http://www.seperac.com/bar RSS feeds for new content on the Seperac NY Bar Exam Advice site. en-us http://seperac.com/bar/index.php#WITHDRAW Sometime in November 2010, the New York State Board of Law Examiners posted a notice that the Board enacted a new policy where any applicant who has withdrawn from or failed to appear for any two examinations must apply to the Board for permission to re-apply before applying for a subsequent examination. According to the NY BOLE website, "[b]eginning with the July 2011 examination, any applicant who has withdrawn from or failed to appear for any two examinations must apply to the Board for permission to re-apply before applying for a subsequent examination. Applications to re-apply must be received by the filing deadline for the exam the applicant wishes to take. Applications must be in the form of an affidavit and set forth, among other things, the facts which caused the withdrawal or failure to appear, and the facts which support the request to re-apply. Supporting documentation, such as medical documentation, police reports, death notices, etc. must be included. Relief is in the sole discretion of the Board. For more information, see Board Rule 6000.6(i)." As of August 31, 2010, NYCRR Rule 6000.6 does not contain a subsection (i), although proposed rule 6000.6(i) will likely mirror the above language. In my opinion, this rule will further limit the number of non-New York examinees who take the NY bar exam. My advice to examinees is to not withdraw from the exam, unless absolutely necessary. http://seperac.com/bar/#COMPARISONREPORT Compares the recently enacted New York Rules of Professional Conduct Comparison Report to the old New York Lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility http://seperac.com/bar/#NYEssayMP3 MP3s of the July 2008 questions and answers have been added. http://www.seperac.com/bar/master.php#PURCHASE MASTER Feb 2009 has been released. As of today, you can download MASTER Feb 2009 in WORD and PDF format, the mini-MASTERs in WORD and PDF format, the MBE Rules outlines, the July 2008 essays in WORD, PDF, and MP3 format and you can access the forum. I plan to have MP3s of MASTER done the week of December 20-25. The NY BOLE Content Outline Summary, the 1992 and 1998 prioritized MBE Rules outlines, and the Study Time Allocation Calculator will be done by January 2009. MASTER Feb 2009 consists of 95 LOW priority topics, 97 MEDIUM priority topics, and 115 HIGH priority topics. Since a number of people were curious about the accuracy of MASTER July 2008, here is the analysis: MASTER 2008 consisted of 299 total topics. These 299 topics represented every topic on the NY bar exam essays from July 1995-February 2008. The July 2008 topics in MASTER 2008 were prioritized as follows: 64 LOW priority topics, 122 MEDIUM priority topics, and 113 HIGH priority topics. There were a total of 29 topics in the July 2008 essays: On the July 2008 exam, 3 of the MASTER 2008 LOW priority topics appeared: AGENT-PART: Partnerships UCC: Art 9-Perfection of Security Interest WILLS: Ademption On the July 2008 exam, 6 of the MASTER 2008 MEDIUM priority topics appeared: CONTRACT: Substantial Performance CRIMLAW: Search of Car EVIDENCE: Hearsay PROPERTY: Easement-Abandonment PROPERTY: Easement by Necessity PROPERTY: Tenant Duty to Repair On the July 2008 exam, 13 of the MASTER 2008 HIGH priority topics appeared: CONTRACT: Modifications CRIMLAW: Right to Counsel* CRIMLAW: Warrantless Search Exceptions DOMESTIC: Abandonment DOMESTIC: Adultery NYPRAC: Partial Summary Judgment PROPERTY: Tenants by the Entirety TORTS: Comparative Negligence TORTS: Landowner Liability TORTS: Negligence WILLS: Anti-Lapse Statute WILLS: Creation/Validity WILLS: Pretermitted Children * I ended up making this a separate topic called CRIMLAW: Right to Counsel/Recess in Testimony because this specific topic did previously appear in July 1998. Finally, On the July 2008 exam, there were 7 new topics: AGENT-PART: Accounting AGENT-PART: Partner Liability CRIMLAW: Right to Confrontation/6th Amendment EVIDENCE: Excited Utterance/Present Sense Impression PROPERTY: Power of Attorney WILLS: Class Gifts WILLS: Specific Gift With 22 of the 29 topics being repeaters, the July 2008 MASTER outline contained approximately 76% of the topics on the July 2008 NY Bar exam. More so, 45% of all the July 2008 essay topics came from the MASTER 2008 HIGH priority topics; 21% of the July 2008 essay topics came from the MASTER 2008 MEDIUM priority topics; and 10% of the July 2008 essay topics came from the MASTER 2008 LOW priority topics (and the remaining 24% of the July 2008 essay topics were new topics that never previously appeared on a NY bar exam essay from July 1995-February 2008). Master 2008 was 74 pages long and consisted of approximately 75,000 words. Based on a reading rate or 400 words per minute, it would take you approximately 3.1 hours to read the entire MASTER 2008 outline once. In comparison, the BARBRI 2008 New York Long Book is 837 pages long and consists of approximately 435,000 words. At the same reading rate, it would take you about 18.1 hours to read the entire BARBRI 2008 New York Long Book. Although the BARBRI 2008 New York Long Book probably covered almost 100% of the New York essay portion of the exam, studying this entire book would take up a tremendous amount of your time let alone the difficulty in trying to process and remember everything. With MASTER 2008, you would have had basic answers for 76% of the tested July 2008 topics in an outline that would take you about 3.1 hours to read. More so, with the MASTER 2008 HIGH Priority Topics Outline, you would have had 45% of the tested July 2008 topics in an outline that would take you about 1.3 hours to read. This is what I mean by efficiency. Again, MASTER isn't perfect. It isn't on point every time and of course there will always be new topics, which is why you should study outlines and other bar materials also. However, I don't think there is a more efficient way to study for the essay portion of the exam than with MASTER. Click on the link below to purchase MASTER, Subscriptions are on a first come-first serve basis. The subscription for the February 2009 exam will be $300 and I will stop taking subscriptions when I reach 300 subscribers. http://seperac.com/bar/order.php Click here to go to the download site if you have already purchased MASTER: http://seperac.com/bar/exam.php Good luck on the exam, Joe Seperac http://www.seperac.com/bar/index.php#SCOREREPORTS New sample score reports have been added, including July 2006 and July 2008. http://www.seperac.com/bar/calc-bar-j08.php The July 2008 NY bar exam score calculator has been updated. Estimated NYMC raw scores are reported along with estimated scores for previous administrations. http://www.seperac.com/bar/calc-bar-j08.php I received enough grading sheets for the July 2008 exam to make a July 2008 NY bar exam score calculator. I still need more grading sheets to calculate items such as the NYMC raw score, so it would be greatly appreciated if you could email me your past grading sheets or their contents so that I can improve the calculators. http://www.seperac.com/bar/calc-bar-f08.php The February 2008 NY bar exam score calculator has been updated and now reports the scale factor for the Essay/MPT written average. http://www.seperac.com/bar/calc-mbe-j07.php An MBE calculator based on the February 2007 has been released. This calculator will will estimate the percentage and number of applicant nationwide who scored better than you or worse than you on the February 2007 MBE based on your MBE scale score. It can serve as a good predictor of the score you will need for the February 2009 exam. http://www.seperac.com/bar/calc-bar-j07.php In addition to the February 2008 score calculator, a July 2007 score calculator has been released. This calculator will calculate your total score for the July 2007 New York bar exam administration based on the scale scores you enter. A July 2008 score calculator will follow once the July 2008 results are released and I have sufficient data. http://www.seperac.com/bar/index.php#CONTENTOUTLINE I examined the August 2008 NY BOLE Content Outline and report some misclassifications and mistakes in the outline. http://www.seperac.com/bar/index.php#NYBarExams An update to the NY Essay Questions and Answers from prior exams. All exams were reformatted and some typographical errors in old exams were corrected.