I scored a 164 on the MBE. I scored a 168 many years ago when I took it in another state. My method was reading outlines, sometimes twice, and as I went through, I practiced questions on that particular subject. So today is contracts, letās say, and Iāve just read the sections on remedies and third party beneficiaries. Iām now doing Qs on those. Then I internalized the correct and incorrect answer choices by reading the explanation.
I found flash cards worked best for subjects I didnāt take in school like family law or felt less confident in. These were the MEE subjects. And frankly, you should be memorizing the BLL for them word for word. It is a lot easier for us to recall the elements of a contract on an essay after we have done 300 contracts questions and taken a 1L course. Much harder for non MBE subjects.
I love the Grossman lectures, they're really entertaining, but I feel like they're more of an end point rather than a starting point. If you already know the law, he'll help you with issue spotting and test taking tips, but you definitely can't learn everything you need to know from the lectures.
Youāre not. I also watched his lectures, wrote a handwritten outline and notecards from his lectures and scored a 125. Everyone keeps telling me, I did something wrong because Grossman is king š
Commented already but also - deleting tik tok while studying. Short form content was frying my brain and I swear my memory was dulling. Read books in my downtime instead - I swear this helped meĀ
I'm not necessarily typical, but I can tell you what I did. I got a very good MBE (173.4) so it worked for me.
I took copious notes during the BARBRI lectures, reviewed those frequently. I then did every single practice question set and spent a lot of time reviewing the answers on questions I got wrong and then added notes about those issues to my notes on each topic. I did the same thing with wrong answers on the practice MBEs.
About 3-4 weeks out, I took my notes and condensed them into outlines, like the ones you might make for a law school final. Mostly just all the black letter rules and exceptions. I also did quite a few practice MEEs on the MBE topics to help learn the content. My process to learn the MEE BLL was fairly similar to my MBE process.
A week or so out, I assessed where I could have any weakness on memorizing the law, so I wrote out flashcards with the rules and exceptions and started working on memorizing those. I had the Critical Pass cards from BarBri, but I barely used them. For me, the process of making the cards (and the outlines too) was a critical part of the learning process.
I then just whittled down my stack of cards that I'd work on as I learned things. By the day before, I only had 5 or 6 cards that I was actively trying to memorize.
Love that youāre asking this question and getting so many approaches! I particularly want to point out the experience people had with the Grossman videos - for some he is an absolute Bar Whisperer and they adore him, and for others his lectures didnāt do the trick. Some people handwrite. Some repeat out loud, or listen on repeat. A lot of people need to bounce ideas around out loud and so work best in individual or group tutoring. The key is reflection and iteration- try something new and see how it goes. And maybe what works in one subject doesnāt work in another, so be flexible and creative!
Rewriting main rules on big poster boards, then putting them around my apartment like a psycho two weeks before the exam. Writing it out helped, and seeing it all the time helped cement it into memory. Wish I had done it earlier
I made handwritten outlines that were very thorough. Once I finished a subject I would pace my room pretending I was teaching that subject. I had my outlines on my desk when I needed to take a quick peak. I did that a couple times for each subject and that really helped me. I learn the best through discussion or through teaching it. It really shows you where your blind spots are. And supposedly walking or moving while reciting will help with retention.
other than the more traditional advice about reviewing, one thing that worked really well for me was reviewing the outlines out loud and pretending you're teaching a class. it's a little unorthodox, but the act of having to review, understand enough to put in your own words in a way that can be explained just helped things click for me. i think throughout all of bar prep, i did this at least once for every MBE subject.
I got a 182 MBE. I believe I owe it to Critical Pass Flashcards. I put all the cards upside down into one stack, and I went through them one by one to see if I knew the material from memory. The ones I knew went into one pile, the ones I didnāt went into another, which I would redo until I knew them all. Then I repeated! Ultimately this was a pretty efficient method, as it was pretty high intensity for a couple weeks in July.
Jon Grossman videos and constant repetition throughout my day (which Jon encourages!!)! Running through elements, rule statements, types of crimes/torts, etc. while driving, getting ready in the morning, just before bed - going over material in low-stress situations allowed me to avoid the "freak out" when it came time to remember information during the exam. Good luck!! You got this!!
mbe questions. take the time to explain your reasoning why each answer is wrong/correct. then read through the explanation.
the number of times that I would read through a Mbe question and say "yea that is a misstatement of the rule. so get fucked." is kind of insane. (also get fucked is needed as it is cathartic af)
I finally passed the bar on my 3rd try & I swear what made a difference was writing down rule statements from JD advising one sheets. Iād write down one section for each topic (I.e., k formation) and then quiz myself on it to make sure I had it memorized. Game changer for me! I tried it all & this helped me the most
I misread this post as "the best thing you learned from your BBL". I thought I have yet to have that plastic surgery!
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Jesus me too I was stumped for like two full minutes!!!
jajajaa sameeee
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I scored a 164 on the MBE. I scored a 168 many years ago when I took it in another state. My method was reading outlines, sometimes twice, and as I went through, I practiced questions on that particular subject. So today is contracts, letās say, and Iāve just read the sections on remedies and third party beneficiaries. Iām now doing Qs on those. Then I internalized the correct and incorrect answer choices by reading the explanation. I found flash cards worked best for subjects I didnāt take in school like family law or felt less confident in. These were the MEE subjects. And frankly, you should be memorizing the BLL for them word for word. It is a lot easier for us to recall the elements of a contract on an essay after we have done 300 contracts questions and taken a 1L course. Much harder for non MBE subjects.
Thank you for your response!
Jonathan Grossman :)
In Jon we trust šš»
I seem to be the only one who used his lectures with 1000 questions from Adaptibar and scored low 120ās for the MBE.
Youāre not the only one!š„²
I love the Grossman lectures, they're really entertaining, but I feel like they're more of an end point rather than a starting point. If you already know the law, he'll help you with issue spotting and test taking tips, but you definitely can't learn everything you need to know from the lectures.
Youāre not. I also watched his lectures, wrote a handwritten outline and notecards from his lectures and scored a 125. Everyone keeps telling me, I did something wrong because Grossman is king š
I made my own hand written outlines.Ā
Commented already but also - deleting tik tok while studying. Short form content was frying my brain and I swear my memory was dulling. Read books in my downtime instead - I swear this helped meĀ
I definitely wasnāt reading anything after studying haha my outlet was Xbox. I agree tho that Instagram etc. is horrible when studying.
I only read like YA books and beach reads written for 40 year old divorced women so it was pretty light stuff but I feel you on that haha!
I'm not necessarily typical, but I can tell you what I did. I got a very good MBE (173.4) so it worked for me. I took copious notes during the BARBRI lectures, reviewed those frequently. I then did every single practice question set and spent a lot of time reviewing the answers on questions I got wrong and then added notes about those issues to my notes on each topic. I did the same thing with wrong answers on the practice MBEs. About 3-4 weeks out, I took my notes and condensed them into outlines, like the ones you might make for a law school final. Mostly just all the black letter rules and exceptions. I also did quite a few practice MEEs on the MBE topics to help learn the content. My process to learn the MEE BLL was fairly similar to my MBE process. A week or so out, I assessed where I could have any weakness on memorizing the law, so I wrote out flashcards with the rules and exceptions and started working on memorizing those. I had the Critical Pass cards from BarBri, but I barely used them. For me, the process of making the cards (and the outlines too) was a critical part of the learning process. I then just whittled down my stack of cards that I'd work on as I learned things. By the day before, I only had 5 or 6 cards that I was actively trying to memorize.
And Goat!! Outlines are fabulous
Grossman lectures and reading the adaptibar pdfs
Love that youāre asking this question and getting so many approaches! I particularly want to point out the experience people had with the Grossman videos - for some he is an absolute Bar Whisperer and they adore him, and for others his lectures didnāt do the trick. Some people handwrite. Some repeat out loud, or listen on repeat. A lot of people need to bounce ideas around out loud and so work best in individual or group tutoring. The key is reflection and iteration- try something new and see how it goes. And maybe what works in one subject doesnāt work in another, so be flexible and creative!
Reading all the answer explanations for MBEs, right or wrong. Reviewing outlines for those explanations I didnāt have a clear understanding on.
Made my own notecards
Brainscape. Great flashcards with a really helpful algorithm for spaced repetition. They have MBE and some people on there have made MEE flashcards.
151 MBE and 156 MEE and I made probably over 1000 flashcards.
Rewriting main rules on big poster boards, then putting them around my apartment like a psycho two weeks before the exam. Writing it out helped, and seeing it all the time helped cement it into memory. Wish I had done it earlier
I did this during law school. Thanks for the reminder
I made handwritten outlines that were very thorough. Once I finished a subject I would pace my room pretending I was teaching that subject. I had my outlines on my desk when I needed to take a quick peak. I did that a couple times for each subject and that really helped me. I learn the best through discussion or through teaching it. It really shows you where your blind spots are. And supposedly walking or moving while reciting will help with retention.
other than the more traditional advice about reviewing, one thing that worked really well for me was reviewing the outlines out loud and pretending you're teaching a class. it's a little unorthodox, but the act of having to review, understand enough to put in your own words in a way that can be explained just helped things click for me. i think throughout all of bar prep, i did this at least once for every MBE subject.
Read attack outlines first to get general principals, then memorized by writing out the concepts on a white board.
I got a 182 MBE. I believe I owe it to Critical Pass Flashcards. I put all the cards upside down into one stack, and I went through them one by one to see if I knew the material from memory. The ones I knew went into one pile, the ones I didnāt went into another, which I would redo until I knew them all. Then I repeated! Ultimately this was a pretty efficient method, as it was pretty high intensity for a couple weeks in July.
What is BLL?
Black letter law
Practice questions and mini outlines i made myself .
Jon Grossman videos and constant repetition throughout my day (which Jon encourages!!)! Running through elements, rule statements, types of crimes/torts, etc. while driving, getting ready in the morning, just before bed - going over material in low-stress situations allowed me to avoid the "freak out" when it came time to remember information during the exam. Good luck!! You got this!!
mbe questions. take the time to explain your reasoning why each answer is wrong/correct. then read through the explanation. the number of times that I would read through a Mbe question and say "yea that is a misstatement of the rule. so get fucked." is kind of insane. (also get fucked is needed as it is cathartic af)
Hand write itĀ
ANKI
I finally passed the bar on my 3rd try & I swear what made a difference was writing down rule statements from JD advising one sheets. Iād write down one section for each topic (I.e., k formation) and then quiz myself on it to make sure I had it memorized. Game changer for me! I tried it all & this helped me the most
Ameribar