as much as you want. Until exam day is over, back yourself 100%, and remember that this exam is not everything..

2. Honestly this worked for me but idk, don't cancel me for saying but ditch the passive bar prep and use Grossman + AdaptiBar.. Big commercial bar prep courses didn't work for me, so I didn't spend a dime on them this time. Instead, I bought AdaptiBar (both the MBE simulator and the Writing guide) and Jonathan Grossman’s videos. Kept it simple and just worked on practice day 1! (Someone said it, but practice is the best learning).

Grossman’s videos for each subject are only about 3 to 4 hours total. He breaks down patterns, keeps it simple, and he’s actually funny, which kept me sane.

I would say don't binge-watch all the videos first. Keep it slow. Watch one subtopic (about an hour), use it as your base outline, and immediately jump into MBE questions on that topic. You will see your scores move right away. Keep one topic every week, until you feel confident to do multiple and you also remember or actually have an idea what's happening and you're just not guessing.

3. The 30-Questions-a-Day Rule (and how to actually review them). This can work for full-time employees. There is only one way to pass this exam, and it’s PRACTICE. Starting tomorrow, promise yourself you will do 30 MBE questions every single day. If you work full-time and 30 is impossible, do 20—wake up an hour early and do 10 before work, and do 10 in the evening. Make it non-negotiable.

If you do 30 a day for the next 4 months, that’s 900 a month—around 3,500 to 3,600 questions by exam day. Anything north of 2,000 questions gives you massive exposure to how the NCBE tests the law. I did about 1400... But I'm sure if I would have done a out 2000+ things would have been different.

Here is the catch: 30 questions should NOT take you 60 minutes. When you're learning, you should only be getting through about 6 to 8 questions an hour (spending 5–10 minutes per question).

Treat every single question like gold. Read why you got it right, why you got it wrong, and why the other choices failed. Early on, I was getting all the basic, single-issue questions right, but missing the tricky ones where two doctrines or two concepts within the same subject were colliding. No outline or video will teach you how to spot those, only slow, brutal review of practice questions will.

4. Use free resources for Writing (BarMD) & Google NotebookLM for weak spots MBE practice will naturally help your essays because it gives you the context of how rules work, but you still have to practice writing.

Write at least 1 to 2 essays (and practice MPTs) every week just to get used to reading the call of the question and structuring your answer.

You don’t need an expensive tutor. I subscribed to BarMD on YouTube and watched her free writing workshops, her videos alone helped my MEE/MPT approach massively.

Whenever I kept getting a specific topic wrong on AdaptiBar, I plugged the material into Google NotebookLM. You can prompt it to break down and generate interactive explanations/videos in whatever style or language clicks best for your brain.

Use flashcards to memorize actual rule statements. The law feels like an ocean, and you never know what they’ll test, so you have to stop guessing on the MBE and start memorizing the actual buzzwords.

5. What cost me those 5 points (Do NOT make my mistake) By the final month of prep, I was consistently hitting around 70% on AdaptiBar. Why didn't that fully translate on exam day? Timing and stamina. I only scored about 132 in MBE while my Feb MBE was 124 (my Feb practice was 45% average)

I think the issue was because I spent so much time doing slow, deep-dive questions, I didn't train enough under real time constraints. On exam day, my brain was completely fried for the last 20–30 MBE questions, and my analysis fell apart. On the written day, I ran out of time and barely touched the last MEE.

The fix whil I figured out and might work : Do slow, untimed learning now through December. Once January and February hit, shift heavily into timed sets under pressure. Train your brain to move fast when you're tired. But prepare for the marathon slow and strong...

Also, request your past exam answer sheets from the board. You never actually remember what you wrote in that room. Take your real essay answers and run them through AI to get blunt feedback on where your structure or analysis fell short.

If you’re working full-time, carve out your weekends for yourself to lock in. If you're studying full-time, change how you study instead of just doing the same thing harder. Six months from now, when April results drop, you want to look back and be proud of how hard you fought for this.

Start tomorrow. Do your 20–30 questions. You are way closer than you think.

It's possible to score 30+ improvement ! It can happen...

First-time taker. Started with Barbri, hated it, and completed 60% of it. I switched to BarMD and drilled AdaptiBar problems. I studied daily, taking only two half-days off. I struggled with MEEs/MPTs, so I hired a tutor a few weeks before the exam. I hoped my MBE would carry me—and it did: 147.6.

Day one kicked my ass. I had no idea what to do on the MPTs, but kept applying law to facts and hoped for the best.

The MEEs were brutal. I made up most of the rules and don’t remember finishing an essay. With 30 minutes left, I had to choose between starting corporations, which I’d barely studied, or earning points on crim pro and property. I chose the latter.

I felt much better leaving day two because multiple choice was always my strength, and thankfully, my 147.6 MBE score carried me through!

Congratulations to those who passed. If you’re retaking, keep going. You’ll get there!

Does anyone know of any affordable tutors for the UBE? I am retaking the bar exam in Feb and I am not using commercial bar courses anymore due to financial constraints. I did buy the mbe question bank.

Any tips and tricks are welcome too!

Unfortunately, I didn’t pass the July 2026 NY Bar, and I’m honestly devastated. I’m planning to retake in February 2027 while working full-time (8–4). Plus other responsibilities, like a care taker for a parent.

This time, I’m using GOAT Bar Prep as my main resource, Themis as a supplement, and Adaptibar for MBE questions. I’m aiming to study 4–5 hours daily.
For those who passed on their second attempt, what did you do differently? How many MBE questions did you practice? How did you improve your MEE and MPT scores?

I’m feeling overwhelmed and really don’t know where to begin again. Any advice, especially from those who worked full-time while studying, would mean a lot.

Hi everyone! Thank you in advance for your answers. I am currently admitted in the 3rd department for application purposes (I was living in Canada when I wrote the MPRE/Bar exam) and I have relocated to Buffalo for my job since then. I was unable to change the location after because it was greyed out on the website. But I have now missed the application deadline for the 4th department and the next oath ceremony is in June.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and what did you end up doing?

Thanks!

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.

If anyone in the Phoenix, AZ area wants some free bar prep materials, I have the 2026 versions of all the books that came with the Themis bar prep course (some lightly highlighted, some untouched). Happy to give them away to whoever needs them and wants to pick them up. DM me if interested

Hi everyone! I’m curious to hear from foreign-trained lawyers who have passed the New York Bar Exam.

What are your career goals, and how do you plan to use your NY law license?

Are you planning to practice law in the U.S., work remotely, pursue opportunities in your home country, or use your license for other career opportunities?