Top Law Schools

How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

tepper wrote:How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

The general consensus at least for people currently prepping is that the Barbri MBEs are more difficult

Law-So-Hard wrote:

tepper wrote:How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

The general consensus at least for people currently prepping is that the Barbri MBEs are more difficult

I like your screen name, especially now.

tepper wrote:How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

BarBri prepares you well because it's questions are harder. In fact, there is simply no doubt in my mind that the BarBri questions are significantly harder. The actual MBE's questions are generally shorter, and do not test the "deep dive" stuff that BarBri buries in its CMR.

Put it this way, there are 3 types of questions you face on the MBE: (1) you are 95% sure of the answer, (2) you can narrow it down to two answers and make an eduated guess, and (3) you have no clue. Here is my rough estimate of BarBri's use of those questions v. MBE.

BB: 95% sure - 40 questions; 50/50 - 120 questions; No Clue: 40 questions
MBE: 95% sure - 75 questions; 50/50 - 110 questions; No Clue - 15 questions

This is rough, and obviously depends on how prepared you are, but you get the picture. BarBri has fewer gimmes and more WTFs. The 50/50s are about the same. But in my experience, even the 50/50 BarBri questions are just unnecessarily impossible. I've come across a few questions on topics I know inside and out from private practice (for example, I've written 20-page memos on the topic) and I didn't what the correct answer was.

Hope this helps.

I posted this in the CA Bar thread, but it is relevant here too:

For those worried about the MBE and don't trust the scores they are getting from BarBri, I'd suggest spending $50 and taking one of the NBCE 100-question tests found here: http://store.ncbex.org/

I took another bar exam a few years ago and remember the actual MBE being easier than the BarBri practice I had done. Most notably, the actual MBE questions are shorter. After going through some BarBri tests and getting scores lower than I wanted, and almost not finishing 100 questions in under 3 hours, I was starting to get concerned. I took a practice MBE from NBCE and (1) scored higher (about 10%) and (2) finished much earlier than I anticipated. The questions from NBCE are more what I remember from that actual MBE, and many of the ones I missed were because I misread the prompt, not because I was "tricked" by some asinine rule like the BarBri questions. And the analysis that the test spits back also gives you a breakdown where you fit relative to the average.

I thought it was worth the $50. My .02.

I found the BarBri questions were comparable enough that they prepared me well for the MBE - there were at least a few occasions where I'd read the MBE question and knew exactly what they were looking for because I remembered BarBri testing the same thing.

Caveat: I took the bar a few years ago now.

CalBar2014 wrote:

tepper wrote:How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

BarBri prepares you well because it's questions are harder. In fact, there is simply no doubt in my mind that the BarBri questions are significantly harder. The actual MBE's questions are generally shorter, and do not test the "deep dive" stuff that BarBri buries in its CMR.

Put it this way, there are 3 types of questions you face on the MBE: (1) you are 95% sure of the answer, (2) you can narrow it down to two answers and make an eduated guess, and (3) you have no clue. Here is my rough estimate of BarBri's use of those questions v. MBE.

BB: 95% sure - 40 questions; 50/50 - 120 questions; No Clue: 40 questions
MBE: 95% sure - 75 questions; 50/50 - 110 questions; No Clue - 15 questions

This is rough, and obviously depends on how prepared you are, but you get the picture. BarBri has fewer gimmes and more WTFs. The 50/50s are about the same. But in my experience, even the 50/50 BarBri questions are just unnecessarily impossible. I've come across a few questions on topics I know inside and out from private practice (for example, I've written 20-page memos on the topic) and I didn't what the correct answer was.

Hope this helps.

I posted this in the CA Bar thread, but it is relevant here too:

For those worried about the MBE and don't trust the scores they are getting from BarBri, I'd suggest spending $50 and taking one of the NBCE 100-question tests found here: http://store.ncbex.org/

I took another bar exam a few years ago and remember the actual MBE being easier than the BarBri practice I had done. Most notably, the actual MBE questions are shorter. After going through some BarBri tests and getting scores lower than I wanted, and almost not finishing 100 questions in under 3 hours, I was starting to get concerned. I took a practice MBE from NBCE and (1) scored higher (about 10%) and (2) finished much earlier than I anticipated. The questions from NBCE are more what I remember from that actual MBE, and many of the ones I missed were because I misread the prompt, not because I was "tricked" by some asinine rule like the BarBri questions. And the analysis that the test spits back also gives you a breakdown where you fit relative to the average.

I thought it was worth the $50. My .02.

very helpful, thanks.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:I found the BarBri questions were comparable enough that they prepared me well for the MBE - there were at least a few occasions where I'd read the MBE question and knew exactly what they were looking for because I remembered BarBri testing the same thing.

Caveat: I took the bar a few years ago now.

also helpful, thanks.

tepper wrote:

Law-So-Hard wrote:

tepper wrote:How did you guys feel when you sat for the MBE? Did you feel barbri prepared you well? was the MBE harder or easier compare to Barbri questions in your opinion? Thanks.

The general consensus at least for people currently prepping is that the Barbri MBEs are more difficult

I like your screen name, especially now.