How To Boost Your MPT Score Using The Task Memo

How To Boost Your MPT Score Using The Task Memo

Sitting for the bar exam can be stressful. As a result of this exam day stress, students tend to feel pressure to rush through the Multistate Performance Test documents. Don’t let stress blind you! One of the first documents students see on the MPT is the task memo. This part of the MPT is a lighthouse, shining a guiding light to help you make your way through the MPT. Let’s evaluate what you should specifically look for in the MPT, which can help boost your MPT score.

How To Boost Your MPT Score Using The Task Memo

Look For The Type Of Assignment

The first bit of information that the task memo provides the category of writing assignment you face. The persuasive brief and objective memo are the most common types of assignments, and they mirror the sort of assignments most law students have completed in their legal writing courses during law school.

Occasionally, the task memo sets out a less common type of assignment, such as a demand letter, an opinion letter, or something different. Don’t worry too much about getting a less common assignment type. If you are unfamiliar with how to appropriately format one of these less common assignments, the Library will usually provide a sample document. However, even if you feel that you have a sense of familiarity with these types of writing assignments, you should walk into the bar exam with an organized, memorized format to use for each potential assignment. Knowing how often the type of assignment is tested and how to approach it is crucial to boosting your MPT score.

Look For Instructions 

Next, look for information about any special instructions of which the Bar Examiners want you to be aware. The instructions offer information on several important aspects of your final product. The instructions can clarify the proper formatting, and they can explain from which perspective you should address the assignment. Most importantly, the instructions can discuss what you should specifically include in your answer. As you read through the task memo, you can begin to form a general outline of what your MPT answer will address. Carefully following instructions detailed in the task memo will boost your MPT score.

For example, a July 2019 MPT dealt with an estate matter. The examinee was asked to write an objective memo that discussed two different estate-planning approaches to the client’s goals. The two approaches were a life-estate approach and a contract to write a will approach. To have earned the highest score on that MPT, the examinee would have had to discuss both of those approaches.

Look For Limitations

Also, be sure to look for information in the task memo about any limitations on your assignment. Are there certain issues you should not address at all? If you’re drafting contractual language, are there certain sections you are being told to disregard? For example, the task memo will frequently instruct students not to prepare a statement of facts. It is important to ensure that you have made a note of these limitations because it will allow you to completely follow task memo directions, which can boost your MPT score.

Look For Tone

Then, look for information about what tone to take when you draft your answer. Tone can encompass both understanding to which audience you are being asked to write and what perspective your answer should take. Are you writing to a client, and should that mean writing in a less formal tone? Are you writing to persuade the reader or to provide the reader with objective information? These are the pieces of information that are usually gleaned from a careful reading of the task memo. This can result in an improved MPT answer, leading to a boost in your MPT score.

Look For Details

Finally, look for information about general details, which will allow you to write a more competitive MPT answer. Sometimes the task memo will discuss the procedural posture of the issue you’re being asked to write about, which can improve the way you think about the overall question. Perhaps the task memo begins to make some useful arguments, which you can incorporate into your answer. A comprehensive reading of the task memo, and the ability to pull these details out and put them into action in your MPT answer, can boost your MPT score.

Now you have a better understanding of how to make the most of the information in the task memo. This, coupled with your exam practice, can boost your MPT score and relieve some stress you may have about the Multistate Performance Test. If your bar exam course doesn’t provide enough MPT pointers , you may want to consider purchasing JD Advising’s MPT Guide or MPT Seminar, which will help you better prepare for the MPT.

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