Today Marks 4 Weeks to the Bar Exam

Today marks 1 month to the July bar exam. Today is a good day to think about where you are in terms of your studying. By this time, you should be well into knowing and understanding the law. Of course, there will be areas where you are still weak, but, overall, do you know enough law to make it through the bar exam? If not, hit those review books and try to memorize the law as much as you are able to in the next 4 weeks.

The next 4 weeks are crucial to your run up to the bar exam. Once you have the law down, you need to practice – and practice alot. Go through your practice essays and your MBE questions like the bar exam is tomorrow.

Practicing your essays, PTs and MBEs will ensure that you know the law and you know how to apply the law. Application of the law will be the difference between passing and failing.

Resist those voices of people who tell you horror stories, or want you to stop studying and power down. Accept that you have 30 days of study ahead of you. In the scheme of your lifetime, the next 30 days is not a lot of time to get yourself ready or to sacrifice to get yourself ready. It’s worth your time to have a lifetime career as a lawyer.

It’s all about getting yourself ready for the best performance of your life in July. Keep your focus.

Happy Studying!!!

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

The First Steps in Analyzing the MPT

First you want to review the instructions. There is an instruction sheet of every MPT. Read it as you prepare – you do not want to waste time reading it during the bar exam.

Verify the jurisdiction paragraph to know what is mandatory as opposed to what is merely persuasive authority.

Your next step is to identify the area of law. From the listings in the Library, you can often determine the subject area.

Determine whether it’s a statutory or common law problem.

You then must read the Task Memo and identify the issue you’re asked to resolve. The Task Memo reveals the precise issue you’re asked to resolve. Read the directions carefully.

Identify your specific assignment by noting the precise nature of the task: memo – decide whether it is a persuasive brief, client letter, contract provision, etc. Identify the point of view – whether it’s objective or persuasive. This will inform the nature of your reading because you’ll read the materials with a critical eye. Identify your audience – is it a lawyer or layperson?

Now, you’ll be able to start the reading.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

Understanding The MPT

Many states, including the Uniform Bar Exam, have a multistate performance test.

The MPT consists of a 90-minute skills question covering legal analysis, fact analysis, problem solving, resolution of ethical dilemmas, organization and management of a lawyering task, and communication.

The MPT is not a test of substantive knowledge. It is designed to examine six fundamental skills lawyers are expected to demonstrate regardless of the area of law in which the skills arise. The MPT requires applicants to (1) sort detailed factual materials and separate relevant from irrelevant facts; (2) analyze statutory, case, and administrative materials for principles of law; (3) apply the law to the relevant facts in a manner likely to resolve a client’s problem; (4) identify and resolve ethical dilemmas, when present; (5) communicate effectively in writing; (6) complete a lawyering task within time constraints.

These skills are tested by requiring applicants to perform one of a variety of lawyering tasks. Examples of tasks applicants might be instructed to complete include writing the following: a memorandum to a supervising attorney; a letter to a client; a persuasive memorandum or brief; a statement of facts; a contract provision; a will; a counseling plan; a proposal for settlement or agreement; a discovery plan; a witness examination plan; or a closing argument.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

Strategies for the Answer Choices for the MBE

Here are some strategies for the answer choices for the MBE:

1. Look for the more precise answer: That is a better choice – one that incorporates more facts and more of the law relevant to your fact pattern.
2. Be careful of those absolutes. If you see words like must, always, never, etc., be careful, because we know that the law almost never deals in absolutes. There are few  absolutes in the law.
3. Look for conjunctions. Be careful when you see words like because, if, only if, unless, etc. Those conjunctions are designed to try to trick the reader, especially the careless reader. For example, you’ll see a question that says, if the jury believes the defendant, it is because…. This example wants you to focus on the defendant’s defense, not whether the defendant is guilty.
4. Be careful of distractors. Common distractors for evidence are the best evidence rule and prejudicial v. probative. Make sure you know when you can use these two as the right answer or else they may be distractors.
5. Be careful of sympathy or dislike. The MBE likes to pull at your heart strings a bit too. Sometimes they have a really reprehensible defendant who has a legitimate “procedural” issue that makes him not guilty, i.e. an improper search and seizure. You want to find him guilty, but the police make an error and the evidence is suppressed. Similarly, you’ll see a sympathetic person who commits a cause of action or a crime and must be either liable or guilty. Don’t let emotion rule the day.

Remember, that common mistakes in choosing the answer come from not knowing the law, not reading the fact pattern carefully, or not reading the call of the question.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

Practice MBE Timing

As to timing of the MBE, you must answer 100 questions in 3 hours, both in the morning and the afternoon. Breaking it down further, you must answer each question in 1.8 minutes, or 17 questions in a half hour and 34 questions in an hour. You must be able to sustain that fast pace.

As you practice, keep that pace in mind. It is imperative that you finish all 200 questions. You do not want to leave any questions unanswered or unread and lose valuable points. As you know, even 1 point or 2 points can mean the difference between passing and failing.

Not only do you need to answer the questions, you need to answer them correctly.

How do you build up your time and accuracy? In the beginning of this process, start with 17 questions first – note your time and your accuracy. As you get better at your accuracy, your time will also get better. Once you feel that you are comfortable with the 17 questions, then, proceed to doing 34 questions in one sitting. Again, notice how long it took you and your accuracy. Then move up doing 68 questions in 2 hours, until finally you are working at 3 hour stretches.

You must get comfortable and condition yourself to sitting for 3 hours, working on MBE questions, without losing your focus or concentration. In the last couple of weeks, prior to the bar exam, you should be working on 3 hour blocks for the MBE.

Once you get to the bar exam, write down the time for 34 questions, 68 questions or break it down in half hours, i.e. 17, 34, 51 etc., so you can glance at your sheet and know that you are on schedule to answer all 100 questions in that session.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

5 Weeks Until the Bar Exam

There are 5 weeks until the July 2015 bar exam.

Every day you must chip away at the large amount of material, taking manageable bites until you have mastered that bite and go onto the next one. As someone has once said, how do you eat an elephant – with one bite at a time. In other words, take smaller sections of the vast material, learn it and then take another section of the bar exam and learn that section, until, before you know it, you have learned the law, practiced your questions and are ready to sit for the bar exam.

Always stay in the moment of that day, because if you look too far ahead, you will waste precious time worrying about the large amount of material you must learn or how fast the time is ticking before the bar exam.

I tell my students that taking the bar exam is not a sprint. You cannot do everything in one day. Do not drive yourself to exhaustion thinking that you must skip meals, skip the gym, skip sleeping in order to prepare yourself for the bar exam. You cannot run down your body or your mind. Take regular breaks so that you can come back refreshed and ready to learn.

Remember, it was the tortoise that won the race, and not the hare. And to quote the tortoise, “slowly does it every time”.

Make this your best 5 weeks ever and know that you have put everything on the table to become a lawyer.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

The Answer Choices for the MBE

As we know, after the fact pattern and the call of the question, there are 4 multiple answer choices. One of those multiple choice answers is the correct one, while distractors form the other 3 choices. How do we know which choice is the correct answer?

The good thing about the MBE is that the right answer is staring at you. Your just have to find the right answer out of 4. That’s a 25% chance you’ll pick the right answer. The wrong answer choices usually come in various categories: the law is incorrect, the facts are incorrect, there is a mixture of wrong facts and wrong law, or the law is correct but doesn’t apply to your facts.

Yes, the MBE uses every trick in the book, but you can find the right answer by eliminating the wrong answers first. Being able to eliminate the wrong answers is critical to your success in finding the right answer. Because even if you don’t know the right answer, you may be able to successfully eliminate the other 3 answers and get to the right answer, even without knowing what the right answer is.

Eliminating the obvious wrong answers will substantially increase your chances of getting the right answer. If you successfully eliminate two, you chances become 50% of getting the right answer.

Remember that the correct answer must state the correct law, must state the correct facts, have a sound application of law to facts and finally needs to address and resolve the central issue in the fact pattern.

Remember, you get no points for choosing the wrong answer, so you must get the right answer for your MBE questions at a rate of at least 65% – 70% in order to pass the MBE.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

The MBE Progression

For all MBE questions, here is the list of progressions you should follow to get the most out of your 1.8 minutes when working on the MBE exam.

1. Read the call of the question first.
2. Read the fact pattern carefully and critically
3. Try to decide the issue after you read the fact pattern and before you look at the answers.
4. Once you have figured out the issue, think of the black letter law and the distinctions.
5. Read the answer choices.
6. Try to eliminate the answer choices, one by one, looking for errors in law or in fact or both.
7. Remember that in order for the answer choice to be correct, it must be correct in all of its answer.
8. After you are done with the question, let it go and move to the next answer.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

Examining the Facts on the MBE

Don’t ever assume facts when you read the fact pattern on the MBE question. There are no omitted facts in the MBE. Do not read into the question any facts that are not there or to assume any facts that are not there. Also, always assume that the facts are important. There are no red herrings on bar exams. Don’t feel any sympathy or hatred for anyone in the fact pattern. They are sometimes designed to elicit emotion from you in order to steer you to the wrong answer. For example, a serial murder will have a procedural defect he can rely on, so he will be found not guilty. You don’t want him to be found not guilty, so you look for the guilty answer choices and you end up picking the wrong answer.

As you read through the fact pattern, ask yourself why these facts are important. Since you have read the call of the question, you will have a better context of why the facts are there and why they are important. Make sure you pay attention to dates, ages, dollar amounts and parties. They will be important.

Also, look at the parties and how they are acting. For example, look for words like intentionally, knowingly, mistakenly, reasonably, etc. These words will be important when you look through the MBE answer choices.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.

The Analysis of the MBE

The Multistate Examination is hard. You have to have a game plan when you go into the exam.

Here are some suggestions:

Reading a Question

Because of time constraints, you will have time for only one reading of the fact pattern. Do not read the fact pattern as a novel.

You must read carefully and actively to spot signal words and legally significant facts. Pay attention to the bar examiners’ particular use of language and look for the following as you read:

1) Relationships between parties that signal the area of law and legal duties: landlord/tenant, employer/employee, principal/agent, buyer/seller;

2) Amounts of money, dates quantities and ages;

3) Words such as “oral” and “written,” “reasonable” and “unreasonable,” among others;

4) Words that indicate the actor’s state of mind. Look for such language as:

• Decided
• Mistakenly thought
• Deliberately
• Reasonably believed
• Intended

Never Assume Facts

The bar examiners construct MBE questions to contain all the facts you need to answer the question. You must rely solely on these facts and no others, to answer the question. Of course you may draw reasonable inferences from the facts but you cannot fabricate your own or create “what if” scenarios.

Stick to the Law

You must apply the rule of law to the facts . You cannot get emotionally involved with the parties or substitute your instincts for what you know is legally correct. Don’t think someone is guilty when the call of the question says he is not. That is not what the question is asking you.

The MBE Testing Institute knows that taking the bar exam as a repeat taker can be an isolating experience. The MBE Testing Institute helps the student keep motivated and confident through interaction with an MBE Testing Institute’s bar tutor.

If you need help passing the MBE, contact the MBE Testing Institute at pass@mbetestinginstitute.com for more information.