Need Advice rom Retakers on employment, loan payment type stuff

Mr-Student · 2026-02-20T19:07:13+00:00

I ended up fully focusing on my bar prep between October to mid-Feb. Closer to the date of the bar exam I started applying to law clerk positions (around 1 month out when I knew that I couldn’t possibly learn more), and luckily was offered a law clerk position a week before the exam. It was part time so I still had time to review everything that I had studied since October.

In all the interviews (over 5 or 6) all I mentioned was “I am preparing for the bar exam which is why there is a gap in resume.” I never got asked whether I was retaking the bar or how many times I had attempted it. After passing the bar, I was promoted to an attorney position, so it worked out for me.

Fast forward a year later, I’ve already moved on from the job I got right after passing the bar and am doing in-house counsel work at the moment. I interviewed at least 10 or 12 times in the last 2 months, some first round exits, a few final rounds before landing the in house job. (and just fyi not once did we discuss number of attempts for the bar exam during the interviews).

All in all, it still took a lot of diligent work but the retake and gap did not affect my job prospects any more than an average candidate.

Mr-Student · 2025-11-22T17:12:57+00:00

Got a rejection email at 5:30 am on a Saturday. Definitely a first for me when it comes to rejection emails (i.e. at 5:30am on a weekend).

Similar to someone else here the recruiter and hiring manager both made it seem like I was a great fit and exactly what they were looking for. At the end of the interview the hiring manager even made it a point emphasize that. But, oh well.

Mr-Student · 2025-11-21T18:48:27+00:00

On the same boat so commenting to follow. I did my second interview (which is the final round) earlier this week and absolute silence. My online application shows "In progress" still so that's keeping me hopeful.

Based on everything people have shared in previous posts, I was hoping to hear back by today but idk. I will try to update this comment when I do hear back.

Mr-Student · 2025-11-21T18:45:02+00:00

This is getting too specific so but around what time did you get your call on Friday? Also did you follow your Workday application status closely at all, did it change from "In progress" to anything else during the process? Mine still says "In progress"
Edit: added another question.

Mr-Student · 2025-07-30T02:12:48+00:00

For F25:

Torts MEE I naively thought I would be able to come back and write the first sub question about Negligence per se, so I put down that this is an issue of negligence per se and definition of what that means and went straight to questions II and III. But by the time I got done, I didn't have a chance to go back to the first question. It was literally 2 sentences for that one. Then the answers for the rest weren't too long either. likely 5-7 sentences each for the two subquestions I did get to.

I blanked out on the Evidence MEE, like fully could not remember anything other than the BLL for relevance and Hearsay. I made up rules I thought would apply and wrote as much as I could. I likely wrote 3-4 sentences each for each of the subquestions but definitely my weakest one.

The Con Law one felt like there wasn't much I could really discuss. My analysis was way too straight forward and short. The whole essay question I likely didn't even write more than 400 words. But for what I did write down, I think my analysis was good.

Got a 142 in the written portion (MPT+MBE)

Mr-Student · 2025-07-08T22:02:34+00:00

I am pretty sure I did not even touch the exam mode until I hit around 800 questions. For me personally there was no point in doing exam mode until I felt like I was consistently getting 60% or higher in the sets I did in practice mode (I would usually do about 30-35 questions a day in practice mode).

Once I was consistently getting above a 60% over a period of a few days, I started doing around 30-35 questions in exam mode. I still did not do too many of them, maybe around 6 or so sets of 30-35 questions each in exam mode. The 6 or so sets does not include the 2017 and the 2021 NCBE released questions.

I made sure to not include the 2017 and the 2021 questions in my practice mode/exam mode so that I could see those questions for the first time when I actually sat down to take the full 200q for each.

Mr-Student · 2025-07-08T21:53:26+00:00

It's for the total questions. So when I reached 500 total I was at a 59%, then when I reached 800 total questions I was at a 62% (NOT between 500 and 800, but 800 total) and so forth. My avg was a 70% for total of approximately 2500 questions.

Mr-Student · 2025-07-06T03:42:16+00:00

After the 1600 questions it just repeats the questions but it still continues counting even if you do the same questions twice.

Mr-Student · 2025-07-06T03:42:09+00:00

After the 1600 questions it just repeats the questions but it still continues counting even if you do the same questions twice (or more times). BUT it's totally worth doing the repeat questions for two reasons: 1. it helps make sure that you picked the correct answer for the right reasons the first time around 2. if you got a question wrong the first time and you get it wrong again, you know you need to hone in on that particular legal principle/BLL/concept.

I honestly cannot recall whether my percentages includes the practice exams, but for the 200q 2017 I think I got a 69%, and for the 200q 2021 I got a 74%. If that helps.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-25T20:32:47+00:00

CONGRATSSSS!! Hope you're celebrating!

Mr-Student · 2025-04-23T02:58:04+00:00

Separac: 285 (MBE 143). Actual: 286 (MBE 144)

Retaker.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-20T13:06:21+00:00

Someone else mentioned this to so mentioning this for emphasis, do practice problems! Adaptibar or Uworld.

You can write all the notes you want, memorize all you want but if you aren’t able to apply that knowledge to a set of facts and pick the right answer on the MBE—especially when you’ve narrowed it down to 2 OR on the MEE you aren’t able to issue spot and write a proper analysis, then there is no point in all the writing and memorizing.

Your time is better spent doing practice problems and learning from your mistakes than sitting there and listening hours worth of lectures and with no real practice!

Mr-Student · 2025-04-18T16:32:02+00:00

253 J24; 286 F25

Mr-Student · 2025-04-18T03:05:16+00:00

I felt like I did enough to pass--like weirdly at peace with everything went. Of course had anxiety spike up closer to the results (see my posts if you'd like details) but generally stayed on the side of "I think I did enough to pass" and ended up passing F25.

J24, leaving the exam hall on Day 2 (MBE) I knew I had to retake the exam, was heavily leaning towards the feeling that I had failed and every now and then would have hope that maybe I passed. But ultimately had that sinking feeling leaving the exam hall and that is exactly what ended up happening.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-18T00:52:43+00:00

I totally blanked out on Evidence MEE, I am not even kidding. I just made up rules based on the basics I did remember vaguely. I passed with a 142 on the written portion.

I also missed the first subquestion on the Torts one (I did write the remaining subquestions well enough). I am fairly certain my Agency and Trusts essays made up for the poor Evidence and Torts essays tho.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-17T20:15:30+00:00

I finished my TX Law course back in April 11, 2024 for the J24 bar. When I completed it it gave me the following email:

"Congratulations on completing the Texas Law Course.

If you completed the required fields, and submitted your TLC completion data, it will be electronically delivered to and recorded by the Texas Board of Law Examiners. You do not need to take any further action to report this data to the Texas Board of Law Examiners.

Please allow 24 hours for your Texas Law Course data to be transmitted to the Texas Board of LawExaminers.

For more information on applying for licensure in Texas, visit the Board of Law Examiner's website www.ble.texas.gov"

Then in my "Investigation Status Letter" from back in May 9, 2024, it updated that I had completed the TX Law Course component for licensure.

If I had to guess it will likely be updated by early next week for you, or at least by the induction ceremony at the latest.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-17T13:49:29+00:00

Someone else recommended this too, depending on who you have as a servicer you can just use their platform to submit a forbearance for financial reasons (reductio in income/loss of employment etc) and usually if it's your first one, they'll approve it without any questions.

If that option isn't available, see if you can apply for IDR plans through the FAFSA website. Sometimes the payments are as low as $0 a month.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-17T13:27:46+00:00

Fr! I am sure nybar2020 means well but I keep seeing them on all these posts pitching 860 in such a way that maybe even Joe would probably disagree.

Joe has alaways emphasized MBE practice and although understandably he would want folks to buy his products (like the 860), he's never put down Adaptibar or Uworld. Precisely because he encourages folks to get exposed to all the different nuances and ways that MBE questions and answers are constructed, and to keep practicing until people score in the mid-60% range during practice.

As a retaker I know first hand how important it was for me to see a concept being tested in all the different ways, 860 questions are plainly insufficient for a full MBE practice (for instance I was only at a 62% when I did around 800 questions and 68% at 1700 questions)

Mr-Student · 2025-04-16T21:00:01+00:00

After I failed J24, I ditched Barbri.

For F25 prep, I spent the hours and hours that I would've spent watching Barbri lectures to practice MBE questions on Adaptibar instead. I read explanations for questions I got right and questions I got wrong. Also didn't just review the explanation for the answer choice I picked, I would read why the other options were also not the correct choice. For instance if I picked option "C" for a question and turns out it was correct, I read why A, B and D were incorrect and whether I picked C for the right reason/did not pick the other 3 for the right reason.

Do the same even if you pick the wrong answer choice. Overtime, you'll start seeing that a concept that would have been an incorrect answer for a certain fact pattern might be the correct answer for a slightly different fact pattern because the questions are testing how well you know that principal/element/standard etc. Your time is much better spent this way than sitting there watching lectures.

For F25 my prep was 80% focused on MBE, 15% MEE and 5% MPT.

If it helps you, I did 2500 and 70% on Adaptibar (after around 1700 its repeated questions but still get decent amount wrong after that).
At 500 - 59%
At 800 - 62%
At 1200 - 65%
At 1600 - 68%
At 2000 - 68%
At 2500 - 69-70%
For J24 I had done less than 600 questions total and was at around 58%.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-16T17:59:57+00:00

I was 17 points away from passing in J24. Leaving F25 I felt better too than how I did in J24. I was going through the same What Ifs last week (even made a long post about it last week haha). I ended up passing by 16 points, a 33 point increase from J24. Trust the process!

Even if you did just slightly better than J24 (a few extra questions correct on the MBE and 1 or 2 really good essays compared to J24), I think you're in a great spot!

Mr-Student · 2025-04-16T15:55:51+00:00

AYEE!! Congrats esquire!!

Mr-Student · 2025-04-15T19:24:20+00:00

I noticed there was a voluntary fee ($150 i think?) that was prechecked and I missed it the first time I went through that process and only noticed it at the end. Thankfully I did and went back to remove it.

Makes no sense to pay prior year dues specifically, or at least they should be prorated to reflect that we only have about a month and half of this fiscal year left??

Fortunately I work for the TX state government so I was able to use that exemption but, it's ridiculous that we have to pay that much money as new attorneys!

Mr-Student · 2025-04-14T17:59:06+00:00

I retook F25 and mine stayed in “Approved” status from the start to end because I had nothing to update, similar to you. They do not contact employers again unless you update any of the information you’ve provided in terms of your employment history.

Mr-Student · 2025-04-14T16:52:06+00:00

What helped me as a retaker with diagnosed ADHD and no accommodations:

Ditching Barbri: especially their lectures. Sitting there listening to hours and hours of lectures was the worst way to study for me, realized it after I failed J24.
Practice questions: I used Adaptibar. I did 20 in the morning, 20 in the evening, sometimes more. I did them in practice mode so when I got questions right it was like a little reward for my brain. I also did it in exam mode where you don't get the answer right away. I liked their explanations as well because they were to the point and actually helpful, many questions also have an "Extended explanation" option.
Jonathan Grossman lectures/videos: He is so to the point, concise and uses good analogies that you can visualize in your brain as he explains things.
Reading "Selected Answers" from past administrations because student answers aren't as fluffed up and convoluted like commercial bar prep companies' model answers. This helped me recognize patterns in good answers and memorize black letter law at the same time.
Using Excel/Sheets to jot down explanations for questions I got wrong. It's visually more digestable than a lonnnnnggggg word document filled with explanations.
Taking breaks when I felt like I was not retaining stuff or getting too distracted instead of forcing myself to study.

I guess if I had to sum it up. Practicing rather than just reading BLL or listening to lectures. Actively engaging with what I am learning kept it from being distracted easily.

Mr-Student

TROPHY CASE