Crush The MPT: 5 Strategies To Raise Your MPT Score
Crush The MPT: 5 Strategies To Raise Your MPT Score
It’s a common scenario: a student reviews their score report after finding out that they have failed the bar exam. The student quickly realizes that their lowest score was on the Multistate Performance Test and panics. Unfortunately, the MPT is one of the most underestimated portions of the bar exam. Keep reading to find some helpful information on how to raise your MPT score.
Crush The MPT: 5 Strategies To Raise Your MPT Score
The MPT strategy that needs to precede all other MPT strategies is self-reflection on your MPT performance. If you are re-taking the bar exam and struggled with the MPT, always begin studying for the next administration’s bar exam by reviewing your score report and figure out which parts of the MPT are giving you trouble. Is it the various tasks that may be assigned? Or is it getting comfortable with the timing of the MPT? If you are a first-time bar-exam taker, evaluate what components of the MPT are giving you trouble during the course of your practice MPT exams.
MPT Strategy 1: Read (the task memo) slowly
The first MPT strategy to raise your MPT score is to slow down your reading of the Task Memo. The Task Memo is the most important part of the MPT library. It provides you with crucial information, including the type of task, who the audience is, who your client is, and other information essential to framing a successful MPT score.
Some students find it helpful to write down brief, shorthand notes on the Task Memo. This can help provide a brief outline of the task, without having to re-read the Task Memo. Other students chose to actively read the Task Memo and circle or underline pertinent information. It is important to determine which of these methods is most comfortable for you so that you can effectively raise your MPT score.
MPT Strategy 2: Follow the 45/45 rule
The next MPT strategy to raise your MPT is deceptively simple—follow the 45/45 rule. The duration of each MPT is 90 minutes, and bar prep programs frequently tell students to evenly divide that time between reading the MPT library and actually writing their MPT answer. Students hear this advice so frequently because it is an excellent strategy to increase your MPT score.
The MPT typically has more detailed fact patterns than regular MEE questions. Additionally, the MPT requires students to digest case law and statutes. These documents cannot be read and understood in a few minutes. Furthermore, because the MPT is inherently more complicated than an MEE question, it will require more time and effort to write. Making a concentrated effort to split your time evenly between these two tasks is a strategy that can boost your MPT score because it ensures that you spend adequate time on both understanding the question and writing the answer.
How can you master the 45/45 rule? Students frequently write down what time will be the halfway mark of the 90 minutes allotted for the MPT. This allows students to conceptualize a firm time to stop reading and start drafting. This technique will be more useful if you become comfortable using it in your MPT practice.
MPT Strategy 3: Understand type and tone
The Task Memo asks students to write a type of document that new lawyers may face at a legal job. Becoming familiar with the various MPT tasks and learning how to write to suit those tasks appropriately is a useful strategy to increase your MPT score. This strategy is a two-step process: have an understanding of the task and know how to write in the style most appropriate for the task.
While it is beneficial to have an understanding of all of the potential MPT tasks, the most common types of MPT tasks are the objective memo and the persuasive brief. As their names indicate, each of these tasks has an appropriate tone of writing that corresponds with it. Memos are traditionally written from an objective perspective, and persuasive briefs are written to persuade. Once you have a mental roadmap for what to expect for each task, make sure to put some emphasis on your writing style during your practice. Though the task and the tone may seem minor, they frame the MPT answer that you submit. Spending some time following the guidance of this strategy can improve your overall MPT score.
MPT Strategy 4: Review completed practice MPTs in detail
One less common MPT strategy to increase your MPT score is to read more than just the sample MPT answer when reviewing your work. It can be immensely helpful to read the NCBE point sheet for the MPT you practiced. The NCBE point sheet is a treasure trove of information about what students should have addressed in their MPT. It is the document that tells bar exam graders on what they should be focusing on when reading an examinee’s MPT answer.
As a student, you want to make sure you can follow the logic of what is listed on the NCBE point sheet and why it is important enough to be listed there. If the NCBE point sheet lists a precedent that was discussed in the case law, did you catch that important precedent as you were reading the MPT library and drafting your answer? If the NCBE point sheet focuses on a few outcome-determinative facts, did you notice the importance of those facts as you read the MPT library? The NCBE point sheet is a powerful tool in your preparation toolkit and can provide you with valuable insight on how to craft a great MPT answer. Taking the time to use this MPT strategy can help to improve the cohesiveness of your legal writing and improve your MPT score.
MPT Strategy 5: Franklin is fictitious
Franklin, the jurisdiction in which MPT questions are most frequently set, is fictitious. It does not exist. As such, do not assume that the laws of the United States or your state apply. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of analyzing MPT questions with real law. However, you have to fight this! Remember that the MPT gives all the relevant laws in the MPT library. You should assume that no other laws exist.
For some students, this can be the most challenging part! Like with most matters related to bar prep, practice can help to alleviate and limit your discomfort with the fictitious laws of Franklin. When reviewing your practice MPT answer, make sure you keep a keen eye out for actual state or federal law that you may have inadvertently included. Practice viewing the MPT questions for what they are—a closed jurisdiction where you have all of the relevant law and no other law is relevant. Only analyzing the MPT question with relevant Franklin law can improve your MPT score.
The MPT is a challenging part of the bar exam. It is unlike any other part of the bar exam. This, coupled with the fact that some students do not devote the appropriate time or effort into studying the MPT, can lead to lower points on this portion of the bar exam for students. Find ways to implement these MPT strategies into your studying to improve your MPT score.
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