Forget the Barbri Simulated MBE—Do this Instead!

The Barbri simulated MBE is coming up. Students get nervous for it before they take it, then they spend a lot of time afterward comparing their scores with others, feeling bad about their scores, and (sometimes) inflating their scores. So, does the Barbri Simulated MBE matter? Or is there something better than it? 

The Barbri simulated MBE is not the end-all, be-all.

Here are the problems with the Barbri simulated MBE:

• It does not use real MBE questions. These questions are invented by Barbri and do not best reflect the questions you will see on the MBE. (Note: Barbri recently admitted to offering only 100 released MBE questions. To our knowledge, these questions do not appear in Barbri’s simulated exam. However, please check with Barbri to confirm.)
• The Barbri invented questions are harder than the real MBE questions. (Real MBE questions are still difficult though.)
• The Barbri MBE compares you to how others score on the Barbri simulated MBE. Students who have been practicing Barbri questions (rather than real MBE questions) will have an advantage on this MBE, when they won’t necessarily maintain this edge on the real MBE. Further, this exam does not compare you to how everyone will do on the bar exam since the students who take the Barbri simulated MBE often are the ones who are studying the hardest. Believe it or not, but there are students who just started studying and they are not spending time taking a simulated exam.

The Barbri simulated MBE means something. If you scored very high, that bodes well for the bar exam. And if you are in the bottom percentile, you should check out this post on what to do if you score low on the Barbri simulated MBE. It is not that the Barbri simulated MBE is meaningless; it is just not the best gauge of how you are doing.

What is BETTER than the Barbri simulated MBE?

If you are looking for something better than the Barbri simulated MBE, we recommend you take an MBE exam composed of real bar exam questions released by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) at the end of 2017 (also re-released in 2019!). The advantages of this exam are:

• They are actual NCBE-released questions. (The NCBE is the organization that writes the MBE.)
• They are the most recently released questions by the NCBE.
• The exam has real, released Civil Procedure questions! (There are only 40 released Civil Procedure questions total and this exam has close to 30 of them!)
• They are closest to what you will see on the real MBE. The question format is the same and some of the issues are likely to be retested again.
• You do not have to drive yourself crazy comparing your scores to everyone else. You can gauge how you are doing based on the percentage you answer correctly.  (Check out this post on how to figure out the minimum MBE score you need to pass the bar exam–including the percentage you need to answer correctly to pass.)

You can get this 200-question exam here. We include the questions, a short answer key, and answer explanations for each answer. (Note: we have the option to purchase a PDF of the exam here.)

Good luck with the mock MBE!

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