MPT Strategies to Maximize your Points!

MPT Strategies to Maximize your Points!

If you are just starting to study for the multistate performance test (MPT), you are not alone! In this post, we discuss some MPT strategies to maximize your points on the MPT! 

MPT Strategies to Maximize your Points!

Here are a few simple MPT strategies to make sure you maximize the points you receive on the MPT portion of the bar exam!

Use the right tone.

About half of the MPT tasks require an “objective” tone. (These are the objective memos and opinion letters.) So you are not required to convince anyone of anything. About half the tasks require a persuasive tone. (These are the persuasive memos and demand letters.)  The goal of a persuasive memo is to persuade someone of something.

Keeping these tones in mind will go a long way. With an objective memo, you want to analyze the good and bad facts (“On one hand…” and “On the other hand..”). With a persuasive memo, while you do not want to ignore bad facts, you want to minimize them and argue persuasively in favor of a specific side.

On most (but not all) Uniform bar exams, you will have one MPT that is persuasive in nature and one that is objective in nature.

Keep in mind who your audience is. 

Your audience may be a lawyer or a non-lawyer. You are usually writing to a lawyer for objective memos (e.g., the reader is often a managing partner), a persuasive brief (the reader is often a judge), or a demand letter (the reader is often your opposing counsel). You are usually writing to a non-lawyer in an opinion letter (the reader is often a client).

You can feel free to use some legalese if you are writing to a lawyer. However, you should not use excessive legalese if you are writing to a client, rather than someone who is well-versed in the law. The MPT grader will be evaluating you on your communication skills and this will play a role in your score.

Format your MPT answer correctly.

Remember that format plays a role in your score! We recommend you check out our MPT one-sheet here to make sure you have mastered formatting.  Not only will studying this MPT one-sheet help you master the MPT format that the grader will be looking for, but it will also help build your confidence walking into the MPT portion of the exam. So many students do not know how to approach the MPT, so having a good framework to work with can make a big difference.

We hope you enjoyed these MPT strategies to maximize your points. Good luck practicing MPTs!

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