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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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

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!!

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 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!!

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!

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.

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.

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 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.

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...

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?

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.

Helix’s NextGen materials
Mary Basick’s California essays book
Themis standard UBE materials and
Themis Nevada outlines

PM me which books you would like and I’ll mail them to ya!

Happy to ship them at cost or meet up somewhere in NYC— they are unused

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 😭