How many essays? Forum

[xonimi]

I hear a lot about how many MBE questions people do but I haven't noticed much regarding the essay portions. Since I'm terrible at multiple choice questions, I've just focused on the MBE and neglected the essay part up until now. I'm wondering how many I should be writing out or issue spotting. And should I be doing them closed book? I'm finding it difficult to write out an essay when I don't know the BLL enough to spot most of the issues.

[FinallyPassedTheBar]

What review materials are you working with? Do you have a BarEsassys.com membership?

I would say at this point at least do 2 outlines every day or every other day. open book Then 2 full essays per week closed book.

[justanotheruser]

I'm wondering how many I should be writing out or issue spotting. And should I be doing them closed book? I'm finding it difficult to write out an essay when I don't know the BLL enough to spot most of the issues.

YMMV, but this was roughly my approach (10-week full-time study schedule). The materials I used were Mary Basick's book and BarEssays.

For the first 2, maybe 3, essays per subject, I wrote out full essays with open book (Basick book) with a 2-hour time limit. This was the time for me to embrace all the uncertainty and fear I had and dive in the deep end.

Then for the next 7-8 essays per subject, I did full outlines (closed book). Just out of sheer repetition and comparing to various answers on BarEssays, this was the stage when I started absorbing rule statements and whatnot via osmosis. I also did not worry/care about memorizing rule statements verbatim... it was fine for me to memorize rules in my own words.

Finally, for the last 1.5 to 2 weeks, I only issue-spotted for essays. I ended up repeating a few essays. This was the stage when I sharpened my use of checklists, mnemonics, and making sure I was finding as many issues as possible. If there was an issue spotted for which I was iffy on the rule statement, I wrote that statement down on a separate google doc.

Hope this helps.

[pfunkera]

I am pretty decent at essays so I waited until the last week or two when I had time off work. I wrote full answers under timed conditions for roughly 2 questions in each subject. From there, I just outlined the questions and checked it against the outline answer in Barbri. You quickly realize you need to address all the facts provided to get max points. I ended up completing or outlining about 3-5 practice essays for each subject. Your MBE studies prepare you for essays as well. I didn't even do a property essay until 2 days before the exam. I would not recommend that, but it worked out for me.

[PoliLaw]

12 essays for each subject. 6 complete timed essays. 6 issue spot and relevant fact spot. If you dont know the black letter law you should still be able to spot when something is in issue, you just dont know the rule.

[LaShuanMichelle]

I took the Feb Bar in DC & scored a 257, so I missed the minimum score by 9 points. Good news is I do not have to retake the MBE portion since I scored above 133. However, I only scored 119 on the MPT/MEE portion of the exam, so I am looking for any help on what tools to use to tackle the MPT/MEE. I feel like I know the content, I think I struggle with formatting.

I am one week into studying and so far I’m focused on refreshing my memory on the topics. Any guidance any one can offer on how to pass the MPT/MEE portion of the exam would be greatly appreciated!

[Neve]

In Texas, we did 12 essays plus the MPT. I devoted about 10 days to just mastering the topics/learning black letter law for the essays. I also reviewed in detail all essays on the bar for 10 years back. Essay topics are frequently recycled in Texas. I didn't write any essays out except those that Barbri assigned, but on the exam itself I just followed CIRAC format. I am glad that I didn't ignore the essays since I believe I received top marks on them.