5 Tips for Scoring Highly on Multiple-Choice Portion of The Bar

Five Tips for Scoring Highly on Multiple-Choice Portion of the Bar Exam

The majority of jurisdictions in the U.S. administer the MBE. This multiple-choice portion of the bar exam tests seven subjects: civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law and procedure, evidence, real property, and torts. During the MBE portion of the bar exam, you’ll have 25 scored questions on each of those subjects. To help you pass the bar exam, we’ve put together five tips for scoring highly on the multiple-choice portion!

Five Tips for Scoring Highly on Multiple-Choice Portion of Bar Exam

1. Use the Best Materials

If you want to pass the bar exam on your next attempt, you should use the best materials available to study. Make sure your outlines are high quality, well organized, and contain all the information you need without being too long. If you still haven’t found outlines that work for you, we include excellent outlines with our courses or private tutoring options that will help you conquer the multiple-choice portion of the bar.  Even if you aren’t signed up for our course, be sure to check out all of our free resources along with our Free Guide to Pass the MBE to help you be prepared as possible.

2. Understand and Memorize the Law

As you begin your bar prep, your focus should be on understanding the law. Here, bar review lectures, study groups, and tutoring can help you test and confirm your understanding. Once you’re confident you understand the law, you should commit it to memory. You’ll also want to make time to regularly review what you’ve learned. Bar prep takes a long time, and if you don’t look back on what you learned week two until week nine, there’s a good chance you’ll forget it!

Learn more from our YouTube video and post detailing memorization techniques and how to memorize your outlines!

3. Study Efficiently: Focus on the Highly-Tested Topics

While each subject on the MBE is tested with an equal number of questions, some topics within those subjects are more highly tested than others. For example, half of the torts questions test negligence. Over half of the Evidence questions will test relevancy and hearsay.

4. Use Real MBE Questions to Study

Not all MBE practice questions are created equal. Many bar prep companies invent their own MBE questions. These can be useful, but you should also try to use released MBE questions. That way, you’ll become more familiar with the style and format of the questions you’ll see on test day. Check out this MBE Frequency Chart to see just how often each of the MBE subjects is tested. This will help you strategize your own bar prep studying and gear it towards what you’re likely to see!

5. Practice Under Timed Conditions

When you’re at the beginning stages of your bar preparation, you do not need to worry as much about timing. We recommend that you begin focusing on timing about six weeks before test day — though if you know you struggle with timing, you may want to start earlier. You don’t need to take a full MBE exam (200 questions in six hours), but you can break that down into more manageable chunks. Start with completing 33 questions in an hour, then 66 questions in two hours, then 100 in three hours. That way, you’ll be comfortable with pacing yourself on test day.

To help you better practice under timed conditions, be sure to use real MBE questions (not ones that bar prep companies made up themselves) and have a lot of them at your disposal. We have an MBE Question Bank with over 1,600 practice questions but you can get 100 of those to use for free. Check that out here! Here’s also a quick and free MBE quiz to see if you’re on the right track!

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