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Failed the bar exam here is what to do.

Reviewed by:

David Merson

Former Head of Pre-Law Office, Northeastern University, & Admissions Officer, Brown University

Reviewed: 01/22/24

Have you failed the bar exam and are wondering what to do next? Explore what to do next and find solutions if you didn't pass the bar exam. Learn about the steps to take and possible ways to move forward after an unsuccessful attempt.

The bar exam evaluates if candidates are eligible and able to practice law in a particular jurisdiction. It is the final major step to becoming a practicing lawyer. While it varies from state to state, the majority of states have adopted the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) or Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). 

No matter what variation of the exam you take, it is notoriously difficult and requires intensive studying as the exam covers a wide variety of legal topics. 

If you didn’t pass the bar exam and are unsure about what to do next, don’t panic. Keep reading as this article discusses moving forward after failing the exam. 

What To Do If You Failed The Bar Exam

Failing anything is never a good feeling, and failing can often make us insecure and question our abilities. 

However, don’t worry too much! Your journey to becoming a practicing lawyer is not over. Just like with the LSAT , retaking the bar exam is a possibility. 

If you didn't pass the bar exam, there are several things you can do to regroup and move ahead in preparation for a bar exam retake. Explore different options to refocus and keep progressing.

1. Take a Breather and Reflect 

Let’s face it: failing is a bad feeling, and failing an important exam can feel very overwhelming. 

However, you are definitely not alone if you have failed the bar exam. According to the American Bar Association, 79.86% of people pass after taking the bar exam for the first time in recent years. That averages out to two out of every ten people failing the exam the first time they take it.  

It is also key to remember that the bar exam is just an exam. It does not define your knowledge or capabilities. You may have had a bad day the day of the exam, felt unwell or distracted, or had an ineffective study plan. There are many factors that can impact your performance on the exam. 

As you reflect and prepare to take the exam again, ask yourself some questions:

• How much prep time did I complete? 
• What study methods did I use? Did I pursue self-study or opt for group sessions? 
• Did I ensure I fully understood and comprehended the materials while I was studying?
• Did you take advantage of bar exam prep resources, such as clubs, study groups, and/or online practice tests?

There are just a few questions you should think about as you create a plan moving forward. 

2. Look at Your Score Report

Looking at your score report and seeing areas where you did well and areas where you didn’t is beneficial, especially if you plan on taking the bar exam again. Just like you did with your LSAT scores , analyze the breakdown of your performance. Identify the specific sections or topics where you struggled and those where you excelled.

While it may be tempting to ignore the score altogether if you didn’t do well, the only way to know where you went wrong and work on improving is to look at your score report. 

3. Identify Areas of Improvement and Areas of Weaknesses

Examine your scores and essays (if possible) on the bar exam and find areas where you performed poorly. 

The bar exam usually consists of various exams, including the MEE and the MPRE . Familiarize yourself with the expectations of each exam , so you know what to expect and can strategize a more successful study plan. 

4. Figure Out Your Next Steps 

You will need to decide how you would like to proceed. Remember, people have taken the bar exam again after failing and have passed. However, there are other factors to consider than simply just jumping back in to retake the exam. 

You should develop a comprehensive plan to help you successfully pass the bar exam the next time you take it. The plan may include studying more, getting one-on-one exam support and consulting, or taking extra classes. It is advised to be strategic about your next steps to be as successful as you can be when you retake the bar exam.  

FAQs: Failing Bar Exam

You may still have doubts or worries about what to do next following a bar exam failure. Here are some answers to frequently asked questions to help you make a decision moving forward.  

1. Is It Normal To Fail the Bar Exam?

It is fairly common to fail the bar exam, especially for first-time test takers. In fact, the pass rate for first-time bar exam takers dropped 2% from 2021 to 2022. If you weren’t successful on the bar exam, you are not alone. 

If it makes you feel better, Kim Kardashian failed the baby bar exam (a less extensive bar exam for first-year law students in California) three times and passed on her fourth!

Anyone can fail the bar exam, or any major exam for that matter. Moving on and moving forward is what matters most and will ultimately define your future success. 

2. What To Do if You Keep Failing the Bar?

You can try to take the bar exam in another state. Sometimes a location change can make a huge difference in your performance. However, if you were unsuccessful on the bar exam in one state but passed the exam in another, you will only be able to practice law in the state you passed. 

There are some states that do offer bar exam reciprocity with other states, which allows you to practice law in a state that you didn’t take the bar exam in. US Legal outlines which states have reciprocity agreements . 

There is more good news. There are many states that have no limits on how many times you can take the bar exam. According to BarExam , these states are: 

• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania

There are also states with absolute limits on how many times someone can take the bar exam. BarExam identifies these states as:

• New Hampshire
• North Dakota
• Rhode Island

However, even states with absolute limits will still allow people to take the bar exam at least four times. So even if you haven’t passed the bar exam more than once in any of these states, you still have the chance to try again. 

3. What to Do if You Feel Like You Didn’t Pass the Bar Exam?

Firstly, wait until you get your results before jumping to conclusions. It is common to feel insecure and anxious after any major test or exam, especially an exam that is vital to your career. 

You may come out of the bar exam feeling like you failed but actually performed well and passed. 

Moving Forward After Failing the Bar Exam

You already have a solid foundation of knowledge and skills to be a lawyer, even if you failed the bar exam. Law school, studying and prep work , and even actually taking the bar exam means you are capable of being successful in the field of law. 

You have already done tremendous amounts of work to get where you are now, so don’t underestimate your skills and work and don’t give up. To get to where you are, you have already conquered major milestones of being accepted into law school and graduating from law school, which is no easy feat. 

The journey to becoming a practicing lawyer is definitely not easy, and it’s totally normal to have some setbacks. Don’t let failing hold you back and stop you from achieving your dreams. 

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Bar Exam Preparation

Dominating the Essays: Organize Issues and Prioritize Rules to Know on the Bar Exam

Ever wonder how you’re supposed to juggle everything in your head? How do you prioritize the rules to know for the bar exam?

How are you supposed to learn all this when time is tight? How do you tackle the massive body of rules to know?

How do you know you’ve completed the essay in full? Did you even talk about the correct issues? Are the graders going to give you the points? Are they even going to read your prose?!

You’d love to start practicing essays but feel like you just haven’t learned enough law yet. It’s overwhelming to even begin.

At least the answer is right there in MBE questions… If you’re a bar taker struggling with coming up with what to write, essays are the bane of your existence. Your rambling paragraphs start to blur.

Let’s breathe. We can simplify the essays and make them less scary…

Key takeaways:

• Issues: Learn not just the rules but also how to present and organize the issues (with examples below)
• Rules: Highest-priority issues and rules are those that have appeared in the past (there are two other priorities)
• There are efficient and effective ways to hit both of the above at once

Know not just the rules but also the issues

Put yourself in the essay grader’s shoes for a moment…, so now, as the applicant, what can you do to get the most points on the essays, 1) don’t write like a lawyer. write like a bar taker., 2) organize the issues., prioritize memorizing the rules and issues in this order…, 1) issues and rules that have appeared in past exams, including main issues, sub-issues, defenses, 2) issues and rules deemed important, 3) other fringe issues and rules that might come up (rule against perpetuities, anyone), take your practicing and memorizing to the next level.

Before getting into how to prioritize the rules for the bar exam, I need to emphasize something else first.

After working with readers and coaching clients over the years, there are two things that have become apparent:

• Writing essays on the bar exam is NOT about writing like a lawyer
• Issues are king (I talk about this more in this video )

That’s why gaining experience and intuition through writing bar essays is so helpful. You won’t be too surprised or lost on what to write about during the exam.

Meanwhile, some bar takers think they have to write a beautiful treatise so that bar graders can put on a monocle, do a deep literary analysis of the romance between P and D, and press it against their chest while looking out the window because your prose tugged at their heart.

The graders couldn’t care less about that LOL

If it helps, think about the time you watched someone slowly lose interest in you while being unable to do anything about it. And how futile texting them your thoughtful walls of text was.

You sigh at the pile of essay answers that waits for you every day.

You have thousands of the same shitty ass essays to sift through. You have to try to be consistent and fair across all those essays. You try your best at your thankless job, and all they do is complain about your “subjectivity.”

You also want to get through these essays as quickly as possible since you’re already getting underpaid. You’re already reading these answers while at the red light or sitting on the toilet. Your life is blurring together.

Perhaps it’s time to cut corners. Maybe just look for the headings and scan for keywords in the analysis…

This becomes a fairly mechanical process once you get through several similar issue patterns. Like fact patterns , there are corresponding issue patterns .

Prior law experience or creative writing will detract from answering the way graders want you to.

Practicing attorneys tend to not do as well on bar essays because this is a SEPARATE skill from real practice.

How do you write the way the graders want to see? Write like a bar taker instead:

Make the issues loud and clear. Punch the grader in the eyes by creating clear headings. Break out the sub-issues and elements into their own “street signs” for the grader.

Here’s an example of a major issue ( Contract Formation ) and an element (Offer) clearly called out, and their corresponding principles (rule statements):

In fact, being able to identify (or “spot”) and organize the issues is at least as important as knowing the rules. ( Here’s how to make issue identification a systematic process. )

It’s not about long-winded analyses or writing beautiful rule statements (neither got me to pass the first time).

Issues are where everything starts. An IRAC can’t sprout (and you get no points) from a seed that’s never planted.

Identifying the relevant issues is a signal to the grader that you understand what’s being tested. Rules and applications will naturally cascade down from the issues like a waterfall. Yes, you still want the meat of your answer written well.

Think of it as submitting a resume (or texting a girl). Hit the main points that the reader will care about. You’re but one out of a pile. Just a number. A hassle to go through. Better make the most out of the 10-15 seconds of the recruiter’s attention.

There is a certain logic and order to how you approach each issue.

Example of how to organize a call of the question in an Evidence essay:

You can even start to notice common issues that clump together (that you should discuss to get as many points as possible):

Here’s one for a Civil Procedure essay. Just plug and play the rules:

This is like 75% of the essay, so don’t freak out if it looks like a lot. But it’s a lot more structured than trying to start by typing a mess of words, right?

The best part: These issues clumps repeat! There are issue patterns like I said above. So if you see another SMJ or PJ question, just plug and play the same thing as here.

Outlining the issues and filling in the blanks should become a routine process because you will have seen the patterns so many times. Success is boring, not sexy.

If you have issues outlined like this, you’re pretty much home free. Do this for every essay, and you’ll know how to solve similar essays that appear on the bar exam.

OK, so that was about issues. Now about prioritizing rules…

Of course, you still need to know the law corresponding to the issues you identify. But if you need to prioritize, narrow the field of issues and rules in this order:

Issues and rules that have been tested a lot tend to be tested again. The more they’ve been tested, the more important they are.

Learn the important issues and rules by solving problems from the past and studying the answers.

• Find a collection of past essays and PTs here (for the California and Uniform Bar Exams).
• Find real MBE questions from sources such as Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE or AdaptiBar .
• Here are the biggest (highly tested) areas on the MBE.

You don’t need to have “learned enough law yet” before you dive into the pool! Trying to ensure that is exactly how I failed the California Bar Exam my first time.

Knowledge removed from the facts is nothing. It’s all artificial if you don’t know how to use it.

Seeing real problems will be productive because it will reveal what you know and don’t know. It’s like getting on the scale to measure yourself. THEN you can review and fill in the gaps.

The essay and MBE questions you go through now will become familiar fact patterns you might see again on the exam. Practicing and self-critiquing your work help you accomplish everything you seek:

• Getting better at identifying issues
• Memorizing and remembering rules through active recall
• Knowing how to apply the rules you memorized
• Picking the right answer on the MBE more often
• Gaining confidence

In other words, practicing will help solidify everything, including understanding and retaining the important concepts likely to be tested. Exciting!

You may not get through all the past essays, but you may have a feeling that there are issues and rules that would be good to know.

Maybe you’ve seen them around somewhere, maybe in law school or mentioned in a bar prep lecture. Typically, they’re listed in outlines .

You’ll still need to rote memorize these things, unfortunately. MBE questions especially may test you on specific obscure rules.

Note that I continue to mention issues and not just rules. That’s because memorization isn’t just about memorizing rules .

Better to at least get familiar in case they ask you about it.

When I retook the bar exam, there were essay questions I wasn’t sure how to answer because I didn’t know about zoning (issues I didn’t know about) and criminal prosecutor ethical duties (rules I didn’t know).

Even though my life flashed before my eyes thanks to these gaps in knowledge, I still passed the exam by focusing more on the first two priorities during bar prep than absolutely everything at once .

Now you know where to focus if you’re short on time. If you feel tempted to skip over subjects based on predictions , try this approach instead.

It’s still a lot to learn, though.

If you want to make the material more manageable and less overwhelming, check out Magicsheets and Approsheets.

Magicsheets condensed outlines contain all three of the above categories of priority—covering 95% of the testable issues and rules in 5% of the space of your bar prep course content.

Approsheets issue checklists and flowcharts help you hit all the relevant issues on an essay so you can stop having that “blank screen syndrome.”

It’s a no-brainer if you want to invest in your dreams:

• 3 Strategies I Used as a Repeater to Study for the Bar Exam: Fight for Simplicity!

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13 Best Practices for Grading Essays and Performance Tests

This article originally appeared in The Bar Examiner print edition, Winter 2019-2020 (Vol. 88, No. 4), pp 8–14. By Sonja Olson

When grading essays and performance tests for the bar examination, fairness, consistency, and focus are the cornerstones of good grading. In this article, NCBE’s MEE/MPT Program Director shares best practices for grading these written components to ensure that they serve as reliable and valid indicators of competence to practice law.

Opinions may vary about what should be tested on the bar exam, but if there is one point of agreement, it is that lawyers need to be skilled at communicating in writing. And communicating in writing means much more than using proper syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. Lawyers must be able to adjust their writing to a variety of audiences, such as clients, courts, opposing counsel, and legislators. Essay questions and performance tests are therefore integral to evaluating whether an individual should receive a license to practice law.

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) would not perform as reliable testing components without the dedication and care exercised by the graders in every jurisdiction that uses those exam components. In this article I share some insights and best practices that I’ve learned over the years from our Grading Workshop facilitators, from our MEE and MPT Drafting Committees, and without a doubt, from the graders (veterans and newcomers) who participate in NCBE’s Grading Workshop after every February and July bar exam administration. 1 Following these grading best practices ensures that the MEE and MPT serve as valid and reliable measures of basic competence to practice law.

1. Know the question (and the answer).

Every MEE question comes to the graders with the Drafting Committee’s analysis of the issues raised by the question and a discussion of the applicable law. In addition, we provide grading guidelines at the Grading Workshop. These guidelines, generally one to two pages, distill the issues discussed in the MEE analyses but also offer suggestions for distinguishing answers and may identify common areas where examinees struggle. This information is based on the workshop facilitator’s review of at least 30 actual MEE answers, which are sent to NCBE by jurisdictions after the bar exam. For the MPT, the drafters’ point sheet identifies the issues raised in the MPT and the intended analysis.

Familiarity with the grading materials not only allows a grader to give credit where it is due but also ensures that a grader can readily identify answers containing extraneous discussion that may be accurate (such as memorized portions of bar review outlines) but is not pertinent to a discussion of the issues raised by the problem.

Particularly with performance tests, which provide the relevant law, examinees may reiterate sentences or more from the statutes, regulations, or cases in the test booklet. MPTs also present a more expansive collection of facts for examinees to master, and thus there is the temptation to recite extended portions of the facts in an answer. Familiarity with the text of these questions, from the beginning of grading, will make it much easier to identify examinees who are merely regurgitating material as opposed to synthesizing the relevant facts and law and producing a cogent analysis.

2. Know the applicable law.

Graders of the MPT have the luxury of having all examinees working from the same legal authorities, as the MPT is a closed-universe exam—that is, all the relevant law is provided as part of the MPT. So an MPT grader should have no worries that an examinee is referencing an alternative, but valid, legal doctrine—if it’s not in the Library portion of the test booklet, it’s probably not analysis that should receive credit.

New MEE graders, however, often ask whether it is expected that answers to MEE questions will contain the same level of analysis and legal citations as provided in the Drafting Committee’s analyses. The short answer is no—the MEE analyses are very detailed because the MEE Drafting Committee recognizes that graders may be assigned to grade questions in subject areas that are not frequently encountered in their law practices. The MEE analyses contain the legal authorities relevant to the problem and often some background material to help orient the grader. Graders of MEE questions may want to review the authorities cited in the analyses or other treatises and casebooks if grading a subject outside of their regular practice area.

3. Know the grading scale that your jurisdiction uses.

At the Grading Workshop, NCBE uses a six-point scale when discussing the grading of essays and MPTs. Some jurisdictions use another scale, such as 1 through 7 or 1 through 10. What matters is that the score scale is manageable enough that graders can make consistent and meaningful distinctions among answers without getting frustrated by trying to determine where an answer fits on an overly granular scale. 2 All graders in a jurisdiction should be using the same scale and be in agreement on when an answer is so deficient as to warrant a zero ( see best practice #13 ).

Graders should also know whether their jurisdiction requires that the grades conform to a particular distribution, such as a curve or equal percentages in each grading category. Note that one method isn’t preferred over another—the point is that all graders should be on the same page. 3

4. Focus on rank-ordering.

No grader should bear the weight and added stress of believing that the grade they assign to an essay or performance test is what will tip the scale for that examinee and determine whether he or she passes the bar exam. The emphasis should be on rank-­ordering the papers, not on whether an individual paper receives a passing or a failing grade. The score given to an essay by a grader is essentially a “raw” score because those essay grades will be scaled to the jurisdiction’s Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) scores. 4 Only then will the “real” grade for that specific essay be determined, which will then be added to that examinee’s MBE score, other essay grades, and grades on any other bar exam components to produce the final score.

That being said, a grader should be able to articulate why a paper ends up at a different point on the grading scale vis-à-vis those papers receiving a higher or lower grade. At times, most papers may drop easily into particular “piles” on the grading scale based on simple criteria—for instance, that they cover the first two issues well but then do not reach a correct conclusion on the third issue.

Graders should turn off their inner editor and focus on how well the paper has answered the call and demonstrates the examinee’s ability to reason and analyze compared to the other papers in the pile.

5. Achieve calibration to ensure consistency in rank-ordering.

Fairness to all examinees means that it shouldn’t matter when their papers are graded or by whom. Calibration is the means by which graders develop coherent grading judgments so that rank-ordering is consistent by a single grader as well as across multiple graders. The recommended practice is that a grader review at least 30 papers before grading “for real” to see what the range of answers is. Note that for both multiple graders and single graders, answers for each point on the grading scale should be identified before the “real” grading begins. This could require reviewing more than 30 papers.

For multiple graders: Reviewing at least 30 papers works well when there are two or more graders for a question. As graders read the same papers in the calibration packet, they should pause after every five or so answers and discuss what grades they have assigned. If they have graded the same papers differently, they should discuss those papers and come to an agreement for each paper. This process of grading, discussing, and resolving differences should continue through the whole calibration packet or until graders are confident that they are using the same criteria to differentiate papers.

For a single grader: For a single grader, it is just as important to review a calibration packet of 30 or more papers. The papers can be sorted into piles for each point on the grading scale. After reviewing the first 10 or 15 papers, the grader should revisit the grades given to the first papers to see if the initial grade still holds or if the paper in fact belongs in a different pile. Each pile should then be reviewed to verify that the papers in it are of a consistent quality. One approach that some graders have found helpful is to first separate answers into three piles (poor, medium/average, and good) and then review the papers in each pile, separating them into the 1s and 2s, the 3s and 4s, and the 5s and 6s.

6. Combat “grader drift.”

Graders can “drift,” or begin grading papers inconsistently, for a variety of reasons. Fatigue is a common reason, as is hitting a string of very poor (or very good) papers so that the next one seems very good (or very bad) when it is merely average. To ward against “grader drift,” all graders should have some answers from the calibration packet embedded into the papers they grade, with the score from the calibration session hidden. After grading the embedded paper (which may be on colored paper or otherwise marked as a part of the calibration set), the grader can compare the just-­assigned grade with that from the calibration session and determine whether drift is occurring. For multiple graders, embedding the same answer from the calibration packet at the same point in each grader’s pile provides an opportunity to check that the graders are internally consistent and still applying the same standards.

7. Spread out grades over the entire score scale.

Rank-order grading only works as an effective assessment tool if graders take care to use the entire score scale. This does not mean that the final grades fit a particular curve. Rather, even a grader in a smaller jurisdiction who has fewer than 100 papers to grade should have no problem finding papers that slot into each point on the scale. There will be fewer 1s and 6s (in the case of a 6-point scale) and likely more 3s and 4s, with the number of 2s and 5s probably falling somewhere in between—but there will be papers that a grader, with confidence and justification, may reasonably place at each given point on the scale. While there are times when a question may be easier and most examinees appear to do well, a grader will still be able to find valid points of distinction among answers that will allow the grader to spread out the scores. 5 Some graders may find it helpful to initially use pluses and minuses when grading and then to review those 4- and 4+ answers, for example, to see if they really belong in the 3 or 5 piles.

The table below illustrates the importance of spreading out grades. If there are two graders, each grading answers for different questions, and Grader A decides to use the whole score scale of 1 through 6 but Grader B thinks that all examinees performed about the same and gives out only 3s and 4s, the resulting combination of the scores from Grader A and Grader B demonstrates that it is really Grader A who, by taking care to use the entire range of possible scores, is determining how well, or how poorly, each examinee does overall.

Lack of calibration between graders of the same question is unfair to examinees because their scores will be affected not by the quality of their answers but by whether they got the “easy” or the “hard” grader. On a similar note, if graders of different questions fail to spread out their grades, the questions whose grades are “bunched up” will ultimately have less impact on examinees’ overall scores.

8. Approach each paper as an “empty bucket”—that is, look for reasons to give credit.

Just as we encourage graders at the Grading Workshop to avoid thinking that the pass/fail line is whether a paper receives a 3 as opposed to a 4 on a 6-point scale, we encourage graders to approach each paper as an “empty bucket” and to view their task as searching for points to add to the bucket. It is much more likely that a grader can be consistent across papers in what he or she will give credit for, instead of attempting to be fair and consistent in all the ways a paper could be penalized.

9. Grade in a compressed time period.

Some jurisdictions, where the number of examinees means that grading cannot be completed over the course of a long weekend, may set targets for the number of papers that a grader can reasonably grade in a day. Certainly, grading is not something that should be rushed. But it is much easier to maintain calibration if the grader doesn’t have to get reacquainted with the details of the legal analysis and the quality of the answers because of a start-and-stop grading process spread out over several weeks. To the extent possible, grading should be done over a shorter time period.

10. Know the additional factors to consider when assigning grades.

Know what factors are legitimate grounds for assigning different grades to papers. Obviously, the content and substance of the answer is the first indication—what parts of the question did the examinee answer correctly? But other qualities are valid reasons for distinguishing papers.

Response to the call of the question

For both MEEs and MPTs, the answer should respond to the call of the question asked—and not the question that the examinee may have preferred to answer. For example, the examinee may launch into a discussion of whether a contract was validly entered into when the call of the question specifically asks for an assessment of the amount of damages the plaintiff is likely to recover. If that examinee then goes on to provide discussion that does respond to the specific call, the examinee will receive credit for the good content and at that point, the grader can generally ignore the extraneous material. Examinees who inflate their answers with a lot of extraneous material effectively penalize themselves: including the irrelevant material leaves the examinee less time to devote to the legal issues that are raised by the call. If two papers have approximately equal good content, but one is cluttered by unnecessary material, the one that adheres to the relevant issues is the better answer, although depending on the overall group of answers, those two papers could end up in the same pile.

Additional factors to consider, especially with MPTs, are the answer’s format, structure, and tone, and whether the examinee followed directions (e.g., if the task is to draft a letter to opposing counsel, which should be a persuasive piece, and instead the examinee writes an objective memorandum, this should be taken into account in determining the examinee’s grade). Finally, the analysis should state the applicable legal standard, marshal the relevant facts, and apply the law to those facts in the problem.

Accuracy in stating facts

In a similar vein, examinees may get a fact or two wrong when writing their answers. Even with MEE questions, which are generally just one page long, in the rush to produce an answer in 30 minutes, it is not unusual for an examinee to misread or misstate facts. The mistake may be very minor (e.g., getting a character’s name wrong). If it is clear from the context whom the examinee is discussing, such an error can probably be ignored. But if an examinee misstates a fact and then hinges part of the analysis on that incorrect statement, that should likely be considered when grading. After all, an important lawyering skill is paying attention to the facts that matter and getting them right when presenting a legal argument or analysis.

Written communication skills

For jurisdictions that have adopted the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), the UBE Conditions of Use mandate that graders take into account written communication skills when grading, although no discrete weight is provided for that component. Each jurisdiction may have specific guidelines for how its graders should handle papers that are riddled with typos, exhibit poor grammar, or contain irrelevant information (legal or factual), among other things. Obviously, there will be a point where a paper’s typos and poor grammar will make it impossible to discern whether the examinee does comprehend the relevant legal principles, and in such cases, a lower grade is warranted. But typos and occasional poor grammar, in themselves, should generally not factor into the grading decisions for most papers. NCBE suggests ignoring typos for the most part because it is unreasonable to expect perfection in typing skills given the time pressure of the exam.

When assessing the quality of the writing, the focus should generally be on characteristics such as logical and effective organization, appropriate word choice and level of detail, and the presence or absence of a clear conclusion. The quality of the writing does matter, and while it remains important in MEE answers (and its absence is more obvious, if only because MEE answers are fairly brief), it comes to the forefront when grading MPTs. For one thing, while essay prompts ask the examinee to provide solid, reasoned legal analysis, the MPT instructs the examinee to consider both the audience of the work product and what tone is called for, objective or persuasive, to properly complete the task.

11. Know when to assign partial credit.

Essay exams are more forgiving than multiple-choice questions. If an examinee taking the MBE knows the relevant legal rule and is able to narrow the answer down to two options, one of which is the correct answer, but still selects the wrong answer, the examinee receives no credit for that question. The Scantron machine doesn’t care how close the examinee came to the right answer. But essay questions give examinees a chance to earn partial credit—they have an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify relevant facts and employ legal reasoning to reach a conclusion. Even if the ultimate conclusion is incorrect, an examinee who has stated the correct legal rule and then produced a cogent analysis of how the law would apply should get substantial credit. Graders should spend enough time on each paper to see where the examinee has shown some knowledge of the law and how it would apply to the given situation, even if the examinee does not reach the “correct” conclusion.

Similarly, just because an examinee hasn’t remembered the correct name of a legal doctrine, that doesn’t exclude that paper from receiving at least some credit. Depending on the range of quality of answers, an examinee should receive some amount of credit, even substantial credit, for describing the applicable rule or doctrine. The grader should ask whether the examinee’s discussion indicates that he or she is applying the same criteria covered by the relevant doctrine.

12. Acknowledge when a paper is incomplete.

With incomplete papers, those where the examinee clearly ran out of time (sometimes as obvious as a final sentence that cuts off, or a missing final issue, or analysis that starts strong but gets more superficial and conclusory toward the end), the grader can’t provide the answer that the examinee didn’t get to, no matter how promising the first paragraphs are. Fairness to all examinees requires that a grader award credit only for what is on the page, as other examinees were able to complete the essay or performance test in the time allowed by appropriately managing their time.

13. Know when to assign a zero.

All graders in a jurisdiction should be in agreement about when a paper should receive no credit, that is, a zero. A score of zero should be reserved for a blank page or an answer that is completely nonresponsive to the call of the question. This is important because essay answers that receive a zero are excluded from the reference group that is used to determine the formula for scaling essay scores to the MBE. Earning a 1 instead of a 0 should require that the examinee has made an honest attempt to answer the question.

Fairness, consistency, and focus are the cornerstones of good grading. Following these practices in grading bar exam essays and performance tests will not lessen the workload, but it will help ensure that bar exam essays and performance tests serve as reliable and valid indicators of an examinee’s competence to practice law, that scores are fair to examinees and are the result of meaningful differences in the quality of the answers, and that the quality of the writing—an important skill for all lawyers, regardless of practice area—is considered as a grading criterion.

• NCBE’s MEE/MPT Grading Workshop is held in Madison, Wisconsin, the Saturday after each administration of the bar exam. The purpose of the workshop is to identify trends that graders will likely see when grading the MEE and the MPT in their jurisdictions as well as to discuss any questions graders have about the applicable law or the grading materials. While the workshop gives graders an orientation for grading, it is not intended to be a calibration session; that is best accomplished using a calibration packet comprising papers solely from the grader’s jurisdiction. (Calibration is the means by which graders develop coherent grading judgments so that rank-ordering is consistent by a single grader as well as across multiple graders.) (Go back)
• See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Essay and MPT Grading: Does Spread Really Matter? ” 85(4) The Bar Examiner (December 2016) 29–35, at 30: “For the purposes of illustrating how spread in grades affects the [standard deviation—that is, the average deviation of scores from the mean—] a six-point scale works fairly well. There are enough different grade points that spread can be easily seen, yet not so many that one gets lost in the details of computation.” See also Susan Case, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Bar Examining and Reliability ,” 72(1) The Bar Examiner (February 2003) 23–26, at 24: “All else being equal, more score gradations work better than fewer score gradations. The key is to make sure that the scale reflects the level of judgments the grader can make…. A six-point grading scale tends to work better than a four-point grading scale. Something much broader, like a 20-point grading scale, would work better than a six-point scale, but only if the grader could make reasonable, consistent, meaningful decisions along that scale.” (Go back)
• See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, supra note 2, at 32: “From a practical standpoint, we want to spread scores out as much as possible, but it is not necessary for the number of essays to be evenly distributed in each grade category; there are a range of distributions that achieve reasonably spread-out grades, but they tend to involve having some percentage of examinees in each grade category and not “bunching up” examinees too much into a small number of grade categories. In other words, uniform and bell-shaped distributions of grades are reasonable ways of “bucketing” examinees to ensure good spread in grades.” (Go back)
• Scaling is a procedure that statistically adjusts raw scores for the written components of the bar exam (the MEE and the MPT) so that collectively they have the same mean and standard deviation (average distance of scores from the mean) as the jurisdiction’s scaled MBE scores. See Susan Case, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Frequently Asked Questions about Scaling Written Test Scores to the MBE ,” 75(4) The Bar Examiner (November 2006) 42–44 at 42: “In the bar examination setting, scaling is a statistical procedure that puts essay or performance test scores on the same score scale as the Multistate Bar Examination. Despite the change in scale, the rank ordering of individuals remains the same as it was on the original scale.” (Go back)
• Scaling ( see supra note 4) takes advantage of the equated MBE scores and therefore accounts for variance in difficulty of the essay questions from one administration to the next. See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Scaling: It’s Not Just for Fish or Mountains ,” 83(4) The Bar Examiner (December 2014) 50–56, at 55: “Scaling essay scores to the MBE will … stabilize passing rates even though the intrinsic difficulty of essay questions may vary.” (Go back)

Sonja Olson is the MEE/MPT Program Director for the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

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Get back on track: Tips for successfully re-taking the bar exam with BARBRI

It’s not uncommon to encounter setback s after taking the bar exam . The test is renowned for its rigor , and even the most diligent student might find themselves searching online for "what to do after failing the bar exam."   

If you've recently learned that you’ll be joining the ranks of those retaking the bar exam, you're not alone. Plenty of now distinguished attorneys have faced this moment and used it as a catalyst for future success.  

So, what happens next after you fail the bar exam? As you move forward, remember to take a deep breath and pause. The past few months have likely been a whirlwind of emotions and you need to give yourself time to process all those feelings. Like those before you, your resilience will help you come back more confident. We’re here to help you refocus and provide a few tips for retaking the bar exam to ensure the next time will yield different results.

Don’t underestimate the foundation you’ve created

You haven't returned to square one. All the hard work leading up to the first bar exam has laid a solid foundation — the foundation for your successful retake with BARBRI. Remember, reattempting the bar exam means reinforcing the knowledge you've already acquired .  

Do an honest assessment of your last bar exam attempt

Reflecting on your approach after having failed the bar exam is vital. Make yourself a cup of tea or coffee , sit back, and ask yourself the tough questions:

• How much of your bar prep course did you complete?
• Did you focus more heavily on one area of the exam vs. another? On certain subjects?
• Did you allow time in your study plan to take care of your mental and physical wellbeing? ( Self-care is so important now and always! )
• Were you present and actively taking notes during lectures?
• Did you allow yourself to truly practice and assess, or were you a little too worried that you didn’t know enough to get started?
• Did you actively write out and self-analyze practice essays against model answers?
• Did you submit essays for feedback?

Know your strengths and weaknesses

If your state releases exam information that can help you understand how you did on each component of the exam, particularly if it’s broken down by subject, be sure to get that information and use it as your starting point. Did you do well on the MBE but weren’t as strong on written portions, or vice versa? Were you rock solid in Constitutional Law but scored low in Real Property? That’s valuable information you can use to celebrate your wins and adjust where needed.   

If it’s possible, look at your percentile rank by subject area to learn how you did versus others who took your exam. First, look at your state’s overall exam pass rate and subtract from 100. For example, if your state has a pass rate of 65%, subtract 65 from 100. This means that 35% of the people who took your exam did not pass.

In this scenario, look at the subjects in which you were above the 35th percentile and those in which you were below. Any that are below the 35th percentile are your areas of opportunity as you go into your next round of studying.   

Understanding your performance can drastically improve your odds when retaking the bar exam. You can now tailor your study plan to enhance your weak spots and fortify your strengths — a critical step when retaking the bar exam.  

Learn more about the bar exam curve and percentile rank.

Let the three "A"s be your guide

Once you have what you need from your self-evaluation, it’s time to focus on what will get you to your passing score on the next bar exam. You can overcome this moment and be a better attorney for it.

Use the three “A”s as your guide: Acquire , Apply and Assess .

Acquire. You can acquire new knowledge from your notes by actively listening to lectures. You will be astounded by how much more you get out of the materials now by really think about what’s being said.

Apply. When you work practice questions, carefully review the explanatory answers for each answer choice. Grapple with and learn from each question to understand why you got that specific question right or wrong.

Assess. As you put pen to paper and start writing practice essays and performance tests, compare your answers to the model answers and study the differences. Your percentile rank by subject can provide good insights as to where you are doing well and what areas may need more of your attention.

Evaluate your study habits for optimal learning

Reflect on what worked during law school and consider supplemental tools such as AdaptiBar or CriticalPass   and/or private tutoring . Maybe a more balanced schedule could help you study smarter, not harder as you move forward .  

Watch our webinar replay, “Retaking the bar exam”

If the bar exam didn’t go as planned, it's time to shift gears. Watch our webinar replay for comprehensive strategies and personalized guidance from BARBRI President Mike Sims to support your studies. Believe in your ability to pass, as many have before you, with the help of our actionable tips for retaking the bar exam We’re here to help you change your narrative from "failed the bar exam" to "passed with flying colors."

The BARBRI Guarantee allows bar exam takers who do not pass the bar exam a free repeat of the same BARBRI Bar Review course prior to sitting the next exam cycle. Learn more .

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What happens if I fail the bar exam?

What happens if you fail the bar exam? Why did you fail? And how can you pass the next time? We answer all these questions and more in this guide!

True story: I recently interviewed California bar exam tutor, Shana Karpeles, who revealed that she had helped a student who had failed the bar exam 22 times to finally pass on her 23rd attempt.

TWENTY-TWO times. I’ll let that sink in.

If you’re feeling upset about failing the bar exam once, twice, three times, or even more—and hopelessly adrift in an ocean of black letter law, practice questions, and bar exam stress—know this: YOU CAN PASS THE BAR EXAM. Don’t give up.

You just need to do things differently this time around and in this guide, we’re going to show you how!

Hi! We’re Brainscape

We’re the brains, minds, and hearts behind the world’s smartest study app! And we’ve partnered with highly respected experts in the field of law who have faced and vanquished the bar exam themselves, and are actively engaged in practicing law and legal education.

We not only have the luxury of these experts’ experience and advice in writing guides like this one, but we’ve also curated collections of certified MBE and MPRE flashcards , which you can use to drill yourself on the fundamental law concepts you need to know to pass the bar exam . (These 2,600+ smart, digital flashcards cover the most important MBE concepts in BarBri, Themis, Kaplan, Adaptibar, BarMax, Critical Pass, and other popular test prep providers. Here's how they're made and vetted. )

In fact, Brainscape’s study platform is scientifically tailored to engage students’ cognitive abilities, which means you’ll memorize the material quicker, remember it longer, and actually enjoy yourself along the way, which I’m guessing sounds a whole lot better than the ordeal you’ve faced up until this point, right?

So, now that you know a little more about who we are and why it’s worth listening to our advice, let’s talk about what happens if you fail the bar exam. Are you ready?

Here we go…

Absolutely nothing. Zip, zilch, nada, nil, niente. Sure, you’ll have to retake it in six months’ time and, yes, failing the bar exam feels like the end of the world; like your hopes and dreams have been hit by an 8.0 earthquake. But I assure you that this is only a transient feeling . It isn’t the end of the world. Your life has not just turned into a disaster movie featuring a cast of abysmal actors.

It’s kinda awkward actually because we named this whole article “what happens if I fail the bar exam” but the answer is literally a single paragraph long. So here’s the bonus feature: what the heck can you do about it?

Here are your steps!

Step one: Exorcise your feelings

Step two: Scrutinize your bar exam score report

Step three: Ask for your essays back

Step four: Consider what bar prep study methods didn’t work for you

What now? A new plan for bar exam success

1. Exorcise your feelings

Feel your feelings (because feelings were made to be felt) . Sink your face into a box of peanut-butter-and-chocolate-chip cookies. Languish in bed for a week. Watch a Disney movie. Watch five. Ugly cry. Get it all out.

Failing the bar exam is a massive blow, as I’ve made perfectly clear with the extended disaster metaphor. So, don’t even attempt to study right away: you’re not going to do a great job of it if you don’t have the emotional bandwidth and focus.

Rather, take a little time to get over it. And once you’re done with the cookies and Disney movie binges, try something a little healthier and soul-expanding. Like, perhaps a mini holiday somewhere new, or a weekend away with friends. Purge your mind with some beautiful scenery and an invigorating hike, or whatever works for you.

With some time to breathe, and recover, you’ll get that perspective and energy you need to return to your work with renewed vigor!

2. Scrutinize your bar exam score report

All done? Feeling a little better? Good!

Now it’s time to roll up the sleeves and figure out just what the heck went wrong. There are a myriad of reasons (or combination of reasons) you could have failed the bar. And you might already have an idea or two:

• You didn’t know the content well enough,
• You didn’t do enough question practice,
• You began your bar exam preparations too late,
• You studied inefficiently,
• You didn’t have a study plan,
• You ran out of time during the actual bar exam,
• You didn’t tailor your answers to please the examiners,
• You didn’t read the questions properly,
• You panicked and went blank,
• You, very simply, had a bad day. Perhaps your pet hamster bit the dust or you woke up with a cold. Sh— happens. The world keeps turning.

BUT whether you think you know the reason or not, it’s vitally important that you scrutinize your bar exam score report to figure out the exact combination of reasons you failed the bar exam. It’s only through knowing what you did right and what you did wrong —either in your bar prep or during the exam—that you can fix your approach and do much better next time.

Pro Tip: Read ‘ The biggest reasons people fail the bar exam ’ for a more detailed understanding of where you might have derailed and what you can do about it!

3. Ask for your essays back

In keeping with the previous point, which is getting feedback on your bar exam performance, see if you can get your essays back. Not all jurisdictions will oblige this request but it’s certainly worth asking because reviewing your writing can give you further clues as to where you went wrong.

• Did you fail to spot an issue?
• Did you state an incorrect / irrelevant rule?
• Did you neglect to sufficiently substantiate your arguments?
• Did you forget to answer the examiner’s question?
• Did you structure and format your answer incorrectly?
• Did you run out of time?

Identifying where you bled points on your essays is key to helping you focus on your weaknesses when you start practicing again during bar prep 2.0. Oh, and vitally important too is working with a mentor or tutor during this process who can give your practice essays detailed critiques.

Pro Tip: When writing essays, you’re not aiming to get 100%. You simply don’t have time for perfection. 70% Is a healthier number that’s more than sufficient to pass AND will eliminate some pressure.

4. Consider what bar prep study methods didn’t work for you

You failed the bar exam so CLEARLY something didn’t work for you. And if that “something” had anything to do with your study approach, then this is where you’ll discover what it was and how to correct it. Here are some of the common culprits:

• You didn’t build in enough time for content memorization and review. Solution: Draw up a new, very detailed study plan that splits all the content up into manageable daily goals, and use Brainscape’s certified MBE flashcards to help you memorize and review that content TWICE as efficiently!
• You didn’t do enough practice questions. Solution: Take time to source reputable question banks and practice exams and then read ‘ How to take a practice bar exam (23 key tips) ’ so that you squeeze the most out of them. Heads up: many students only get a fraction of the value out of these exams because they don’t spend enough time working through their performance assessments.
• You were staggered by the sheer demands of the bar exam because you didn’t do a full-length practice exam (and so had no idea what you were in for). Solution: Do one every 10 days to two weeks under real exam conditions so that you can (1) work on your time management and (2) become accustomed to the physical demands of such a marathon exam.
• You went the self-study route only to regret it. Solution: Find yourself a bar prep provider that caters to your particular learning preferences (independent versus hands-on) and lifestyle (in-class and structured versus online and self-guided). Read ‘ How to pick a bar review course ’ for more help with that.
• You got distracted easily and struggled to focus. You made it through law school so you clearly have what it takes. You might just need to take a little more time to prepare. Solution: If necessary, try new study environments that can offer you more peace and less distraction. You might also consider investing in a pair of noise-cancelling earphones. Check out: ‘ How to focus better when studying .’
• You didn’t make time for self-care and got burned out. Solution: Exercise, sleep, socialization, and some form of stress-management technique, be it yoga, meditation, or weightlifting, are crucial for physical and mental health and wellbeing. And these are crucial for a good bar exam performance. So read ‘ How to deal with bar exam stress ’ and get your lifestyle right!

A new plan for passing the bar exam

You’ve taken the steps to figure out what you did wrong in your preparation and/or during the exam: now you need to design a new strategy that will help you deftly side-step your mistakes, like a dog turd on a hot pavement.

This new strategy—bar exam study plan 2.0—has a very definite goal: to get you through your retake with a good, passing score. That’s it. I’ve pretty much covered how you can do that in the above-mentioned points but now I want to emphasize the following:

You’ve got to keep your spirits up.

According to the stats given by The State Bar of California, California’s 2021 February bar exam , half (47%) of all first-time test takers and three-quarters (73%) of retakers failed. In fact, some of our nation’s most successful attorneys, politicians, and leaders have failed the bar exam and still went on to do great things. Besides, if Shana’s student could pick herself up after failing the bar TWENTY-TWO times, holy crap , so can you!

So, stay positive, keep a healthy perspective, focus on what works for you, work hard, and you will rise to the challenge of the bar exam !

For the full scoop on nailing the bar exam, read our seminal guide: How to study for the Bar Exam more efficiently , which contains all the tips, tricks, and tools you could possibly need to pass the bar exam on your next retake!

Additional (free) resources for law grads studying for the bar exam

Brainscape’s “Hands-free” bar exam prep podcast : You can listen to this valuable series of bar prep episodes on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (wherever you listen to podcasts), or listen/watch as a series of videos on our Law YouTube Channel .

Brainscape’s Law YouTube channel: A library of video content and interviews with bar prep and legal experts on how to excel in law school, at the bar exam, and in your law career.

Brainscape’s Law Academy : A library of written law school and bar prep study guides that’ll equip you with the tools, advice, and study hacks you need to learn as efficiently as humanly possible, without burning out.

Flashcards for serious learners .

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How To Avoid Failing The Bar Again

December 4, 2017 By Ariel Salzer Leave a Comment

I try to be as optimistic as possible with my bar students, but there are some hard truths that you’re just going to have to face if you want to conquer this exam once and for all. I’ve seen it all, and I can tell you that there is no comfortable, easy way to study for this exam as a re-taker. It’s going to be difficult. You will be exhausted sometimes. You’re going to have to do things you don’t want to do and you can’t cut corners. The students I’ve seen who embrace this idea perform better. What do I mean about cutting corners? How exactly should you attack this test? Here are my top tips:

You Have to Memorize the Law and Know it Cold

There’s no way around it. Knowing the general concepts is not enough, especially now that the MBEs will count for half your score—there’s a lot less of a writing cushion now. What do I mean by knowing the law cold? For example, when I say you need to know hearsay, I don’t just mean you need to know how to identify it in a fact pattern. You also need to know every single hearsay exception, which ones require declarant unavailability, which ones are different under the Federal vs. California rules, and you need to have a clear, one sentence rule you can spit out from memory for each one. If you can’t rattle off all this information without notes, then you don’t really know hearsay yet—not the way you need to know it for this exam.

I tell my students that you should know the law the way you know your home address. That level of specificity, putting pieces in the correct order, with the right words. You will do yourself a big favor if you follow these steps when it comes to memorizing:

• Condense each rule before you try to memorize it (short things are easier to learn)
• Get the wording you want to use on the real exam and memorize that so you can say a rule the same way every time it comes up (teach yourself by repetition and practice)
• Start memorizing early (get this material into your long-term memory)

You Must Review Each Essay and PT Critically

One of the biggest problems I see students running into is that even if they do the writing practice, they’re not critical enough of their own work. I don’t mean critical in the sense that you beat yourself up—there’s no point in that. What I mean is, it’s your job to find what’s wrong with your essay and then take active steps to fix those things.

For example, if you write a PR essay and  you miss the crime/fraud distinction between the ABA and California rules, you can’t just tell yourself, “oh, well, I missed that, better luck next time, I will read the rule a few times so I don’t miss it again.” This doesn’t work! Here’s what you should do instead:

• Look up the rule, make sure you understand it completely, if not, teach it to yourself or get help
• Once you get the idea of the rule, put it into concise language
• Try to memorize it
• Go back to the fact pattern and ask yourself why this rule was triggered, which particular fact was the tip-off?
• Review what the two sample answers said about just this issue
• Re-write just this issue so you can get more practice using facts you already know
• Test yourself a few days later to see if you still remember the rule
• Practice applying this rule to other essays that trigger the same issue

This second method is much more difficult and time consuming. But, if you go the first route of just saying “oh well” and moving on, you just threw your practice out the window. That PR essay was largely pointless and a waste of time.

Your goal should be to practice in a way that forces you to search for errors and actively try to fix them. Otherwise, you’re just going through the motions. I really can’t emphasize this one enough. You’re not an exception to the rule. I know everyone thinks they are because they’re too busy, too smart, or they “would have gotten that issue” if they thought about it more, knew the rule better, read the facts more carefully, etc. Stop making excuses. Everyone needs to go through these uncomfortable steps . The students who do really see it pay off. They improve much faster and have a better chance of passing.

You Need Attack Plans and Headers for Essays

Believe me, I don’t just talk about attack plans all the time because they’re interesting, they’re really not. But, they absolutely help essays. Same thing goes for headers. The beauty of a good attack plan is that it gives you a short-hand way to memorize rules (you’re basically just learning the elements of each rule without all the in-between words). Don’t get me wrong, you need to know full rule statements you can actually write in a complete sentence too, but if you know at least the elements, you can get a passing score on an essay.

Think of it this way: the headers and sub-headers on an essay are not random. They directly correspond to the attack plans for each topic you’re writing about. For example, if you memorize all the possible topics and sub-topics that can come up in a negligence analysis, then when you go to write an essay on negligence, you just have to pick and choose from a predetermined list and fit the pieces where they belong. This is much easier, and it will get you many more points than guessing and winging it.

Plan Each Essay and Use Every Fact

I’ve written about this at length before, but suffice to say, the students who do a good job with essay planning and fact usage have a much better chance at passing. I’m not saying “every fact” in a general sense. I mean you should be incorporating each and every little fact into your essay. Even more than that, you need to tell the grader why each fact matters. What does it mean? Why was it given to you? Which rule element does it go with?

One of the biggest mistakes I see on essays is discussing facts generally instead of specifically. It’s not enough to include facts or gloss over them, you need to show your thinking process. For example, if the fact pattern says “homeowner kept a loaded gun on his bedside table to protect himself,” you should be thinking: why did they tell me a table and not somewhere else? (are there safer options?) was keeping a loaded gun on the table a reasonable thing to do? (no). You should be fitting these facts into negligence, but even more specifically than that, you should be fitting them under breach and even negligence per se once you notice there’s a statute about gun storage in the fact pattern (practice this essay here ).

You Should Track Your MBEs

The same advice from above about the essays applies to MBEs as well. What’s the point of cranking out hundreds of MBEs unless you’re actively working on capturing all those questions you get wrong and learning from them? If you’re not memorizing the rules from each and every single question you get wrong, then you’re going to have a much harder time getting those questions right next time you see them (or questions like them). Think of it like this Rubik’s cube analogy .

It doesn’t matter how many MBEs you do, that’s not as important as how many rules you actually learn from them. And yes, I mean actually memorizing. Know these like your address too, not just the general concepts. Keep track of each rule and commit it to memory. Work on this early, because if you’re doing enough MBE practice, that means you’re going to be getting a lot of questions wrong over the next couple of months—which means you will have a lot of rules to teach yourself.

You can probably tell when you really know something—really understand it, and when you don’t. If you have doubts, keep working at it. And ask yourself, are you taking the easy way out? Remember, it doesn’t matter how many hours you spend studying if you’re not studying smart and course-correcting as you go. Stop cutting corners and do the hard work it takes. You won’t be sorry when you see your name on that pass list!

Ready to pass the bar exam? Get the support and accountability you need with personalized one-on-one bar exam tutoring or one of our economical courses and workshops . We’re here to help!

About Ariel Salzer

Ariel Salzer is a Tutor and Mentor Tutor for Law School Toolbox, Bar Exam Toolbox, and Trebuchet. Ariel has taught everything from conjunctions to calculus on four different continents. A primary and secondary school educator in the U.S. and abroad before law school, Ariel has always had penchant for teaching and editing. As a student at the University of San Francisco School of Law, Ariel tutored Torts and led 1L workshops on time management, exam preparation, legal writing, and outlining. As the chief Technical Editor on the Executive Board of the USF Law Review, Ariel was in charge of ensuring the accuracy of thousands legal citations, and has become a Bluebook expert. She also served as a Case Counsel for the USF Moot Court program, and received CALI awards for high-scoring two classes, including Legal Research and Writing. After practicing law as a product liability litigator in California for a number of years, Ariel found her way back to teaching and now enjoys helping students find success in their law school classes and on the bar exam.

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Why People Fail the Bar Exam

03 Jan, 2023

Passing the bar exam requires hard work and diligence. But it also requires you to avoid some very common pitfalls.

Let’s walk through the most common reasons students fail the bar exam and how you can avoid these traps to drastically increase your chances of passing the bar exam.

• Too much passive studying : The number one reason students fail the bar exam is because they’re engaging in too much passive studying . Bar review companies are great at assigning a bunch of videos to watch and giving you extremely long outlines to read. While these are valuable resources that can and should be utilized, you need to make certain that you’re actively engaged in the lesson and reading. You also need to make sure your study approach is well-rounded with ways to test what you’re learning.
• Not enough practice questions : A  secret ticket to bar exam success  lies in practice questions. You only have a finite amount of time to prepare for the bar exam, and you must spend that time wisely in order to pass. Real MBE Practice questions (those currently licensed by the NCBE) yield a high return (i.e., added points on the bar exam) on your time investment. Make sure that you are aiming for 2,000+ multiple choice questions and upwards of 20-30 essays/practice tests throughout your bar prep. And don’t forget, as you get further into your studies, it’s a great idea to time yourself as you do practice questions to help you prepare for the time constraints you’ll face on exam day.
• Trying to outsmart the exam : You simply can’t outsmart the bar exam. Many, many students unsuccessfully attempt to pass this test through sheer volume of knowledge. At a minimum, you must know a certain amount of law to pass the test; there is no getting around that. However, there are other critical skills you need in order to pass, such as issue spotting, process of elimination strategies , and the ability to formulate rule statements, develop analysis, and complete the test under the time constraints. If you solely focus on what you know and not how to use that knowledge, you are seriously jeopardizing your ability to pass.
• Advice and resource overload : Everyone who has ever taken the bar exam has an opinion on how you should prepare. Even though those people usually have the best intentions, this can lead to you having an overwhelming number of options to choose from and information to sort through. When deciding whether to take a piece of advice or use a particular resource, you should consider the source of the information and what you know about your own learning style.
• Self-doubt : This is the most heartbreaking reason students fail the bar exam. Mindset matters when it comes to passing this test. Unfortunately, the only thing many bar exam takers feel confident in is their perceived shortcomings. They believe they “can’t do multiple choice questions” or “don’t have enough time to study.” Your own self-doubt will be your own worst enemy. Taking the bar exam is extremely stressful. It’s important that you put guardrails in place to manage stress and self-defeating thoughts, which, left unchecked, can prevent your success.

Keep your eyes open for these pitfalls. And if you notice yourself starting to form one of these bad habits, be sure to quickly address them and reformulate your game plan.

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Pass the Essays, Pass the Bar

The written portion of the California Bar Exam accounts for 50% of your grade. Our services focus exclusively on the essays, providing insider feedback, tips, and insight from our team of former California Bar Exam graders.

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BarEssays.com Blog

3 reasons people fail the california bar exam.

11/01/2019 by baressays

As you might know, BarEssays.com is the only online database of real graded California Bar Exam essays , containing over 4,000 high scoring, middle scoring, and low scoring examples to every California Bar Exam essay and performance exam tested since 2005.

In the process of collecting real graded California Bar Exam essays for more than a decade, BarEssays has viewed score reports and essays from thousands of students who did not pass the exam.

In viewing this material, we have noticed many common elements among students who do not pass, which we intend to share with you through this blog.

Today, we will start with three common reasons that students do not pass the California Bar Exam.

Three Common Reasons Students Fail The California Bar Exam

Reason #1 – over-practice of multiple choice (mbe)/under-practice of essays.

Practicing California Bar Exam essays is a painful exercise. We get it. You don’t want to do it.

To properly practice the essays, you need to print out a question, sit down for an hour, and write everything out.

Particularly at the beginning of bar studies, you might not know the subject as well as you’d like, so it takes great pains to analyze a fact pattern, spot issues, and spit out rule statements for an hour.

In contrast to the essays, practicing the multiple choice (MBE) portion of the California Bar Exam is relatively easy and straightforward.

• Pick an answer out of several choices and find out if it is correct.
• Then move on to the next question.

Simple, right?

Unlike the MBE, self-grading your practice Cal Bar essays are an entirely different beast.

• How did you score?
• Was the rule statement correct?
• Is your essay comparable to a high scoring or low scoring essay?

Your practice essay will undoubtedly look nothing like the so-called “model” answers provided by review courses – does that mean you will fail?

Due to the more difficult nature of practicing the California Bar Exam essays, many students forego it completely or wait until the end of the study period – to their peril .

In fact, this bad practice is so common, that BarEssays receives far more score reports from students who failed because of low essay scores than students who failed the MBE.

Put simply – our experience has led to a strong belief that the written portion of the California Bar Exam is the most difficult section and the reason that most students do not pass the California Bar Exam .

Here’s an Example:

We recently received a scoresheet from a student who scored a 1611 scaled MBE (remember that only a 1440 is needed to pass the section) and scored in the top 13 percent of the country !

The student obviously studied immensely for the MBE but did not pay attention to the essays.

While this might be an extreme example, score sheets with high MBE scores and low essay scores all too common on the California Bar Exam.

How can you prevent an imbalanced study approach?

BarEssays recommends that you practice the essays each and every day beginning the first week of bar study.

That is, print out a past essay in the subject that you are studying for that day and write it out.

It is perfectly ok to do this “open book” at the beginning of bar studies when you haven’t fully memorized the subject areas.

That is not to say you should ignore the MBE. BarEssays recommends practicing at least 30 MBE questions every day.

But you also need to practice writing the essays as soon as possible.

After writing out a practice essay, how do you know if it is comparable to a passing essay?

On BarEssays, you can review high scoring, middle scoring, and low scoring examples to every California Bar Exam essay tested since 2005.

Writing out practice essays daily and self-grading by reviewing the range of real high and low scoring examples to those essays, and thinking about the differences between the scores and essays, will force you to learn the to write a high scoring California Bar Exam essay.

In fact, after reviewing a number of the real graded examples, students often have an A-HA moment , where they “get it” and understand what they need to do to write a high scoring Cal Bar essay.

BarEssays cannot emphasize enough the practice of essays as early as possible in the bar review study period.

We also cannot emphasize enough the importance of self-grading and self-assessment.

No review course grading service can compare to the process of sitting down, comparing your essays to real graded examples, and thinking about what you did right and wrong.

We know that practice and self grading California Bar Exam essays is painful. We know that the practice of MBE questions is less painful.

But don’t go for the less painful route! Dive right into essay practice at the beginning of your bar exam study period and you will be rewarded at the end.

Reason #2 – Belief that General Understanding of Law is Sufficient for the Essays

The MBE does not require a detailed and thorough understanding of law to get a high score.

You could have a very good general understanding of each subject and, through process of elimination, figure out the correct MBE answer. Not on the Cal Bar essays.

To score high on the essays, you must have very good rule statements that show a detailed understanding of each subject.

If your rule statements are vague, incorrect, or missing elements, you will lose a lot of points.

Not only will the graders see that you do not know the subject as well as you should, but the grader will also automatically believe that your analysis is off.

Example from 2017 California Bar Exam

Let’s look over one small example from a community property question about transmutation on the July 2017 California Bar Exam.

If you are not aware, transmutation is a process where property changes character between separate and community property.

Here is a rule statement from an essay that scored 55 (a low score):

“ Transmutation : Community property can be transmutted into separate property and vice versa.”

Compare this to a rule statement from an essay that scored 75 on the same question (a very high score):

“ Transmutation : An agreement between two spouses to change the character of property from CP to SP, or SP to CP, or SP to SP.

Beginning January 1, 1985, transmutation of an asset must be in writing, expressly indicate the intent to transmutate the property, and signed by the party who’s rights are being adversely affected.”

The difference between these two rule statements is obvious.

The high scoring essay demonstrated a vast superior knowledge than the low scoring essay, and this is reflected in the final score.

The high scoring student put in significant time memorizing an excellent rule statement, and showing the grader that the student understands the topic on a detailed level.

Editors tip: if you are not sure what a good or bad rule statement is for a particular topic, compare the high scoring essays in the BarEssays database.

Or, as an alternative, memorize the rule statements on the BarEssays templates.

Reason #3 – Overreliance on Review Course Model Answers

Review course California Bar Exam essay model answers are not real.

They are produced by employees of a bar exam company, edited, re-edited , sent to additional editors and then published.

Review course model answers look nothing like a real graded high scoring essay, nor should they.

Despite all of the editing, some of the model answers are not even good.

We have viewed so-called model answers from large review courses that miss issues, do not use IRAC, and would not receive a passing score.

Of course, you do not know what score the model would have received because it was never submitted for grading.

Keep a few very important things in mind about Model Answers:

• Model answers do not tell you the important issues you need to recognize in a Cal Bar essay to receive a high score.
• They do not tell you the less important issues you can miss and still score high.
• They do not show you several different ways to organize a high scoring essay.

At best, they tell you all the issues the review course believes are important, whether or not this is actually correct.

On the other hand, comparing your essay to real high scoring examples, such as those in the BarEssays.com database, will allow you to properly calibrate your progress.

It will also show you what the real California Bar Exam graders value in an answer or, by looking at the low scoring examples, what to avoid.

Some students look at the review course model answers and become so disheartened that they stop practicing essays, gambling instead on the MBE.

This is destructive.

You will never write anything like a model answer. And that is OK.

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I Failed the Bar Exam! What Should I Do?

Results for some states are coming out soon! You may be reading this because you failed the bar exam. Or, because you are worried you failed the bar exam.

We have helped hundreds of students who have failed the bar exam overcome it and be better people and attorneys for it! So, if you failed the bar exam, and are wondering what to do next, here is a detailed, step-by-step guide.

Looking for a different and new approach to the Uniform Bar Exam? Check out our highly-regarded Uniform Bar Exam Course here . Our course teaches an efficient approach to the bar exam and is completely different from a standard commercial course.

Also, don’t miss our webinar on what to do if you failed the bar exam ! (Available live and on demand!)

What to do If You Failed the Bar Exam

1. step one: let yourself take it all in..

Failing the bar exam is disappointing, aggravating, and a million other emotions all at once. You need to allow yourself to feel any and all of these emotions and work through them before you move on. There is no point in masking them. And there is no point in rushing. Take a few days or a week (or more) to allow yourself to step back and to get through this process.

During this time, it is a good idea to also read this note to those who failed the bar exam . We tell you why it is important to allow yourself to feel sad, depressed, angry, or whatever emotions you need to (and we say it a bit more eloquently than we do here!)

It may also be a good idea to look at these quotes for those who failed the bar exam . They are not cliche inspirational quotes about success.

Don’t rush through this grieving process. In the beginning, there is nothing that will speed this process up. If you made it this far in life, you may have not failed anything in your life – yet alone something you worked so hard for. Thus, it can be a very unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling. And it may seem impossible now, but you will get past it.

2. Step Two: Keep it in perspective. Keep in mind the following things:

The bar exam is just an exam.  .

While nothing will take the initial shock away from you—and all of the emotions that come with it, it is important to remember that the bar exam is, after all, an exam. One of my students told her friend that “failing the bar exam was the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

And her friend said, “well . . . that’s lucky.”

He wasn’t trying to be a jerk, even if it wasn’t the exact thing she wanted to hear at the time! His words had some truth to them.  Just because you failed the bar exam, does not mean you will not get your license. It means you will delay it a few months. That is all. It is just an exam. And one that you can redo!

Also keep in mind the following:

You are not alone.

There are plenty of people who fail the bar exam. Every. Single. Administration. And they are not the ones posting on Facebook ten times a day. They are like you – they are deleting their Facebook accounts. Or they are secretly hating everyone that won’t stop posting about passing the bar exam. Many states have less than a fifty percent pass rate!! So not only are you not alone if you failed the bar exam, you may actually be in the majority!

You still can be successful at whatever you choose to do!

Please see this post to see a list of famous people who failed the bar exam (including Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, JFK, and many more  . . . ). They did not let failing the bar exam stop them from their dreams. And neither will you! It is just an exam. It does not define you. In fact, it will make you resilient. And stronger. And bolder and better at whatever you do!

Lastly, just because you failed the bar exam does not mean you are “stupid” or “unqualified” to practice law.

There are SO many reasons that smart people fail the bar exam! Read this lovely article in the National Jurist (written by us :)) called “ Why Smart People Fail the Bar Exam .” It outlines seven reasons that very smart people fail the bar exam. It also tells you why thinking like a lawyer (and having great critical thinking skills!) can sometimes even cause you to fail an exam that does not reward creative, lawyerly thinking! (Which is, ironically, the bar exam!)

I refer the vast majority of the legal cases that come my way to my students that had to take the bar exam more than once. Why? Because even though they struggled with the bar exam, they are among the absolute best attorneys I know!

So remember, struggling with the bar exam is not an indicator of how you will practice law!

3. Step Three: Figure out what is next.

You WILL get through this! It is just a matter of time! You may be licensed within six months of finding out you failed!

Here are a few questions to ask to maximize the chances of that happening!

What went wrong?  

Set aside at least a couple of hours to go through these questions carefully. (These couple of hours could truly make the difference of you passing and failing the next bar exam!) We cannot emphasize the importance of this exercise enough!

Going through these questions is important for a few reasons:

First, it will truly help you pass the bar exam the next time you take it! You will identify exactly what went wrong. And then you will figure out how to conquer it head-on.

Second, you will feel more in control of the situation. One of the bad things about failing the bar exam is that you can feel like you have no control over the situation. You may be thinking, “I studied so hard. I did everything I could possibly do. What could I do differently?” When you go through these questions, you will realize there are some things that you can do differently. You will feel empowered.

Third, you will feel more motivated to keep going! Remember all of those terrible feelings that you felt inundated with when you found out you failed the bar exam? By going through this list of questions and coming up with a plan, you will start to feel more energized and ready to go!

First Set of Questions to Ask if You Failed the Bar Exam:

• Did my commercial course help me? Did I follow it? (If not, why not?) If so, was it useful? Did I get a lot out of the lectures? Were the outlines helpful? Were the multiple-choice questions close to what I saw on the exam? Did I feel prepared for the essays? If you are looking for an alternative to a standard commercial course, check out our highly-regarded Uniform Bar Exam course here .  
• Did I dedicate enough time to studying? If not, how can I make more time to study this time? Can I start earlier? Or can I quit my job?  Is it possible for my parents to support me?
• When I studied, was I being efficient and productive? Was I able to concentrate? If so, was I tackling the subjects that are truly difficult for me or did I put those off? What did I focus on when I studied? (If I was not efficient and productive, why not? Was my study environment distracting? Was I too anxious? Or too tired? . . . )
• Did I take enough practice exams?  If not, why not? Do I need to incorporate them earlier? Or do them under more “test like” conditions? Do I need to time myself more carefully?
• Did my scores improve through practice? If not, why not? What can I do differently to improve this time?
• Where was my score lowest and where was it highest? How did I score on the MBE, MPT, and essay portion? Is there one part that I always perform better on? How can I make sure to focus on this part next time?
• Do I see lower scores in certain essay topics? Which ones? (You cannot be afraid to get your score report out, figure out what each essay subject was, and analyze it!)This data is invaluable! It does not mean everything, but it does mean something, and it can tip you off to where you struggle the most!
• Which MBE subjects do I feel weaker in and which subjects do I feel stronger in (out of Real Property, Contracts, Evidence, Torts, Crim Law/Crim Pro, Contracts/Sales, Civil Procedure)? What about state topics? (Wills, Trusts, Family Law, Corporations & LLCs, Agency, Partnership, Secured Transactions, Conflict of Laws, etc. . . .) What can I do differently to improve my weaker subjects? Should I try private tutoring? A different outline? A different course? Something else?
• Am I burnt out? What can I do to feel less burnt out?
• Do I struggle with anxiety (either at the test or before the test)? How can I minimize this or better deal with it? Should I consider therapy, medications, meditation, or other methods to minimize anxiety?
• Do I struggle with timing? Did I run out of time on the essay portion or MBE portion? How can I make sure this doesn’t happen again?
• Should I get a private tutor? Or a different course? What can I do to change my approach? How will I pay for these services and/or materials?  Can I get a bar loan? Will my parents or a family member lend me money? Can I work and save up for a new approach? (We have more about this below)

Second set of questions to ask if you failed the bar exam:

Now that you have examined the exam itself, how you prepared, and how you performed, let’s look into the future rather than the past and see how you can change your approach the next time around.

Remember, you don’t want to do the exact same thing you did the last time or you will likely get the same result. Thus, changing how you study is key to changing the result.

1. Should I hire a bar exam tutor or invest in a different approach?

In this post “ Do I need a bar exam tutor? ”, we provide some pointers as to whether you should hire a bar exam tutor.  The primary factors to consider are: (1) How far away you are from a passing score (the farther you are, the more you could benefit from private tutoring); (2) how many times you have taken the bar exam (the more times you have taken the bar exam, the more you can benefit from a private tutor); and (3) other circumstances (i.e. how well you prepared, if you had a good or bad “test day” etc., whether you have obligations such as full-time work for the next bar exam).

If you are wondering why some students say it is well worth it to hire a tutor for the MBE, please see this post . If you are wondering why it may be well worth it to hire a tutor for the MEE or essay portion, please see this post . In the end, you may not need a tutor. Or, you may find you really need one! Either way, make an informed decision that is right for you!

If you are looking for the most for your money, check out our Uniform Bar Exam full service course here. (We have affordable on demand course options as well as excellent live evening options!)

2. Do I need a new approach?

Yes. You probably do. You probably should not simply plan on rewatching all of your bar review lectures . (Click on the link if you are interested in hearing exactly why!) There are generally four things you need to pass the bar exam:

(1) Good materials. If you don’t have good, well organized materials that you learn from, you will be behind right from the beginning! If you are wondering what our materials look like, check out this post to see why we have the best outlines . We have outlines for the MBE, MEE, and other state bar exams.

(2) You need to understand these materials. If you are having trouble comprehending the law, you will have even more trouble memorizing it and applying it. So, consider hiring a bar exam tutor if you are having trouble understanding the materials. Or, consider a different course or different approach.

(3) You need to memorize the law. It is not enough to be vaguely familiar with the general concepts; after all, the MBE (and essays) test the details of the law. Thus, you need to KNOW your outlines. (If you are looking for tips to learn and memorize your outlines, see this post .)

(4) You need to be able to apply the law to the types of fact patterns that you see on your bar exam. If you are having trouble with the MBE and want to improve your MBE score, see this post .  Also, we have plenty of MEE tips and MPT tips here.

3. Should I start studying for the bar exam right away?

We do not think it is a bad idea to start bar prep early. This is especially the case if you struggled a lot on the bar exam. We also recommend starting early if you are working full time while you are studying. (To read more about our thoughts on early bar prep, see this post .)

However, not everybody needs to start bar prep early. There is a risk of burnout or of forgetting what you learned if you do not incorporate time to review.

There is also a question of how early to start. If you took the July bar exam, starting in November or the beginning of December is considered “early.” A month or so may give you an edge up. (If you are studying for the July bar exam, anytime before May 10 is considered early!)

4. Should I try to work and study for the bar exam?  

Working while studying for the bar exam is possible. (Please read these 12 tips for working and studying for the bar exam if you are considering doing both at once!)

We generally do not recommend that you work and study if you can avoid it! We understand that not everyone has the luxury of taking time off to study. But, if it possible for you to do so, we recommend that you do! There is no point in taking any chance of failing again if you can avoid it!

Thus, if you have to work, please read the post above. You will have to be very methodical in how you approach bar prep.

5. Should I take a bar exam “off”?

We generally recommend that students take the next bar exam offered. Believe it or not, but having one bar exam under your belt puts you at an advantage. You are not starting from square one. You will remember a lot of what you learned from your first attempt at studying. The next time will be about learning more, refining what you know, committing it to memory, and/or perhaps practicing more!

So, in many ways, it is best to take the next bar exam offered to maximize this advantage. However, if you are feeling burnt out, or if you have major obligations that make it hard to work and study, then yes, take a bar exam off. If you are looking for more advice regarding whether you should take a break in between bar exams , please read this post!

6. I am really feeling down. What should I do?

If you feel lonely, depressed, or suicidal please read this post . Confide in a friend about how you feel. Seek medical help or attention. Consider therapy or medication. Your mental health is more important than anything — including the bar exam! So, make it a priority.

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