exam | Deceptively Blonde

It started out the same way as before, they read us the rules and handed out the tests. You had to have the white card especially today, since the NCBE # and your Applicant # had to go on the bubble answer sheets. We filled that out, and the process started.

You’re given 100 questions for both 3 hour tests, resulting in 200 questions over all. They are all multiple choice, and covered Property, Evidence, Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Contracts, and Torts. They were fairly well divided, although I though a lot of the questions were repeats of subjects (you know, repeat the same question in a different format?). I think I did better on this portion.

The worst part was the tediousness–by question 80, I was bored out of my mind with those types of questions. Reading the answers and questions over and over, you fall into a rut. Some people worked until the very end, but everyone in my row and the rows in front of me were done well ahead of time. I finished 20 minutes ahead of time for the first portion and 30 minutes ahead of time for the second portion. Of course, I never gave it a second run-through. I hate second guessing myself, I generally second guess wrong. 😛 I gave it my best shot the first time and then sat and tried to cool down.

Best Method of Answering

Follow Barbri’s recommended method. Read the answers first, mark the ones you know are wrong. Next read the call of the question, can you check off anything else? Finally read through the facts. The hardest part is falling into a rut and moving too quickly when you realize time is disappearing. It can be easy to start moving faster and missing things when you have this many questions. I try to stop and take a 1 minute break every hour. Sit back, breathe, and re-focus your mind, then tackle the next 34 questions.

Ease Measure: Medium

Tags: Bar, Bar Exam, Bar examination, Day 1, exam, first day, Iowa, Law, legal, MBE, MEE, MPT, orientation, Review, study, test

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Categories Events, Law School, Life, The Law

Bar Exam: MBE Review

25 Feb

MBE (1:30-4:45) on Day 2

Okay. . . this was MUCH worse than I had hoped. We had one hour for lunch and then we went through the same intro process again. FYI, to go to the restroom, you have to raise your hand, hide your test in Examsoft, put your files at the front, and go one at a time. Once again they give you all of the questions at once for the exam. All together you have 3 hours to do 6 essay questions. They can cover any number of topics; the list is fairly broad. I was a little upset on this one–it seemed like almost everything showed up. It seemed like most of the questions were on obscure subjects from the law. Not my favorite exam; I definitely was prepared less for this than for the MPT.

I’ll go on the record with saying that I was unaware of the answer to the first 4 essays at all. I had to get to Question 5 before I recognized anything. But it wasn’t that bad. If you read through the questions and think about what problem they are suggesting arises, you’ll hit quite a few points even if you lack the law. Think back to the original principles!

Best Method of Answering

Read all the questions (not the facts), and guess where the essay is going to fall. Then approach your best ones with 30 minutes each. Then hit up the harder ones with 20 minutes each. This leaves you time at the end to pick and choose which ones to flesh out. Honestly, you write a lot less than you think from the practice exams. The questions are 1-1 & 1/2 pages, so reading can take a while. Don’t bother with code sections; just run with what you have. If you don’t know the answer, go with common sense. WATCH YOUR TIME

Ease Measure: Very Difficult

Tags: Bar, Bar Exam, Bar examination, Day 1, exam, first day, Iowa, Law, legal, MEE, MPT, orientation, Review, study, test

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Categories Events, Law School, Life, The Law

Bar Exam: MPT Review

25 Feb

MPT (9:00-12:10) on Day 2

Definitely not as bad as I was afraid of. We arrived for the morning section and filled out the little signature cards. The room opened at 8:30 for those with laptops, so I went ahead and set up. They gave out the instructions and began; don’t forget that by the time they finish instructions, you will be starting a little late.

The MPT rules explain the many different ways that the exam can be structured; however there is a general format. Traditionally, there will be two parts–the file and the library. The file has the facts; the Library has the law. This is just a test on your writing skills; can you write an intelligent, well-thought response to the question. The questions come in many forms, and often a rarer form is thrown in to trip you up. But it seems from the state’s list of “percentage likelihood that something shows up” information that some form of brief or memorandum are the most common. The law can contain cases or code sections; often one of each. Each document has something worth noticing. The facts will have a short summary with the question, followed by supporting documents.

One came with instructions on the layout of the test, but the other did not. In general, I’d say remember to always add the To, From, Date, RE section. DON’T FORGET THAT YOU DO NOT USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW. Any statutes will be provided; it is set in a fake jurisdiction.

Best Method of Answering

My recommendation is to start with the law. Type it up verbatim on your computer along with citations. Then read the call of the questions. Lay out the law out in the pattern of the issues raised in the questions. Then fill it in with facts as you read about them. Save 5 minutes for smoothing out the sentences.

Easy Measure: Very Easy