Tools and tactics for the MBE

Brian Hahn

Ah yes, the MBE, everyone's favorite multiple-guess section...

1.8 minutes per question for 6 hours.

Paranoia from seeing seven C's in a row on your answer sheet.

50/50 choices that make you go, "What's with this ultimate decision?"

Up to 50% of your bar exam score hangs on a series of letters. I don't mean essays and performance tests, which are also a series of letters.

Wow! Sounds important. (So are these 3 high-priority areas that take up 21% of the MBE.)

For some people, the MBE comes easily, while it seems impossible for others.

While the MBE is a formidable portion of the bar, improving on it is figure-out-able.

Here are 3 strategies for long-term success on the MBE, along with tools you can use with them:

1) Quality > quantity. (What does this even mean?)

Who do you think is going to do better on the MBE?

Person A: The person who grinded out 3,000 questions and vaguely retained the concepts.

Person B: The person who did 1,000 questions, struggled to learn 1,000 times, and can get most of those right if done again a few weeks later.

My bet is on Person B. I'd rather have you master 1,000 questions than go through the motions of 3,000 questions without learning from them.

In other words, it's more about the quality of learning than the quantity of practice questions. It's less about how many or how fast you blast through to check off some assignment box.

How well do you review them? How well do you understand them? This will later translate to how fast you can do them.

More precisely, don't sacrifice quality for quantity. You still want both. Do get broad coverage of the tested issues. More is better, just not if you're merely going through the motions and not taking anything away from your work.

Attempting the questions is like getting on the scale. The real learning happens off the scale, when you review the answer explanations and internalize why you got something wrong. What you do between sessions is what changes the reading on the scale.

You can make sense of what each question was testing you by thoroughly studying the answer explanations for each answer choice for each question you get wrong and right. Just because you were correct doesn't mean you were right.

Each question is an opportunity to validate your understanding (if you chose the credited answer) or to learn the legal principle and how to apply it (if you chose a wrong answer).

2) Track your "win rate" by smaller categories, and use this data to target your weaker areas.

"I'm hitting 70% correct." You might think you're on the way to passing the MBE. And you might be right.

But it's also not uncommon to hear someone say, "I hit 75-80% in practice but didn't score that well on the MBE."

It seems like everyone merely tracks their overall MBE percentage score, which is fine. But it's possible that you're awesome in one subject yet not so much in another. Your overall percentage doesn't reveal this!

What if you're getting almost all hearsay questions wrong? What if you're getting 90% in Criminal Law and 40% in Criminal Procedure? That's still a respectable 65% on average.

How would this translate to your essay performance if those weak topics show up there?

Track smaller categories and topics. This way, you can pay more attention to your weakest subjects and subtopics until they're no longer your weakest.

These weak areas are low-hanging fruits you can slap into shape, which will naturally raise your overall score.

There are also highly tested topics worth prioritizing.

3) Practice largely with authentic MBE questions.

To prepare for essays, you'd use actual past bar exam questions.

Similarly, for the MBE, you want to incorporate actual past exam questions. Simulated questions have their place, especially for grinding a weak topic without burning through your real question bank. But you want to practice with the same style of questions you'll see on the actual MBE.

What to use to do all of this.

AdaptiBar and UWorld are both excellent MBE practice platforms with questions licensed from the NCBE and their own simulated questions.

Not sure which one is right for you? You can find a comparison of AdaptiBar vs. UWorld here (plus discount codes).

If budget is a concern, Strategies & Tactics for the MBE by Steven Emanuel has excellent explanations at roughly a quarter of the price.

You'll be set if you go for either AdaptiBar or UWorld. In most cases, one of these should be enough. If you add Strategies & Tactics, go through it cover to cover.

Whatever you decide to do, implement the above strategies with these tools. Then you'll be well on your way to seeing scores trend higher on your next practice sets and ultimately the MBE.

Brian is the founder and chief strategist at Make This Your Last Time, a patent attorney, and second-time passer of the California Bar Exam after figuring out what works and what doesn't. He's been writing about actionable and effective bar prep since 2014, helping tens of thousands of bar takers across the country pass the exam.