I'm sitting for the Texas Bar in July and I'm 8 weeks out. My Barbri diagnostic put me at a 133 scaled MBE score — I need 135+ to feel safe given Texas's overall passing threshold. Essays are where I'm hoping to make up points but I genuinely don't know how Texas-specific rules differ from MBE law in enough areas to feel confident.
The Texas-tested subjects I keep stumbling on are oil and gas, family law community property rules, and Texas procedure. There's almost no Barbri content for oil and gas specifically and I've been supplementing with outlines from TexasBarPrepPro. Has anyone found a better resource for the Texas-specific subjects?
I'm scoring about 55–60% on MEE-style essay practice, which translates to a 3–4 on grading rubrics. I've heard Texas graders reward IRAC structure heavily and that a well-organized incomplete answer beats a disorganized complete one. Is that accurate from people who've graded or been graded?
Also — the PT component. I've been avoiding it because I hate the format. Is it really worth practicing or does it mostly sort itself out on exam day?
Texas graders absolutely reward structure over completeness. I passed in February 2025 and my essay grader feedback (which you can request post-exam) showed I got full marks on one essay where I'd left a subissue blank but my IRAC on the issues I addressed was clean. Don't ramble trying to cover everything.
Do not skip PT practice. I made that mistake and the PT format genuinely tripped me up during the real exam. The TX PT is 90 minutes and you need to be disciplined about how you allocate time between reading the file and writing. Practice at least 3 full PTs before exam day.
For oil and gas specifically, the University of Texas Law School publishes a free bar prep outline through their academic resources page. It's written by a professor who focuses on exactly the tested areas. Way better than any commercial outline I found.
A 133 MBE with 8 weeks left is very fixable. Identify your 2 weakest MBE subjects — probably Evidence and Civ Pro for most people — and drill only those for 3 weeks. Targeted improvement in weak subjects moves your scaled score faster than reviewing subjects you already know.