MASTER 2010 Subscription Site
In 2008, I decided to update/improve my MASTER 2005 outline and take a closer look at the frequencies for patterns. Since then, I have spent over 500 hours updating and improving MASTER 2005. MASTER 2005 is basically a compilation of the black letter law sections of the "above average" sample answers of the released essays from July 1995 to February 2005 (I simply copied and pasted from the released sample answers) along with the frequency of each topic. It is not prioritized and the law wasn't checked. In making MASTER 2008-2010, I checked the law for each topic and made revisions if necessary; updated the introductory sentences, re-wrote nearly all of the topic answers and added the new topics from the July 2005-July 2009 exams (there are generally 3-7 new topics per exam - there are 262 topics in MASTER 2005 and 317 topics in MASTER JULY 2010 ). Finally, in MASTER 2010, I spent a good deal of time prioritizing the topics based on statistical analysis. Everything I added to the subscription site are things that I would have done myself for the NY bar exam had I had the time back in 2005. Following is a list of the content on the subscription site:
MASTER JULY 2010
MASTER July 2010 was released 5/29/10. There are 317 topics in MASTER JULY 2010 based on 799 issues that have appeared in the New York Bar Exam essays from July 1995 to February 2010 (a total of 30 administrations).
MASTER JULY 2010 is 125 pages long and consists of 77,940 words (not including the Table of Contents but including the headers for each topic). At a reading rate of 200 words per minute, it would take 6.5 hours to read the entire MASTER JULY 2010 . The MASTER JULY 2010 HIGH PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE is 51 pages long and consists of 31,423 words (not including the Table of Contents but including the headers for each topic). At a reading rate of 200 words per minute, it would take 2.6 hours to read the entire MASTER JULY 2010 HIGH PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE. The MASTER JULY 2010 MEDIUM PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE is 29 pages long and consists of 17,710 words (not including the Table of Contents but including the headers for each topic). At a reading rate of 200 words per minute, it would take 1.5 hours to read the entire MASTER JULY 2010 MEDIUM PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE. The MASTER JULY 2010 LOW PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE is 46 pages long and consists of 28,801 words (not including the Table of Contents but including the headers for each topic). At a reading rate of 200 words per minute, it would take 2.4 hours to read the entire MASTER JULY 2010 LOW PRIORITY TOPICS OUTLINE. The MASTER JULY 2010 outlines are longer because each of the 317 topics contain links to the issues from the exams (from July 1995 to present).
A substantial portion of MASTER 2005 has been re-written and all 317 topics have been updated. The updated MASTER has better writing with accurate law (I can't guarantee the law is 100% accurate, but it is close). I tried to re-write as much as I could because I don't want the bar examiners to think you are using the old Master when you are taking the bar exam. I honestly believe that using the old MASTER 2005 can hurt you unless you revise it. To read more about this, click here.
I paid particular attention to the first sentence of each introduction to revise and improve them. Since I am a big fan of prioritization, I prioritized how I updated MASTER. I spent substantially more time on the high priority topics than on the low priority topics. The MASTER JULY 2010 topics are color-coded. The codes are as follows: BLUE-HIGH, GREEN-MEDIUM, ORANGE-LOW. MASTER July 2010 consists of 137 LOW priority topics, 69 MEDIUM priority topics, and 111 HIGH priority topics. The priority is based on frequency, both overall and by category and by exam (July or Feb). In addition, I found statistically relevant patterns that enabled me to make 137 of the topics LOW priority. These low priority topics should be read once per week. HIGH priority topics should be read every day. MEDIUM priority topics should be read every other day. Each topic in MASTER appears with certain statistical information. Here is a sample of how a topic appears:
CONTRACT: Anticipatory Repudiation - F:2 - T:2.41% - E:0.29% - J:100.00% - Prio: HIGH
The header for each topic will tell you the frequency of each topic (F), how often this topic appears in relation to other topics from the same category (T), the overall probability of appearance of the Topic based on all 698 issues (E), the probability of appearance of the Topic based on July exams only (J), and the priority of the topic based on my analysis (Prio). Following is a sample page from the updated MASTER:
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MASTER July 2010 is in WORD, PDF and MP3 format. The text in MASTER is Times New Roman size 11 font with margins of 0.6". The WORD format is editable and printable. Each of the 317+ topics is hyper linked to the NY Bar Exam Essay Issues document so that you can quickly see how the topic was answered in each exam were the topic appeared. The NY Bar Exam Essay Issues document contains the last 30 NY bar exams (July 1995- February 2010) broken down by issue (799 issues).
Here is a redacted page from the MASTER Topic Frequency Analysis chart.
Here is a redacted page from the MASTER Statistics By Category chart.
Here is a redacted page from the MASTER Repeat Topic Lookback chart.
These documents are updated each time the NY essays are released.
In my opinion, the MBE is the key to passing the New York Bar Exam - do well on the MBE and OK on everything else and you should pass. The purpose of MASTER is to make it easier to study for the NY Essays so you can focus on the MBE. However, everyone is different. Certain study methods do not work for all people. I do think that everyone that signs up for MASTER agrees with my philosophy – you study the topics most likely to appear and avoid the topics least likely to appear in order to increase your chances of passing the exam. Post-exam analysis of MASTER for the Feb 2010, July 2009, February 2009 and July 2008 exams can be read here:
http://seperac.com/bar/analysis.php
Here are some comments regarding MASTER from other examinees.
MINI-MASTERs
I made separate MASTER documents - one for HIGH priority topics only, one for MEDIUM priority topics only, and one for LOW priority topics only. I have also made MP3s of the MINI-MASTERs that you can listen to and memorize while you are commuting/etc. The HIGH priority topics MP3 is about 3.5 hours, the MEDIUM priority topics MP3 is about 2.8 hours, and the LOW priority topics MP3 is about 1.8 hours.
Here is a sample MP3 from MASTER Feb 2010 High Priority Topics.
Here is a sample MP3 from MASTER Feb 2010 Medium Priority Topics.
NY BOLE CONTENT OUTLINE
In August 2008, the NY BOLE released a Content Outline For The New York State Bar Examination. You can learn more about it here. According to the NY BOLE, “[t]he outline is intended to indicate, in summary fashion, the bar examination’s potential scope of coverage. It is our hope that the outline will assist candidates in their preparation.” Basically, these are all the topics that may be tested on the NY Essays or NYMC. The NY BOLE Content Outline was updated by NY BOLE in November 2009. The August 2008 NY BOLE Content Outline contained 737 issues while the new November 2009 NY BOLE Content Outline contains 760 issues. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the changes are with Professional Responsibility. Some of the other changes are merely the addition of statutes to the topic, although there are additions to Agency, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Matrimonial and Family Law, and UCC.
I decided to make summaries for the topics in the Content Outline to provide a condensed summary of all the possible topics on the NY bar exam. This Content Outline Summary serves as a basic overview of each topic NY BOLE finds "testable." The Content Outline Summary contains paragraph summaries for each of the topics in the new November 2009 Content Outline. The paragraphs are intended to be summaries rather than comprehensive explanations of each topic. This Content Outline Summary is a WORD document that is 274 pages long consisting of approximately 162,000 words. The Table of Contents is Hyper-Linked - if you hold down the CTRL key and click on a topic, you will jump to that topic. The idea is similar to MASTER - the one paragraph "set-piece" will explain the topic to you and can be also used to answer the topic concisely on the exam. Since the “set-pieces” are not intended to be comprehensive, information will be omitted. However, the idea is to simply familiarize yourself with each topic and be able to write a nice concise paragraph about the topic if required. You can then refer to the MASTER outline and other statistics for topic priorities. Approximately 283 of the topics in the Content Outline are based on specific New York laws - I have hyperlinks to each law (in a separate document) built into the Content Outline Summary. This will enable you to also look at the relevant law for these 283 topics by simply clicking on the link. These documents are in WORD format so you an edit them or add to them, and so you can quickly perform keyword searches within the document (Ctrl+F) to find a particular word or subject.
NY BAR EXAM ESSAY ISSUES (1995-2010)
I made a compilation of the New York bar exam essays from July 1995 to present. All these essays have been put into one single Word document with a hyperlinked Table of Contents based on Exam, Question and Topic. This enables quick reference to any question, keyword, or topic spanning the 30 exams (180 Questions, 358 Answers, 317 topics, 799 total issues). I have found this essay compilation to be a very useful tool and a good cross-reference for MASTER. I recommend that you read (or listen to the MP3s) the essays and answers for the last 10 exams. The purpose of reading these essays is not to study and memorize (MASTER is for that), but to understand how NY essay questions are posed, and how you should respond. Reading or listening to these essays will teach you how to compose an answer that the bar examiners are looking for. MASTER will give you the content. Because you don't need to study the essays, the MP3s may be the better choice if you commute/etc. This NY Essays Compilation from 1995-2010 with issues should be used with MASTER. For example, if you see an issue in MASTER and want to see how it is handled as a response in an essay. This document is updated each time the NY essays are released.
Here is a sample page from the Table of Contents.
Here is a sample page illustrating how the issues are classified in the exam answers.
BARBRI OUTLINES
I updated all my 2005 BARBRI outlines to 2009. Here is a sample of a few pages of the comparison report between the old and new Constitutional Law outlines.
I also put all my 2005 BARBRI outlines of the sixteen subjects into a single word document. Having all the subjects in one document facilitates researching of the topics. You can leave the document open on your computer while you study and then do key-word searches when you need to research a topic. I plan to also do this with the 2009 outlines (oddly, it's not as easy as you would think to do this).
EXAM MP3s
I made MP3s of the New York essays from prior exams in a higher quality MP3 format (128kpbs-CD quality) using a more natural sounding voice while correcting grammatical and pronunciation errors. At the moment, 22 exams are available (February 2010 to July 1999). I expect to have MP3s of all 30 available exams (February 2010-July 1995) done by June 2010. Here are before and after MP3 audio file samples to illustrate the improvements:
July 2008-Question 1 - New Version
July 2008-Question 1 - Old Version
MBE 1992 and 1998 RULES OUTLINES
I made a prioritized rules outline of the 1992 MBE (531 rules) and the July 1998 MBE (200 rules). It is prioritized based on the 2008 MBE Subject Matter Outlines from NCBE. For example, the NCBE MBE Subject Matter Outline for Torts states that for Negligence (Category II) appears in 50% of the Torts MBE questions. Therefore, 17 of the 200 questions on the MBE will be from this category. This category is therefore the highest priority category in the prioritized rules outline (which contains 68 rules for the category). The format of this rules outline is similar to the MBE Rules Outline document on my main site. The idea behind these rules is efficiency – you are studying based on prioritization and it is much easier to read this list and get a gist of previously tested rules than it is to go through all the questions and make your own rules outline. I also categorized the rules for each MBE topic. For example, Category IV topics (Individual Rights) on the Constitutional Law outline comprise approximately 50% of the Constitutional Law questions on the MBE exam. Therefore, these rules are regarded as higher priority than the Con Law Category I, II and III rules. Here is a copy of the MBE 1992 Categorized Rules Table of Contents.
Every examinee should make a rules outline for all the MBE questions you get wrong. The MBE tests details, not broad concepts of law. Doing lots of MBE questions exposes you to the multitude of fine gray lines in the black letter law. You need to know these details to do well on the MBE. Don't forget to examine your answers. Really try to understand why an answer is wrong and take the time to research it (you won’t have the luxury of seriously researching topics as you get closer to the exam). Studying rules gives you a quick understanding of the nuances the MBE tested in the past.
FORUM
There is a forum/bulletin board for the subscribers to the site. It is a serious discussion board for tactics, advice and resources. I ask everyone to submit any useful advice they have, so that everyone can benefit. There is a Questions category where you can post questions about studying or law (i.e. If you are not sure if the law is correct) and I will answer it.
ANALYTICS
I compiled word frequency analysis charts based on all the released MBEs and the NY Essays from July 1995-July 2009. Any useful statistical information I find, I will put up on the site. All my research is based on identifying the probability of a given subject of topic appearing on the exam. You will never learn everything, but if can learn the high probability topics, you will improve your chances of passing.
Here is a redacted page from the NY Essays Word Frequency chart.
Here is a redacted page from the MBE Statistics by Exam chart.
Here is a redacted page from the MBE Word Frequency chart.
Here is a redacted page from the MBE Word Frequency-Top 50 chart.
These documents are updated each time the NY essays are released.
The MBE Word Frequency chart will tell you how often a specific word has appeared in a released MBE question (1,350 questions) or answer (5,400 answers). For example, using the chart you will find that the keyword "manslaughter" appeared in 36 answer choices and was the correct answer only 4 times (11.1% probability). It appeared in 4 answer choices on the MBE-AP 2006 exam and was the right answer choice one time. It appeared in 10 answer choices on the July 1998 exam and was the right answer choice one time. It appeared in 13 answer choices on the MBE 1992 book and was the right answer choice one time. It appeared in 5 answer choices on the July 1991 exam and was the right answer choice one time. Lastly, it appeared in 4 answer choices on the Feb 1991 exam and was the right answer choice one time. Accordingly, if one of the answer choices includes the keyword "manslaughter", it is probably not the right answer based on the prior statistical data. Since the keyword "manslaughter" should statistically be in about 25% of the right answers, the actual probability of 11.1% means it is more likely the wrong answer than the correct answer. If you are the type of person who is curious about how often the correct answer choice on the released MBE questions is "guilty" versus "not-guilty" or "constitutional" versus "unconstitutional," this is the chart for you. However, while the probabilities are supported by the equivalent of roughly six prior MBE exams, but there is no way of knowing if the probabilities are consistent with the current actual MBE questions. Therefore, I advise subscribers that the MBE keyword frequency method should only be used as a last resort and only when you are guessing and you have no idea what the correct answer is.
NY ESSAY WORD CALCULATOR
I created a New York Essay Word Calculator that operates much like the MBE Word Matrix calculator. The calculator reports how often a word or phrase appears in the New York bar exam essay questions and answers. You can use this calculator to test what words or phrases appear in the New York bar exam essay questions and released above average answers from July 1995-February 2010. For example, if you enter the word "lesser included", it will report that the word appears in one question (out of 162 questions) and one answer (out of 322 answers). If you scroll down the list, you will see where it appears, and how many times the word appears. For example, in the case of "lesser included," you will see next to February 2000, it appears one time in the question portion and two times in the answer portion of Answer One. To illustrate how the calculator works, this version of the NY Essay Word Calculator only analyzes the February 2010 exam which consists of five essay questions along with ten released above average answers. The New York Essay Word Calculator on the subscription site analyzes the last 30 exams.
MBE WORD MATRIX CALCULATOR
To allow examinees to conduct their own analysis, I created an MBE Word Matrix Calculator. This MBE word matrix will report how often a word or word phrase appears in the question part (stem portion), answer part (distractors and right answer), and right answer part of every MBE question released by NCBE. Currently, there are 1,350 released MBE questions - the analysis results are derived from the Sample MBE February 1991 (200 questions); Sample MBE II July 1991 (200 questions); MBE Questions 1992 (581 questions of which 531 are unique); Sample MBE III July 1998 (200 questions); MBE OPE 1 2006 (100 questions); MBE OPE 2 2008 (100 questions); and the MBE 2009 Information Booklet (18 questions plus a question released by NCBE in the November 2007 issue of The Bar Examiner).
The matrices will report word counts for the word or word phrase, the probability the word or word phrase is in the right answer choice; the percentage of appearance of the word or word phrase in all the released questions; and the number of questions the word or word phrase is estimated to appear in on an actual MBE exam. The matrices can be used to test how often a word appears in the question part of the MBE questions (i.e. 'federal statute', 'contract', etc.). You can use the matrices to see how often a legal concept is tested on the MBE by examining how often it appears in the answer choices (i.e. 'manslaughter', 'slander', etc.). The matrices are also useful if you are curious as to how often extreme terms such as "none," "never", "always," "every," or "only if" appear in MBE answer choices along with how often they appear as the correct answer. Finally, you can also use the matrices to see how often a word is the correct answer versus how often the antonym of the word is the correct answer (i.e. 'guilty' versus 'not guilty').
To illustrate how the calculator works, this version of the MBE Word Matrix Calculator only analyzes the 2009 MBE Information Booklet which consists of 18 questions along with a question released by NCBE in the November 2007 issue of The Bar Examiner. Some functionality, such as the MBE question estimate, will not be accurate due to the small sample of questions. The MBE Word Matrix calculator on the subscription site analyzes all 1,350 questions.
MBE STUDY SHEET
I improved my Excel Bar Study SpreadSheet (PDF version is here) for examinees to enter and track their MBE testing progress. You not only enter your scores, but also your times. The spreadsheet reports a summary of your scores and also calculates your scaled score based on the practice test or based on the MBE subject. The spreadsheet will also track your daily or week-to-week progress and report averages such as number of questions per day. In addition, your percentages for each MBE subject (or the entire MBE for Mixed) is compared to the National Mean for that exam from 1995-2004 (NCBE stopped releasing raw scores by MBE subject in 2005). The MBE Scaling is based on the 2006 NY MBE scale (2006 is the last year where NY BOLE reported raw and scaled scores). The scale is different depending on whether it is the July or the February exam. The Scaled Score estimate will give you an idea of how you will score on the actual exam. Keep in mind that this MBE scale could differ by as many as 12 points, especially for very low or very high scores, since the scale is based on the skill-level of that particular pool of examinees.
Keeping track of your times in the spreadsheet over a long period will give you a better idea of whether you will have timing issues on the MBE (for example, most examinees find that Property questions generally take the longest to answer). Also, by examining your scores broken-down by MBE subject, you can see where your problem areas are. You can also gauge your progress by comparing it to mine. Please keep in mind that your areas of improvement/study style could be entirely different. I plan to further improve the MBE Study Sheet by correlating an examinees reading rate to estimate the amount of time an examinee will require on the actual MBE by comparing the actual word counts. Click on the images to view larger versions of the Excel MBE Study Sheet workbook pages. |
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STUDY TIME ALLOCATION CALCULATOR
There is a study time allocation calculator on the subscription site. You simply enter the number of hours and days you will study, and it will tell you how many minutes per day (or hours per week) you should spend on each area. The calculator will break down study time for reading outlines, reading bar review materials, doing MBE questions, analyzing wrong responses to MBE questions, studying MASTER, studying NYMC questions and looking over old MPTs, and more. For example, how much time you should spend reading a New York subject outline such as Secured Transactions is determined by a formula that is based on the probability of the subject appearing as a topic on a NY bar exam since July 1995. The default percentages (MBE 60%, Essays 38%, MPT 1% and NYMC 1%) can be overridden if you want to tailor your own percentages. For example, NCBE studied the performance of candidates taking the New York Bar Exam in July 2005 and found that groups that did relatively well on one component (e.g., the Essay) also tended to do well on the other two components (e.g., the MBE and the NYMC), and groups that didn’t do so well on one component didn’t do so well on the other components. However, one noteworthy exception to this generalization was a consistent tendency for women to do somewhat better than men on the essay component (about 2 points on the MBE scale) and for men to do somewhat better than women on the MBE (about 5 points on the MBE scale) -- it was observed consistently across racial/ethnic groups, and for first-time takers and repeat takers. What this means is that study time allocation should differ slightly between men and women. Women should spend 60%+ of their time studying for the MBE while men should spend 55%-60%. The study time allocation calculator also includes an MBE subject matter breakdown. You can use this breakdown as a check to make sure you do not over-study a particular MBE topic when studying your MBE outlines or bar review materials.
RE-TAKER SCORE ANALYSIS
For re-takers, if you submit your scores to me, I will provide a graphical analysis of your score for your review. Each segment of your score will be analyzed and compared to the average scores of people that failed the July exam and submitted their scores to me. Therefore, you must keep in mind that if your scores were compared to the actual average of all test-takers, the difference would be even greater. However, the purpose is to illustrate poor areas for you when compared to others that failed. The analysis includes an MBE % based on the most recent MBE Scale. It shows you what percentage of test-takers nationwide did better than you on the MBE and what percentage did worse than you. The percentage is based on the July 2008 MBE statistics (NCBE will not release the complete 2009 statistics until mid-2010). However, keep in mind the MBE scaled scores were at a record high in July 2008 - the average MBE score was 145.6. This is 1.87 points higher than in July 2007, and about 0.5 points higher than the previous high of July 1994. There is also an average column which reports the percentages based on the average scores of all the persons who submitted July 2009 scoring sheets to me. You can perform your own scoring simulations on the NY Bar Score Calculator.
ADVICE/STATISTICS/TUTORING
Whenever an examinee asks me about tutoring, I tell them my best advice to them is to subscribe to the site. There is a lot of content and information on the subscription site that will help you. The subscription site is essentially a comprehensive outline of my advice on how to prepare and study for the New York bar exam. I routinely update the subscription site with advice and content that I feel will help subscribers taking the exam and I always include or explain the data or research that the advice or content is based on. There are category specific pages with advice on the NY BAR EXAM, ESSAYS, MBE, MPT, NYMC and MPRE. In addition, there is an in-depth analysis on optimal timing for the different components of the NY bar exam. There is roughly four times more advice content on the subscription site than the free site (19,000 words vs 75,000 words). I don't "tutor" per se, but I give advice to examinees who subscribe to the subscription site. I answer emails and forum posts and I occasionally talk on the phone with subscribers, time permitting. If you still have questions after you review the subscription site, just let me know and I will discuss them with you. That is one of the reasons why I limit subscriptions - so I can timely communicate with examinees who subscribe.
SUBSCRIPTION
If you want to be put on an email list to be notified of the release of MASTER 2011 for the FEBRUARY 2011 exam, please submit your email address below. This is a notification list - it is not a waiting list. I am not taking reservations for subscriptions to MASTER FEBRUARY 2011 - it will be available on a first come, first serve basis only.
If you have any questions, email me at joe@seperac.com.
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