<<First Name>>,
Ah yes, everyone’s favorite section of the bar exam.
1.8 minutes per question for 6 hours. Paranoia from seeing 7 of the same letter in a row. 50/50 choices that make you go, “Damn, what’s with this ultimate decision?”
Up to half of your score depends on a series of letters (I’m not talking about essays, which are also a series of letters… never mind). And it pretty much feels like “multiple guess” sometimes.
Welcome to the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). Whether you’re new to the MBE or not, you’re in for a ride.
It can feel like your score isn't going up no matter what you do. It can feel exhausting. It can feel impossible.
The first thing I want to point out here is that the MBE isn't impossible...
It's interesting because half the people say that the past questions are exactly like those on the MBE and the other half says they're nothing like the actual MBE:
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FYI: This is a California taker. We want these written and MBE scaled scores to average at least 1440 to pass. Notice how different the written and MBE scores are. They're different skills.
And the final compromise...
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Based on the above (and other journeys I've witnessed), you can do well on the MBE even if you are...
- A foreign-trained lawyer with no experience in multiple choice: A common concern I get from foreign-trained lawyers is that they're not familiar with multiple-choice testing. Approach the bar exam from a clean slate. Your preconceptions don't matter in Hell.
- Still working on improving on essays (or really good at them but got burned on the MBE): I've seen combinations of low written and high MBE, as well as high written and low MBE. Again, they are different skills!
- Using any of the supplements out there (Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, AdaptiBar, BarMax, Best Multis, Esqyr RealResults...): It's not about what you use, but how you use it.
🎬 I can help you out, though... I got AdaptiBar to give away an account. This is the ONLY place you can win a free account: Enter the drawing here.
But what's going on? Why such different reactions to the MBE?
Let’s go over some ideas on how to prepare for the MBE. I learned these from my own failure and watching students like you tackle the exam. See if these will turn “multiple guess” into “multiple choice” for you.
4 Counterintuitive Truths About the MBE
Common myth #1: “To get better on the MBE, I just need to memorize more rules.”
It can be a bit counterintuitive that information alone isn’t enough.
I knew how to state the definition of the term “alleged” for my vocabulary test in 5th grade, but I had no idea what it really meant or how to use it in a sentence.
You don't want a pilot or surgeon who knows how to do it but hasn't actually done it. We don’t learn to play an instrument, cook, or dance by reading about it either. (In my case, dancing will always be impossible.)
Knowing rules (in theory) is vastly different from knowing how to exploit those rules.
It’s great that you’re memorizing the rules. So is everyone else. It’s table stakes, just a cost of entry.
So what’s the difference between high scorers and low scorers?
- Can you RECALL the rule given some facts? There’s a distinction between memorizing and being able to remember it on your own.
- Do you understand the rule enough to apply it to the block of facts?
- And can you pick the correct outcome (yes/no) based on the correct reason?
Each of these is a micro-skill in itself. Don’t worry if it sounds complicated. You’ll learn by doing.
We can talk all day about rules, issues, which part of the question to read first, etc. That’s all well and good, but what it really comes down to is whether you can pick the right answer to the call of the question.
Knowledge isn’t only meant to be learned; it’s meant to be applied. Don’t let it expire. Use it to learn it.
Surprising truth #1: While memorizing rules is necessary (not everything has been tested yet), you’ll see a greater score improvement through the process struggling to answer questions, coming to understand the questions and answers, and revising your approach. To be able to solve MBE problems later, solve MBE problems now.
Common myth #2: “I just need to see and do as many MBE questions as possible (since that other person is doing 3,000 questions).”
OK, so you’re ready to work through some MBE questions. Seems simple enough.
But every year, there seems to be a pissing contest over who can do the most number of practice questions.
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If you have the bandwidth to do thousands of questions, that’s great… as long as you’re learning something from each of them.
Each question is an opportunity for a LESSON or a VALIDATION.
If you (happen to) get a question right, you feel like a goddamn genius. You don’t want to kill the buzz and relief by reading the explanation. “I know this already,” you tell yourself the magic words while living in the illusion of certainty.
You got it right in the end, so what’s the point? You’re too busy! You have other questions to do!
Well, just because you’re correct doesn’t mean you’re right. You want to know that you got it right for the right reason. Each question is an opportunity to validate your understanding (if you chose the credited answer) or to learn the legal principle and how it’s applied (if you were wrong).
The learning happens not when you do the questions. Rather, it happens when you review your work and get feedback from the answer explanations—in their entirety, for each choice for each question you get wrong and right.
Surprising truth #2: I'd rather you master 1,000 questions than go through the motions of 3,000 questions. If you can get both QUALITY and QUANTITY, great.
Hint: Resources like Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE include excellent answer explanations for each question choice. AdaptiBar also does this, although I think S&T has better answer explanations. AdaptiBar is more comprehensive and has analytics that help you make targeted progress.
(AdaptiBar is giving away an account. Enter the drawing here.)
Common myth #3: “My bar program gave me MBE questions already. I have all I need to prepare. (In B***** We Trust)”
Fill in the company of your choice. All the “big box” heavyweight players have names that are 6 letters long. Very interesting.
Imagine this: What if I told you to look at your 1L Contracts finals to prepare for the essay portion of the bar exam?
Hmm... It’s OK to question me if you disagree! “Are you sure about that, Brian?” “You’re out of your mind!” Or some other words that need to be censored.
Thankfully, this is my private email list, so I can say whatever the fuck I want. God I love the Internet age where we feel closer to people online than real flesh-and-blood people.
Anyway, you probably agree looking at law school finals isn't the best way to prepare for bar essays. Essays from law school are hours long. They’re not a fair representation of essays on the bar which are designed to be answered in 30 to 60 minutes (depending on your state).
So why would you use questions that aren’t even designed by the same people who write the real MBE questions?
That’s a trick question and also a rhetorical question. You can breathe a sigh of relief because there are still uses for simulated questions you paid thousands for (AKA TOO MUCH). If reading that stings your soul, good, pay attention.
Prep companies say that you should use their questions, even if those questions may have a different style and feel. Their logic is that the questions you’ll see on the actual MBE will be easier in comparison to the excessively complicated questions (and “add 15 points to adjust for difficulty”).
I don’t believe this is the right kind of “stress testing.” Those questions are not hard for the right reasons. Or sometimes the manufactured questions are too easy. Sometimes the right answer choice isn’t clear or explanations are incorrect.
When you’re in panic mode during the bar exam, everything flies out the window. Even if you think the questions you see on the bar seem “easier” than the artificially difficult questions you practiced with, you still won’t be completely familiar with the “real” style of questions. They may feel slightly “off,” and you may end up confused and second guessing.
If you want to make your training harder or give yourself a buffer, try to answer each question in something like 1.5 minutes for each real question (instead of the allotted 1.8).
That said, the MBE is getting harder and less predictable. The trend is that scores are going down, and questions are longer and trickier.
So it’s not a bad idea to mix in different styles to anticipate ridiculously convoluted questions. You’re mitigating the surprise factor.
You could do, say, 25% of your questions from your prep course and 75% from a source of past MBE questions.
(Both Emanuel's S&T and AdaptiBar include NCBE-licensed questions and author-written questions. If you're using a prep course, check if it comes with fake questions or real ones or both. BTW, AdaptiBar is giving away an account.)
Surprising truth #3: Even though questions written by bar courses aren’t completely reflective of the questions you’ll see on the actual MBE, this doesn’t mean they’re useless. Although you want to use in practice what you’ll see on the actual exam, you can diversify real questions with “fake” questions.
Common myth #4: “As long as I’m getting X% of these practice questions right, I should be prepared for the MBE.”
It seems like everyone merely tracks their overall MBE percentage score, which is fine per se.
But it’s entirely possible that you’re awesome in one subject yet not so much in another, and your overall percentage doesn’t reveal this!
For example, at one point, I was getting a 73% average score in crim topics. Just by looking at that, you wouldn’t have suspected that I was getting 80%+ on Criminal Law questions (90%+ in the category of common-law crimes) but 40% on Criminal Procedure.
Why not go after the low-hanging topics? Nothing is worse than knowing that you could be making mistakes that could easily be fixed with feedback. Don’t let the bar be the feedback.
Here’s a simple rule I used that you can adopt:
Keep track of your worst three subjects. Do more questions for those subjects. When your “worst three” ranking changes, do more questions from those subjects. (This doesn’t mean you stop doing questions for other subjects.)
You could also keep track of “win rates” for subtopics, such as negligence, crimes, hearsay, etc.
When parsed out like above, I could pinpoint the exact cracks in the pipe, the areas I needed to study more carefully.
This is also an opportunity to make use of manufactured questions by drilling your weak subjects with them. You know, in case you don’t want to feel like you’re wasting your limited supply of authentic questions (see #3 above).
Surprising truth #4: There’s a distinction between watching your aggregate score and a portfolio of scores. The latter kind of analytics creates useful data to surgically treat your weaknesses, which will in turn improve your overall score.
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Brian
PS. Did this help? Your answer will be tallied on my end: Yes / No
PPS. Don't forget to enter the drawing for an AdaptiBar account.
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Not retaining any information from your bar course? Not enough time? Stop getting overwhelmed. Focus on practice and memorization with these condensed rule outlines organized in logical groups and indentations.
Approsheets (essay approach checklists and flowcharts)
Got blank-page syndrome? Go from blank page to finished essay/outline. Identify all the relevant issues with these attack sheets so you don't leave any points on the table.
Passer’s Playbook 2.0 (self-study toolkit)
Step-by-step blueprint, study schedules, cheat sheets, guides, and other tools designed to help you orient yourself and propel you toward improvement. Passing is inevitable if you continue to improve.
Organize your emotions and deal with the mental barriers of bar preparation. Go from overwhelmed to focused, unmotivated to productive, and anxious to calm.
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