How to Study for the MBE – from a 180 MBE Scorer

How to Study for the MBE – from a 180 MBE Scorer

The MBE is one of the most notoriously difficult parts of the bar exam. Students struggle with multiple-choice questions and often find it hard to improve their MBE scores. Here, we tell you how to study for the MBE in an efficient way. These are the techniques that I recommend, many of which helped me score a 180 on the MBE. 

How to Study for the MBE – from a 180 MBE Scorer

1. First, start with memorizing the rules. 

The biggest mistake that we see students make is they do not memorize the MBE rules. They have a “general idea” of the law but they don’t know the specifics. We have an MBE diagnostic that we offer to students and 90% of the time, the student’s main issue is with the MBE is that they don’t have the rules memorized. Sometimes, this is coupled with a comprehension issue.  (If you don’t understand the rules, it will be hard to memorize them!)

Make sure that you start your MBE study efficiently – by memorizing your bar exam outlines and focusing on the highly tested MBE topics.

(Remember to focus on the highly tested MBE topics when you study — you do not have to learn every word of every outline! You can see significant progress by focusing on the areas most worth your time!)

2. Next, answer questions slowly. 

There is no sense in racing through questions. Go through questions slowly and methodically. Dissect the question. Make sure you are able to articulate the rule. This is the best way to see your score improve. We have an MBE guide (which you will be able to find in our free resources section as soon as it is publicly available) which covers a slow and methodical way of studying for the MBE.

3. Don’t over-focus on the “quantity” of questions you answer.  

Some students make it their goal to answer 100 questions a day (which is not a good strategy) or 3,000 questions total. Quantity is important to some degree–you want to be exposed to the types of MBE questions you will be asked. However, it is not the end-all-be-all.

Quality is more important than quantity. Especially as you begin your MBE studies!

Don’t get distracted by other students who talk about how many questions they answer. We cannot tell you how many people fail the MBE after answering 5,000 MBE questions. Quantity is not the key to passing the MBE!

4. Have a good system for reviewing questions you answer incorrectly.

Don’t just answer a question incorrectly then say “oh well” and move on. Instead, write down the law you didn’t know on a notepad and constantly review it. This is a surefire way to turn your weaknesses into strengths and to actually see your MBE score improve over time. If you simply ignore incorrect answer choice or if you read the answer explanation but don’t actively make a point to review whatever you didn’t know later, you are wasting your time.

5. Don’t depend on commercial course questions.  

Commercial courses often do not offer real MBE questions. That is, they invent their own questions rather than offering questions released by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). The NCBE is the organization that writes and administers the exam. So if you are looking for real MBE questions, you want to use theirs – not some Barbri or Kaplan questions! These do not reflect the style of question you will see on the MBE.

We offer real MBE questions here. (Unlike the NCBE, we offer answer explanations for the 2017 NCBE study aid! We also offer updated questions from past years with answer explanations.)

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  Other resources

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  • Real MBE questions —the best practice questions available!
  • An MBE guide, which has a guaranteed 7-point score increase.

  You can read more about our MBE services here.