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1. Break up your daily MBE practice into three sessions. This regimen will better allow you to readily work your MBE exercise into your day-to-day bar prep routine. And it will make your practice more productive as you’ll spend less time rereading stale fact patterns (if you tackle a page before checking the answer section) and you’ll be able to maintain focus for the duration of the training session.
2. Each session do 10-15-20 questions. The number of questions you do per session depends on how comfortable you feel on the MBE. You can look to your LSAT score, which is a “predictor” for MBE aptitude and success, for guidance regarding your study intensity; a low score on the LSAT indicates an objective test-taking weakness, in which case do 20 questions every session (or for as many sessions as possible given your daily schedule); an average LSAT should merit 15 per session; a high LSAT, the ‘need’ to do only 10 (that’s still 30 a day).Bar repeaters can base the amount of each exercise on their last scaled MBE score: below 1350, do 20 per session; 1350-1500, do 15; above 1500, 10. Don’t do more than 25 questions per session as you will become inefficient and less able to gain a handle on your (greater number of) mistakes. If work or other commitments are an issue, try to do at least 10-item sessions, and then equalize with larger workouts later in the day and/or week (but still no more than 25 at a time). You will do full simulations later.If you start prepping early, you may ramp up over time to a desirable number of sessions and/or items per session: start at 10 items per session (or 1 session each day) when three months out; 15 per (or 2 sessions daily) when two months out; and 20 per (for each of 3 sessions daily) during the month of the exam.
3. Focus on a different subject each session. For the first two weeks of your substantive review, you’ll necessarily be ready for only 2 or 3 subjects; but as you cover new material, incorporate the new subject into a rotation (heavy on the latest subject – to get it up to speed – while revisiting earlier subjects every third day). This will eventually allow you to rotate through all seven subjects thrice every week! This rotational pattern will keep the law fresh for you as you turn your focus forward to new subjects.
4. Alternate between two sets of practice materials. Since every set of materials has an “editorial style” that you will subconsciously tune into for answer cues (thus giving you a false sense of security) don’t practice just one set of materials at a time. Shift between two sets in order to break the “spell”. For instance, Monday-Tuesday, use your primary set of materials (e.g., Barpassers, Rigos or Kaplan); Wednesday-Thursday, use your secondary set (e.g., Bar/Bri, or Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE, Adaptibar, Reed, etc.); keep shifting. Two sets at a time. Guaranteed to keep you guessing.
5. Don’t i.d. the “correct” pick in your printed materials; mark your correct choice off-book. Ditto your rejected picks. Keep your materials clean/usable for a second pass (of just your mistakes). Go ahead, work up the fact pattern as you’ve been taught, and cross off the picks you reject; just be sure that after you record your answer on a separate answer sheet you also cross off (or line through, “x”, or circle, highlight, etc.) your pick. The point is to ensure that the picks remain re-pickable for another day. And don’t circle the trigger fact or the logic tumbler that you missed; keep the fact pattern re-usable as well.
See Tip 6 thru 10 Next Tips —>
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© 2015 John B. Holtz, for the
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