MBE

Strategic Skipping

If you are going to skip a question, make a decision at the beginning – when you notice it is extremely long or covers a topic you struggle with. Once you invest in reading the fact pattern, you should finish the question. When you elect to strategically skip, take a quick glance at the answers. […]

Let it Gooooo!

Obviously you can’t skip every single annoying question. You’d have most of the exam to do after your first time through. When you make the strategic decision to work a crazy RAP question rather than skip it, it is vital that when you are done with it that you let it go. The brain will […]

Don’t Hem and Haw

If you catch yourself double-triple-quadruple guessing on a single question, cut bait. That six-minute question is costing you three two-minute questions that you have a higher percentage chance of getting right. Don’t shortcut your analysis, but don’t linger over it either. Pick an answer, star the question so you can come back if you have […]

Deciding Between Two Close Answers

When you are deciding between two answers that are similarly worded, always ask yourself HOW is this answer different from that one? What is it doing that the other one isn’t? Does one fit “inside” the other? If they are clearly different, ask yourself which comes first. For example, in criminal procedure Probable Cause comes BEFORE […]

An Answer that “Sounds Right” is Often Wrong

The NCBE is a master at writing plausible-sounding MBE answer choices that are wrong. When you “know” an answer is correct, you don’t know it because it sounds right, you know it because you see through the words to the law they are expressing. When you don’t know the law, you’ll find yourself gravitating toward […]

Stop Looking for Monsters Under the Bed

The Multistate Bar Exam is difficult, no doubt, but it is also fair and unbiased. Examiners ask challenging questions; they do not rely on “trick” questions. A solid knowledge of the law makes the correct answer apparent (or will at least make incorrect answers apparent). That means trust yourself – at least more than you […]

SEE the Facts, READ the law

Read the MBE fact pattern like a novel so you SEE the story. Read the call and the answer choices like legal text, focusing on the importance of each individual word. When you read novels you watch the action in your mind’s eye. You rarely need to go back and find facts because the information is hooked into the […]

Distinguish Between Red Herrings and Red Hoods

Red Herrings are made-up doctrines, usually steeped in Latin and other fancy-sounding legal words. After three years of law school and months of bar preparation, you’ve probably heard of every weirdly named doctrine out there. If an MBE answer choice cites a doctrine you’ve never heard of, it is probably a red herring. Stay away. […]

Superlatives = Superbly Stupid Arguments

Whenever you see a superlative in the call of the question on the MBE (i.e. which of the following is the “best”/”worst”/”least effective”/”strongest” argument), tell yourself before you read the answers that you are looking for a superbly stupid argument. Three of the answer choices will be incorrect arguments, they won’t hold any legal water […]

Bar Exam Preparation Materials – Advice from The Bar Professor

So you are taking the bar exam for the first time (or repeating it) and have decided to go it alone. Your next question will be, “What materials should I use?” Here’s what I suggest to students trying to etch out their own plan of attack with minimum investment. The first thing you’ll need is […]