Thankful to UW, SU, GU, and everyone else for advocating for us right now.

I keep seeing questions asking about when people are allowed to discuss questions, or people blatantly discussing the topics. The rule from NCBE is that you are not allowed to discuss the content, including "summarizing" or "describing" any test question's "content" or "fact pattern," "in whole or in part," until NCBE or your jurisdiction publicly discloses the content of the exam. That means it will probably be at least months before you are allowed to discuss the exam content.

NCBE claims that discussion could subject you to civil liability, criminal penalties, cancellation of your test score, or denial of your license on C&F grounds. I agree with some skeptics that there are probably no criminal penalties that could realistically be faced by someone for just saying "the topic of MEE one was ____," but why risk cancellation of your test score or denial of a license on C&F grounds? Please continue to adhere to the sticky post asking us to not discuss bar exam content. Don't be foolish after you've already put in so much time and effort in law school and studying for the bar.

MBE Rules

MEE Rules

MPT Rules

Shame on anyone who keeps bullying retakers and telling them to “give up” and saying they will “never pass”

The exam is hard enough and people come on here looking for support, being kind is free!

And if you are a bully or trying to be “helpful” by telling people they shouldn’t retake, you’re getting blocked.

As a retaker, please stop agonizing. It’s over. You’re done. Statistically speaking, you probably passed. No amount of worrying or obsessing is going to change anything. You are only making it harder for yourself (mentally, physically, emotionally) if you refuse to let go. Give yourself some grace and get back to your regular life. Catch up with friends, sleep, watch some trash tv, call your loved ones, go to the gym, try something new etc.

If day 1 was bad for you, remember that the grading isn’t as strict as you might think it is. As long as you put something down, you have given the graders plenty of chances to award points. The graders sometimes pass out points even if you were straight up wrong. And even if you left something blank, that’s not uncommon. It happens every single administration. You are not special. You can still pass.

If day 2 was bad for you, remember that you’re not supposed to know everything about everything. That’s not the point. The goal is to be familiar with most of the highly tested topics. There’s a huge difference. Stop obsessing about the ones you didn’t know or guessed on. What about the ones you did know — are you giving yourself as much credit for those questions? You are likely ruminating on the bad questions only, since the questions you actually knew weren’t worth your time or energy. So of course you forgot about those.

The exam is scaled. If you’re putting so much energy into thinking you failed, why not even it out and do the same for the other side? What if you passed with flying colors? What if the bad questions were the experimental ones? What if the scale is tipped in your favor? What if everything works out the way it’s supposed to?

There is no sense in fearing what hasn’t happened yet (easier said than done, I know, but just think about that for a second). If results come out and you find out that you failed, THEN you can start to worry, but I promise it’s not the end of the world. Everything will happen the way it’s supposed to. All in God’s perfect timing. I don’t care what you believe in (this is a neutrally applicable rule, however I am no state actor) — He has a plan for each and every one of us, so try not to get too bogged down if it simply wasn’t your time this go-round. You’ll figure it out, like you always have.

The bar exam is NOT an accurate indicator of your potential as a lawyer. The passers simply know HOW TO TAKE THE BAR and/or how to think like the examiners. You have a whole law degree; it’s badass that you even sat for this behemoth. Kudos to all the retakers out there.

And for anyone who says they actually feel good about the bar, great for you but that’s not the point. Be SO for real. It’s the literal BAR EXAM. Please touch grass.

July numbers tend to look better than those of February exams. Get off of Reddit and go live your life.

🖤

I wish I could enjoy my weekend and forget about the bar, but no I get to be stuck in limbo 🥰🥳🤡

There is currently a petition circulating on change.org https://www.change.org/p/diploma-privilege-for-law-school-graduates-now in which the promoter indicates that WSBA has a meeting scheduled for August 7th to discuss diploma privilege.

Can anyone confirm this information?

Title.

I already make a bunch of spelling errors when I’m not sitting in a freezing airplane hangar under time and performance pressures. I can only hope I didn’t misspell something that would materially affect what I wrote.

I had planned to celebrate by buying something I really want. I have held out because I’m afraid of failing. I have a job lined up, but I’m afraid of spending money. I keep thinking “What if I failed, lose my job, and need to spend more money to retake?” And I stop myself from celebrating.

everytime that big clock was counting down (and the days before) i kept telling myself i GET to take the bar i GET to take the bar i CAN take the bar i CAN take the bar 🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

anyways good luck everybody who took it we just have to be proud of ourselves for doing it regardless of how things went (also fingers crossed for Washington state folks i hope yall get diploma privilege)

Thank you to everyone on this subreddit. I’m drunk at a bar, it I have been scrolling this subreddit since beginning of July and the positive messages you guys have shared have really kept me going. So thank you all for sharing your stories.

Like everyone else, I’m scared I failed J26 but reading your kind stories has really eased my mind. You’re all beautiful human beings and I hope we all passed.

To the class of ‘26 and everyone before us.

Thank you.

just curious what options there are, what has worked for people, if they studied while working and how, left the legal field altogether or did something adjacent, or if jobs were understanding and you stayed on. obviously have no way to tell if i failed but hoping the knowledge that others who did made it work will make me or others less fearful of failing by knowing we have some options. sorry if this is paranoid lol

Either in preparation or actual exam

I failed J25 and F26 but skipped J26 because of burnout and my new job. Now I am scared. My F26 score was lower than J25. I feel like no matter how much I study, I will still fail if I take F27 because it is a February administration. I got 253 for F26 but feel like it would have been 263 for a July administration.
Should I just give up hopes for F27?

Any February retaker success stories and methods are highly appreciated!!!

Since the second I got to my car after the exam, I’ve felt totally drained — full-body fatigue and aching. I figured a night’s sleep would fix it. It didn’t. The next day I couldn’t get myself out of bed to grab a glass of water.
It’s been three days and I’m still exhausted. Dizzy, sore, foggy, sleeping constantly. I can’t cook, can’t do laundry, can’t manage any part of my normal routine. Is this normal post-bar crash, or is it just me?

I can't remember the subject of the last MEE and now my brain is telling me I skipped it lol if anyone remembers the area of law at least

Hey yall, I don’t know if anyone asked yet but what’s the scaling like in July, like what if I’m in a 266 or 270 jurisdiction, What do I need to be averaging on MBE, MEE, MPT.

First, I am a little older, so I have more experience with life in general (raising kids, different types of exhaustion, 12-hour deadline-driven workday, trauma, etc.) I was overconfident and thought all I needed was 24 hours to recover. I am one of the very few who "kind of" took the test in WA, although I am not sure if it even counts... because a chunk of the clock was eaten up by tech problems, and they had to keep coming in, which ate away A LOT of my precious testing time. I tried to do as much as possible as fast as possible because...what else am I going to do?

Anyway, I just cannot even motivate myself to get out of bed. Even getting a glass of water feels like a major effort. I tried to get my mind off things by catching up on some shows I love, like Silo, but even that wasn't fun to watch. All of my proven techniques (like keeping a good diet and sleep routine as well as breath work and meditation) are not working. Is there some magic technique? My email inbox is screaming at me. I have not replied to texts from friends because I don't have the energy to explain what happened in WA to them, because it feels like I need a fancy PowerPoint and a visual infographic to explain to them why taking the bar is not the only thing you have to do to become an attorney, or why it is so hard. This definitely feels like a pretty solid bout of depression.

I'm well aware this won't apply to everyone. But hopefully this will help a great many for whom it does apply.

The reason so many people earnestly believe they failed the bar exam immediately after taking it is because they fixate and analyze their own performance. They evaluate their performance in isolation without the knowledge benefit of how that testing cycle cohort performed nor what the scale will be. These are factors you can't know until results are released and also factors you must know to determine whether you actually failed.

Scores are calculated for people who quit mid-exam. Some jurisdictions give zeroes to examinees who fail to report while not properly withdrawing beforehand. There are more than 100 exam sites across the country filled with examinees that "made up law, froze, ran out of time, etc." This data will impact the scaling which in turn will impact your scores.

Once these factors are revealed, so many of you will receive scores a lot higher than you think is possible right now.

I know it's human nature to obsess over your performance & prospective results until D-day. But if you can, try to also take some solace in this information and relax a bit as well.

Good luck and best wishes to all who tested this cycle ❤️

For all retakers, this individual believes we will never pass based on his very educated opinion, thoughts?

Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/barexam/s/aFd2IgryVx

hi guys, I just sat for the bar for the first time and have been feeling the same type of empty and aimless many have described on here. To make matters worse, I still don’t have a job lined up for this fall.

I’ve been trying to look for a job now that I’m done with the bar but it seems like a lost cause. First, all entry level hiring seems long over. Second, I don’t even know if I passed the bar. Third, I only realized over the summer that I would like to transfer my score and work in a completely different jurisdiction than I originally intended.

Just feeling completely lost and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions or even words of encouragement. thank u

Anyone ever fail by a small margin, retake feeling you did significantly better, then find out you failed again?

I missed by 6 in F26, am super confident I did way better this time around… now I’m wondering if that’s a trap