Welcome back to my How to be an Attorney series. At this point, you probably know you want to go to law school, you know where you want to go and you know how to apply. You may even know basics about what to do during your first two years of law school. Click HERE to read Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, and Step 4. Now let’s get into your third year.
Going into your last year of law school (WOOO you made it!) you are going to want to have a paid summer internship (if that’s possible). Hopefully one that you are interested in and one that will hopefully lead you to a full-time job.
You can find a summer job though on campus recruiting, LinkedIn and Indeed. I found mine via Indeed. I worked in-house at a publicly traded company, and I absolutely loved it. As I am writing this post, I am still working there as an intern. Sadly, for me, it will not lead to full-time employment, but it has been a wonderful experience. I have met an amazing mentor and I have learned so much about what it is like to work for a company on the legal side.
Over the summer after your second year, you also want to start thinking about what bar prep company you would like to use. (I know it sounds scary and crazy, but buckle up, 3L is a wild time!) I signed up with a low rate (I think $24 down payment) with Barbri in September when I started my 3rd year. In total, the cost is about $2,500 for a 8-10 week self-paced online course. But it is never too early to start thinking. Most students use Barbri, Themis or Kaplan. I took a Barbri bar exam diagnostic test in the fall of my 3L year just to see what I retained from my first two years. You can test out all the different offerings from each provider for free while studying for the MPRE.
The MPRE or Multi State Professional Responsibility Exam is an ethics exam that you have to take before or after the bar exam. All states except Wisconsin require the MPRE.
It is a two hour, closed-book, 60-question multiple-choice exam offered three times a year. Most of my classmates and I took it in August before starting our 3rd year of law school. My school and state require that all students take an ethics class in school. So it made the most sense for me to take the exam after finishing the class so I had most of the information already fresh in my brain.
The exam is straight forward. I took a free Barbri prep course for the exam, and I passed on the first try.
To pass in New York, you have to get an 85 or higher. You have to pass within 3 years of passing the UBE (Universal Bar Exam) in New York. (Every state is different).
In New York, you have to take it at a Pearson VUE testing center.
To register, head over to the ncbex.org website.
I had no idea when I was going into law school that I would have to take multiple exams outside of school before I could take the bar exam… the MPRE is only one of them.
This week, during my last semester of law school, I am taking the NYLE or the New York Law Exam. This is an open book, two-hour, 50 multiple-choice exam that focuses only on New York law. The exam is “free” to take. It only requires a $29 fee to download the test software and take it on your personal computer at home.
You need a 60 to pass. New York State Board of Examiners give you the outline and material that you need to use for the test.
Before you can register to take the test (register at https://www.nybarexam.org/Content/CourseMaterials.htm), you have to watch 17 hours of outdated videos about outdated New York State law. The videos are supposed to match the outline…but they don’t. The outline is updated, but not the videos.
Seems like a total waste of time to me.
I hope this post was helpful. I had no idea that there were so many exams I had to take before the bar exam.
My how-to series is almost coming to a close. Stay tuned for Part 6 where I will be discussing how to find a job and then Part 7: the BAR EXAM!
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