MBE Process of Elimination Tips For Bar Exam Day
MBE Process of Elimination Tips For Bar Exam Day
The MBE portion of the Bar Exam is incredibly tricky and can cause a lot of students to struggle. Students must answer a detailed and sometimes lengthy question in a short amount of time and pick the best answer. More often than not, this results in a situation involving two answer choices that both seem correct. The scary part? They might both very well be correct. Students are tasked with picking the best answer. In short, one answer can be more correct than another answer. In order to help you succeed on the MBE portion of the Bar Exam, check out our MBE process of elimination tips below (and review the highly tested MBE subjects here!).
Note that these tips are only general pieces of advice and by no means apply to every situation on the MBE. They are designed to help you narrow down the answer choices and ultimately pick the best answer. Sometimes, it’s not about knowing the right answer. It’s about knowing which answers are wrong!
MBE Process of Elimination Tips For Bar Exam Day
Avoid Misstatements of Law
If an answer choice includes a piece of legal language that just doesn’t sound right, it’s probably wrong. Many answer choices misstate the law in the hopes that students will forego their memorization of the law. Some answer choices will actually state the law correctly, however, the law cited does not apply to the facts presented. Simply taking the time to learn and memorize the law can allow students to quickly eliminate these types of answers.
Avoid Assumptions of Fact
Many MBE answer choices attempt to coax students by making assumptions of fact that appear to be correct. Each statement that has been included in the fact pattern has been included for a specific reason. A correct answer choice will never ask you to assume facts. The facts provided were provided to help you solve the question, not to provide you a basis for assumption. In choosing an answer choice that contains an assumption of fact, you have been tricked into jumping to a conclusion. Unfortunately, the conclusion is not supported by the facts.
Avoid Overbroad Statements of Law
Overbroad statements of law may seem like a “one size fits all” solution to a problem. However, they’re rarely correct. If an answer choice presents itself as a general statement of law, it ignores all the exceptions you studied to memorize. Again, this only emphasizes the importance of memorization. Students who can look at an answer choice and immediately think of a legal exception are in good shape. Check out these bar exam memorization tips to avoid this trap!
Avoid Answers That Ignore the Call of the Question
When you hear “the call of the question” the phrase is referring to the actual question being asked of the student. “The call” is usually one of the last sentences in a passage and is usually followed by a question mark. On the MBE, calls of the question can come in all different shapes and sizes. “Was joinder of Party X proper?” “What damages are C Corp entitled to as a result of B Corp’s actions?” You get the idea.
Many times, an answer choice will state the correct law but apply that law to irrelevant facts. In essence, an answer choice that ignores the call of the questions answers a question that does not matter. Students can often tell when an answer choice misses the mark by thinking “so what?” after reading an answer choice.
Avoid Answers That Contain Two Types of Law
MBE questions very rarely test two different types of law. If an answer choice references more than one type of law, it is usually incorrect. Remember that the statements made in the fact pattern were provided for a very specific reason. In addition, the call of the question is usually focused on figuring out one specific aspect. If an answer choice attempts to undermine that by incorporating two different types of law, avoid it.
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