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bigstumpdriver wrote:I'm getting smoked on the MPQs. Consistently scoring below the average by 1-2. I've kept up with the paced program so far, but it pretty much eats my day up. Any advice?

Worst thing about BarBri besides the scare tactics is that they give you way too much stuff to sift through. If you want to be more efficient - find what is working for you within the BarBri course and work from there. If the lecture/outlines are jogging your memory and you're staying afloat with the questions cut back on the CMR. I found the opposite route much more effective. Cut out the lectures and the outlines and study from the CMR, review the material using AMP, burn through question sets. I found a greater emphasis studying out of the CMR allowed me to cover the gap between the material touched on in the lecture and asked in the question sets. The only ones (aside from a silly mistake/sloppy reading) I was getting wrong at the point were ones they pulled from the huge outline that weren't covered in the CMR or only lightly touched upon. Then I was hitting at/slightly above/slightly below the average scores and did terrific on the MBE. It is almost impossible to stay in step with BarBri's breakneck pace all the way through - use what is working for you and cut back on the excess stuff BarBri is telling you to do.

Get used to seeing a range of scores from your question sets. You will start scoring well on one set and then bomb the next with no rhyme or reason. It happens to almost everyone except for the people who get it naturally. Consistently being slightly below the average is not bad - BarBri proclaims that their questions are harder than the MBE and they are right in the sense that BarBri's questions are worded in a far more convoluted way than what the NCBE does. You are more likely to see a question on an area of law that you just don't have the answer to on the MBE than a poorly worded/ambiguous question where you understand the concept, but get it wrong because you aren't thinking like a BarBri question creator out to get you. It's still early. You see the greatest gains in the last 3 weeks where you have adjusted to Barbri's madness and can see the subtleties much more effectively.
And as much as BarBri is not a perfect program, you do have to adjust to getting strings of questions wrong. That's the way the MBE plays out - you will have groupings of questions where you either have no clue or can get the answer down to two choices and refine from there, but you are still not sure. That's probably the best preparation BarBri gives you - learning to adjust to not getting remotely near everything right.

bigstumpdriver wrote:I'm getting smoked on the MPQs. Consistently scoring below the average by 1-2. I've kept up with the paced program so far, but it pretty much eats my day up. Any advice?

review in detail the questions you got wrong. Determine why you got it wrong (i.e., did you misread something, didn't understand a rule, ect). If it is a rule that you were unsure of, write it down on a list. Review that list daily. I found it helpful to break down the anatomy of these questions. After a while, everything looked the same.

I separated this list into the substantive areas. (i.e., Con Law, Contracts, ect.). I reviewed my notes for wrong answers daily.

The purpose of keeping this running list is to prevent the same question from fooling you a second time.

duskfall wrote:

bigstumpdriver wrote:I'm getting smoked on the MPQs. Consistently scoring below the average by 1-2. I've kept up with the paced program so far, but it pretty much eats my day up. Any advice?

review in detail the questions you got wrong. Determine why you got it wrong (i.e., did you misread something, didn't understand a rule, ect). If it is a rule that you were unsure of, write it down on a list. Review that list daily. I found it helpful to break down the anatomy of these questions. After a while, everything looked the same.

I separated this list into the substantive areas. (i.e., Con Law, Contracts, ect.). I reviewed my notes for wrong answers daily.

The purpose of keeping this running list is to prevent the same question from fooling you a second time.

This actually seems like a really good idea. I've just been reviewing my wrong answers, but I will definitely start doing this.

duskfall wrote:

bigstumpdriver wrote:I'm getting smoked on the MPQs. Consistently scoring below the average by 1-2. I've kept up with the paced program so far, but it pretty much eats my day up. Any advice?

review in detail the questions you got wrong. Determine why you got it wrong (i.e., did you misread something, didn't understand a rule, ect). If it is a rule that you were unsure of, write it down on a list. Review that list daily. I found it helpful to break down the anatomy of these questions. After a while, everything looked the same.

I separated this list into the substantive areas. (i.e., Con Law, Contracts, ect.). I reviewed my notes for wrong answers daily.

The purpose of keeping this running list is to prevent the same question from fooling you a second time.

Thanks. I will do this. I'm doing okay on the essays, consistently in 'passing' with only one 'slightly below passing' which I'm guessing is good enough for this point.

bigstumpdriver wrote: I'm doing okay on the essays, consistently in 'passing' with only one 'slightly below passing' which I'm guessing is good enough for this point.

Where do we learn if we are passing the essays??