Want quick bottom lines about how to get a higher score on the MBE? Here is the Master MBE Method.
Our materials for the Multistate Bar Examination include a series of video seminars that go over a couple hundred MBE questions. Each lesson is fully self-contained; work in any order you wish. Often it is advisable to coordinate your work on the MBE with your essay practice. Here are the seminars:
On each of the seminar pages, you’ll find this content:
- The MBE questions for the instant subject, in a PDF file
- An answer key for all subjects, also in PDF form
- A ‘click-to-play’ link for a flash format video seminar that reviews the questions and answers.
The idea is to work your way through the questions first, not necessarily under test-taking conditions. Read carefully and think before you answer. When you’re done, check your answers against the key. Try to figure out which of your errors are “dumb reading errors” and which are the result of not knowing the material. Finally, watch the video and follow my analysis. I’ll tell you why the right pick is correct and also why each of the other picks is wrong.
Try to keep track of your mistakes in a couple of ways. Obviously it makes sense to be aware of the topics you’re making mistakes on – your practice can “fuel your study” by showing you what you don’t know. Using the Pearce Micro Review, you can annotate the outline of each subject with the black letter details you make mistakes on. Many successful students make flash cards from their mistakes, too. Creating the flash card reinforces your law knowledge, and it’s easy to review flash cards during times when it is less practical to do practice essays or MBE work.
Also try to keep track of what kind of “question structure” tends to trip you up. Is it the tiered question? Is it the one that asks for the plaintiff or defendant’s weakest argument? If you can identify the questions you tend to have reading problems on you will be more alert during your future practice.
These MBE seminars are not meant to be exhaustive – they’re meant to focus your attention on the most important material, and to help you develop a consistent method of analysis that will work under real-world conditions. Do as much MBE practice as time and common sense will allow.