First!

boring

Second

Does anyone know approximate (or precise, for that matter) distribution for the MBE, nationwide or otherwise?

I'm pretty sure my 164.7 is decent, based on talking to my friends, but I would love to know how decent.

Does any one know why Lat has avoided any mention of this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MDUQW8LUMs8

5:39, you are a moron. I really hope you're joking or, alternatively, that I never have to work with you.

Does California let you see your MBE score? I thought that they did not.

That 18 year old who passed the bar looks 40.

Kathleen Holtz went to Cal State LA. That is so TTT. It was TTT of UCLA to accept someone from Cal State LA.

I bet 5:43 failed, possibly not for the first time.

Holtz's biography states that she "is a member of the firm's Litigation Department. Ms. Holtz specializes in business litigation, handling a variety of complex business and commercial matters in state and federal courts." She is not yet a member of the bar.

All her peers are going to football games and prom, and she's staying up until 2am researching a memo. At least she'll have money after work to down a few stiff drinks contemplating her wasted youth.......oh, right she's only 18

Why is Boalt better than Stanford? Because Boalt's professors pass the bar on their first try (Congrats to Stephen McGeorge Bundy!).

California only gives you your scores if you fail.

5:50-- I don't get it. What is the significance? Nobody has been sworn in yet.

The following Boston College Law Review Student and current clerk experienced and documented his laptop failure and posted the relevant documents, including a 13 page memo pleading for mercy and the board's denial, on his blog. Basically, his computer crashed during the first day and they refused to give him the kind of treatment NY exam takers and past Cali takers got, and he failed.

http://carltakei.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/and-now-the-aftermath-of-my-bar-exam-computer-crash/

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/exam/browse.aspx?a=t

Full Disclosure: I was in this guy's graduating class at BCLS, but I don't know him personally. Please leave me anonymous.

Yes, David, not only 'amusing' but a mini-CalBarGate.

(Really, party boy, doff the tux for the eyshade and reporter's pencil!)

According to the Cal. Law blawg Legal Pad:

(Really High ) Bar Exam Numbers Leaked
[Toldja: Late this afternoon, the official results were released. The original Friday morning post:]

It looks like more freshly minted JDs will be popping the champagne open tonight than anyone expected.

Although it hasn’t been authenticated, it appears that the State Bar posted the summer’s pass rate this week. Early Thursday morning, a Yahoo chat group formed by the founder of California Bar Exam Primer was buzzing — someone had found a link on the Bar site that seemed to post the latest results ahead of time. Legal Pad accessed and printed the document before noon today, and called the Bar for comment. Within an hour it had vanished from the Bar's site (sorry!).

The “General Bar Examination Pass Rate Summary” did not list who passed, but it gave a pass rate of 56.1 percent, higher than last summer's 51.8, and the highest since July 2001.

Spokeswoman Diane Curtis told us she couldn't confirm the rate, which becomes public at 6 o’clock tonight. Curtis said that the association posted old results Wednesday between midnight and 1 a.m. “IT says they tested with the February results,” she said.

Nonetheless, the file in question listed new July numbers as well. And then, poof, gone.

At 5:22 a.m., an anonymous member posted a link to the summary, dug up from the association’s Web site. The file showed results dating back to 1951.

“uswbnt47” wrote:

“CHECK OUT THE LINK FOR YOURSELVES.

[LINK OMITTED TO AVOID ATL BLOCKING BS]

I don't know if they posted this by accident, but it appears to be authentic.”

We sort of think that if it wasn't authentic, it wouldn't have unceremoniously vanished like that.

UPDATE: Diane Curtis (of the Cal Bar0 now says the pass rates were up briefly. "A mistake," she said.

Frist!

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/050924/050924_frist_vmed10p.widec.jpg

5:47--did you go to college when you were ten years old? Did you make Law Review at a T1 school when you were sixteen years old? If not, then shut up; you have nothing to criticize.

Welcome aboard new grads!!

Make sure to gear up at:

www.borntobill.com

Does anyone know approximate (or precise, for that matter) distribution for the MBE, nationwide or otherwise?

I'm pretty sure my 164.7 is decent, based on talking to my friends, but I would love to know how decent.

=============================

My MBE score on the summer '06 exam was 172, so your 164.7 was not too bad.

there is discussion going on at jdunderground about the high pass rate in CA attributed to Jewish holiday.

I think the average MBE score is usually around 135.

WILMER MATCHED BONUSES!!!!

The high pass rate is due at least in part to the fact that fewer people took the test, and the most significant declines were among non-ABA law school and/or CA-only approved applicants.

what does the Jewish holiday have to do with the pass rate?

MBE to 190!!!

#1) I wouldn't call Cal State LA a "college." It is a glorified trade school.

#2) Law Review at UCLA is based upon a write on competition, with other "elements" taken into consideration. Not grades. If she was Order of the Coif, that would be impressive.

People don't use Cal State LA and genius in the same sentence.

The goal on the bar exam is to do as little as possible and pass by the narrowest of margins. Wondering what percentile you were in means that you didn't understand the purpose of the test.

7:16 is dead on. .

The following Boston College Law Review Student and current clerk experienced and documented his laptop failure and posted the relevant documents, including a 13 page memo pleading for mercy and the board's denial, on his blog. Basically, his computer crashed during the first day and they refused to give him the kind of treatment NY exam takers and past Cali takers got, and he failed.

http://carltakei.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/and-now-the-aftermath-of-my-bar-exam-computer-crash/

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/exam/browse.aspx?a=t

Full Disclosure: I was in this guy's graduating class at BCLS, but I don't know him personally. Please leave me anonymous.

The following Boston College Law Review Student and current clerk experienced and documented his laptop failure and posted the relevant documents, including a 13 page memo pleading for mercy and the board's denial, on his blog. Basically, his computer crashed during the first day and they refused to give him the kind of treatment NY exam takers and past Cali takers got, and he failed.

http://carltakei.wordpress.com/2007/09/04/and-now-the-aftermath-of-my-bar-exam-computer-crash/

http://members.calbar.ca.gov/exam/browse.aspx?a=t

Wow. I bet she is a lot of fun to talk to. Like, in social settings. Lots of funny jokes and interesting insights.

blegh.

Stated differently, the bar exam is a minimum competence test. A high mark only means that you are more minimally competent than most.

6:25/7:06: It never ceases to puzzle me that writing on to Law Review is not considered a good thing. At least we know the people who make LR via writing on can actually research and write, as opposed to just being people who are able to memorize an outline and regurgitate it.

And yes, I went to an all-write-on school.

7:36: A high mark also means that you probably wasted your time.

7:41 - tell that to the MANY members of the CA Law Review who did not pass the bar. . .that is a scandal in and of itself. . . Also, the UCLA law review had similarly disappointing results. (I have not verified any of this; I am just repeating what I have heard.)

7:59: That kind of makes my point, doesn't it? Exam taking and journal writing are two very different things. Personally, I excelled at one and not the other in law school. Fortunately, by the time the bar exam rolled around, I figured out that I wasn't expected to actually *think* during the exam, and instead just regurgitated what BarBri had taught me.

Speaking of which, where's my check?

i'd pass the bar on my 1st try if I were in my mid 30s!

can this be like the jdjive.com thread?

Someone that smart and talented should have made an effort to get a scholarship to a top prep school, then go to HYP undergrad at a more normal age and work on Wall Street instead of law, which would have been far more lucrative for her. Tons of kids at HYP could have gone to a state school at 14 but they (or their parents) realized it would not be the optimal path.

And if she had to do law, she should have gone to Yale Law and get a SCOTUS clerkship -- clearly she would be the caliber of person who could have done this had she not tried to skip so many years of schooling (then again, it may not be too late for SCOTUS; she is Fed Soc president at her school and no doubt smarter than most Thomas clerks who are typically not from prestigious schools).

She ain't bad for a middle-aged soccer mom, but she sure doesn't compare to Hayley Reynolds' big-ass tittays.

"the California bar, which is notoriously for being the hardest in the nation"

Somebody done learned Peter Lattman to grammarize good!

Where is LEWW? This site sucks more and more every single day.

FIRST!!

white guys with asian girls to 168 on their MBE!!!

dont taze me bro!!!

im sick of these mother f**king MBE scores on the mother f**king Cal Bar!

NY to 190!!!

did i miss anyone?

how does my 145 on the MBE in 2001 in Kansas rate?

actually cal state LA has a school for child prodigies; it is absolutely associated with geniuses. that is the only place in southern california where you can graduate high school so young so it attracts geniuses from all over the state. I am pretty sure that Eugene Volokh (of the Volokh conspiracy and a prodigy, himself) did his high school at cal state la.

this proves it. . .nothing interesting to say about the CA bar. . .take this thread down

Number of threads devoted to the Harvard - Yale Game in top legal blogs:

WSJ Journal Law Blog: 1
Autoadmit: 11
Above the Law: 0

ATL fails once again.

"sure that Eugene Volokh (of the Volokh conspiracy and a prodigy, himself) did his high school at cal state la."

UCLA, yo. None of this shitty Cal State bullshit.

haters!

The California bar, as always, clocks in at the hardest in the nation. Congratulations to all who passed and best of luck to those who will try again in the future. I leave you with an appropriate salute for such a difficult endeavor:

http://www.bartleby.com/42/650.html

Its very tough to get into UCLA undergrad as a 10 year old!!! Cal State LA has a very established and structured program and Kathleen lived close by, which allowed her to get an adult education but still live at home. Yes, she may look older than your average 18 year old, but she is a MILLION times smarter. Anyone dissing her is just flat out jealous.

NY gives you your MBE score, pass or fail, and I'm wondering if mine (145.2) is good enough for Cali. (Just to gauge how it would compare, I understand that you can't transfer MBE scores to the golden state.)

Whats the average passing MBE score in CA?

"actually cal state LA has a school for child prodigies; it is absolutely associated with geniuses"

This is hilarious. What happened to child prodigies getting a 1600 on the SATs, a 4.0 and going to Princeton?

Going to Cal State LA at 10 shows nothing but a desire to grow up too fast.

http://www.earlyentrancefoundation.org/articles/eep/1998Dec18.html

Programs exist for supposed "child prodigies." But, as the article states, prestigious schools won't admit these kids.

Perhaps the lesson is, slow down and get a 4.0.

I have a question. Let's say you are in middle school, and you don't "feel challenged," why not try to take advanced classes, and maybe get some extra curricular activities and some friends?

The interesting part comes in where people post how many 1st years from their firm failed the bar.

11:57--

Obviously you'll want to check around, but that score strikes me as a little low. However, this is a very uninformed opinion.

Bar failers: Did anyone who did well enough to get a regrade get a higher score from the second grader?

Yes--I actually did get a better score on the second read on a few of the essays. Unfortunately I missed passing by only 19 points!

Any other "non-passers" have any recommendations for repeater tutors or programs for the February exam?