What Is the Best MBE Practice: Quality or Quantity?

What Is the Best MBE Practice: Quality or Quantity?

Too often students substitute the quantity of practice problems for the quality of the practice strategy. Of course, practicing MBE problems is necessary for mastering the MBE, but you can better build MBE endurance through the quality of your practice. Without a proper study strategy, many students taking the bar exam waste time and effort on increasing practice count. Let’s talk about three simple ways to increase the quality of your MBE practice while maximizing the effectiveness of each practice question you answer. Read further to see how to get your best MBE practice.

What Is the Best MBE Practice: Quality or Quantity?

1. Review right and wrong answers.

Take the time to go back and review the reasoning for each answer. If you answered the question right, look to see if you got it right because you correctly understood the issue tested. If you answered incorrectly, figure out where your reasoning went awry. You may have answered wrong because you simply did not know the correct rule of law. However, your issue may not be your understanding. Maybe you read the fact pattern wrong and missed a key fact. Perhaps you got confused by the way the question was worded. It could have been you simply ran out of time to answer all the questions. Take the time to pinpoint why you answered incorrectly. Answering a hundred more questions will not increase your score if you do not address the gap in your understanding or test-taking strategy that is leading to wrong answers. Analyze patterns of mistakes so you can address the problem and spend your time studying accordingly.

2. Consider the issue tested, not the fact pattern.

As you review, do not get caught up on the specific question asked. Students that emphasize the quantity of MBE practice over quality often review their practice questions by taking note of the question scenario and memorizing the question with the correct answer. This results in a long list of questions and answers to memorize and often proves ineffective because the questions on the bar exam may not mirror your practice questions. Instead, note what issue the question is testing. Once you identify the issues you are missing on the practice questions, you can make a shortlist of the areas of law you need to spend more time studying. By applying this quality MBE practice, you will be able to answer any future MBE question that covers that issue!  When focusing on the issue tested as opposed to the question tested, you have a broader understanding of the concepts you’re likely to encounter on the bar exam (and therefore more opportunity to earn points!).

3. Use the practice questions as a “checkpoint”.

Use MBE practice questions as a “checkpoint” for how well you understand the subject matter. Note your problem areas from the list of incorrect answers, then work on memorization. Many students try to get around memorizing their subject outlines by spending their time maximizing the quantity of MBE practice questions they answer. Every bar taker should know that in order to master the MBE, you have to memorize the law. If you’re looking at your hefty bar outline and the thought of memorizing it all seems daunting, check out this post for tips on bar exam memorization.

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