How Many MPRE Questions Should I Answer Total Before The MPRE?
How Many MPRE Questions Should I Answer Total Before The MPRE?
How Many MPRE Questions Should I Answer Total Before The MPRE?: One of the most common questions we receive is, “How many MPRE questions should I answer to pass the exam?” This is a loaded question! The short answer is one you probably won’t like–it truly depends. A lot students take the position that they will simply do practice questions for their total exam preparation. Some of those students who take that route actually pass. There are many others, however, that take the exam multiple times before finally receiving that passing score. So, trying to determine the number of MPRE questions you should answer prior to taking the exam is a good idea.
How Many MPRE Questions Should I Answer Total Before The MPRE?
As mentioned above, there is not a magic number of MPRE questions that should be answered in order to pass the exam. Instead of just focusing on the number of questions to complete, shift your approach to quality over quantity. Below you will find our tips for how to pass the MPRE, including our suggestion of how many MPRE questions you should do prior to taking the exam.
1. Change Your Approach From Just Application to Actually Learning the Rules.
Just to forewarn you, you will likely hear from friends and read online that many people claim that they didn’t study or barely studied for the MPRE and passed on their first try. We don’t believe that all of those people are telling the truth. The MPRE has a reputation for being “easy.” But we firmly believe that the MPRE is a tough exam. In order to ensure that you won’t have to take it again, approach it seriously.
The first step to passing, is to commit to actually learning the rules, not just doing blind application (i.e. practice question after practice question). So how do you learn the rules? Get your hands on a good outline and actually read it. Be sure that you are taking your time so that you understand what the rules mean. Depending on your learning style you might do well by listening to a lecture. Or, you might prefer going through the outline on your own. For another post on how to study for the MPRE click here.
2. Actively Review Your Outline.
Once you have gone through the rules at least once and you think you understand them, take some time to actively review the rules. Active review will ensure that you memorize the rules so that you can recall them on test day. Some active review suggestions are to rewrite the rules one page at a time, or those rules that you have a hard time memorizing, or make charts. For a post on active review strategies click here.
Many of the students that we work with have taken the MPRE multiple times. When we ask how they prepared for the previous exams they explain that they listened to a lecture on the rules. By only listening to the lecture, they were passively reviewing. Thus, they likely retained very little of the information that they are hearing. Typically, once these repeat takers adjust their approach and implement active review, they pass the MPRE with flying colors.
3. Do 5 to 10 MPRE Questions Slowly and Methodically a Day.
For those people who are begging for a specific answer to ” how many MPRE questions should I answer” prior to taking the exam, we find that doing a small number (again quality over quantity) a day to be best. If you are spending the first few days of your MPRE studies to actively review the material and memorize it, then do 5 to 10 questions a day. Once you feel like you understand the rules and have them memorized, move on to doing a larger number or practice exams.
When we say do the questions slowly and methodically, this means that after you read the facts and the call of the question actually ask yourself, “What rule are they testing?” Once you can identify the rule, force yourself to apply the rule to the facts. Finally, take the time to articulate the correct answer prior to looking at the answer options. Once you have come up with what you think the answer is, move on to the answer choices to try to find one that matches what you came up with in your head. Before moving on to the next question, briefly run through the remaining questions to make sure they are incorrect.
If you implement the above, you are doing the questions slowly and methodically. By doing questions slowly and methodically, you can actually learn how they test the rules and hone in on the areas that you struggle with. By taking this quality over quantity approach, you shouldn’t have to answer a million MPRE practice questions to pass the exam.
For a post on where you can find MPRE questions click here.
4. Take a Practice MPRE Exam With Released Questions Prior to Taking the MPRE.
Our last response to the question, “How many MPRE questions should I answer prior to taking the MPRE?” is to make sure that you take a simulated MPRE exam prior to the real test day. The best resource, in our opinion, is to take the MPRE provided on the NCBE website. Not only are they real MPRE questions but it should mirror the difficulty of the real exam. We always tell our students, if you can pass that exam, you are in great shape for the real exam. (If you are wondering how many questions you need to answer correctly to pass the MPRE, see this post.)
To recap, there is not a firm answer to “how many MPRE questions should I answer before the MPRE.” Instead, the number truly depends on your understanding of the rules and your approach. Try taking the quality over quantity approach and learning the rules and doing slow methodical practice. You will likely find that you don’t have to do a large number of questions to pass the exam. Good luck!
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Meagan Jabbori, a JD Advising bar exam tutor and course instructor, wrote this post. Meagan scored in the 96th percentile on the Uniform Bar Exam. She has helped hundreds of students pass the bar exam and the MPRE. She also boasts above a 90% passage rate for privately tutored MPRE students!
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