Uniform Bar Exam Forum

[trustmouse83]

Can anyone share their experiences with the Uniform Bar Exam? I am particularly interested in the MEE and MPT sections of the exam.
I have managed to obtain a huge chunk of Barbri materials with video lectures and handouts for all of the tested subjects on both the essays and the MBE itself, and while I feel ok about the MBE having scored 129 in my last attempt having barely scratched the surface on Civ Pro in preparation, I wanted to ask some specific questions about the MEE itself and the MPT.

For the MEE, I am particularly curious about how an answer would be laid out for the grader. Is it as simple as IRAC?
The reason I ask is that I am used to preparing for the NY Bar, where one begins answering essay questions with sentences like
"Under the NY EPTL, or Under the NY GOL" etc. Is there an accepted equivalent for the MEE?
I feel like it might be something like "under the minority view, or under the majority view" where applicable but the severe lack of past papers or sample answers online really causes me to wonder how to begin to write the answer.

Does anyone know where I could find some above average sample answers, or can anyone shed any light on this at all? Is there a reasonably inexpensive book that might help that people have used before and recommend? I was also very fond of the approach of smart bar prep for the NY bar in highlighting the frequency of the tested subjects and issues, and wondered is there an equivalent anywhere for the MEE?

For the MPT, this is what really troubles me. I am foreign educated and have never taken a legal writing course. I truly struggle with this area of the exam, and have never broken 45 in all my previous attempts. The fact that there will now be 2 MPT's as opposed to the previous 1 is doubly troubling. Can anyone point me in the right direction of proven methods that would help me increase my score? There does seem to be so many different suggestions out there that I find it all the more confusing trying to wade through it all.

And finally, does the notion of autopass with a high enough MBE score transfer over to the UBE at all? I feel like if I devoted enough time to civ pro this time around I would be able to break 140 and help make up for any deficiencies in other areas of the test.

Thanks for reading all that, and I look forward to any input anyone can give me.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I took a UBE exam. I think that the "high MBE=autopass" idea holds some weight, since the MBE is weighted at half the exam, but do different jurisdictions require different passing scores? (I can't remember.) I don't think you can tank all your essays but I think the idea that focusing on MBE subjects will get you through tends to hold good (since a bunch of the essays will address MBE topics).

Using IRAC should be fine. Just skip the "Under [whatever source of law]" and go straight to the law. (Instead of "Under the NY EPTL, a trust requires elements A, B, and C," just start with "A trust requires elements A, B, and C." Or instead of "Under the NY EPTL, the trust is valid because...." just write "The trust is valid because...")

There are past essays with analyses available at the MEE site: http://www.ncbex.org/exams/mee/preparing/ (that links to older, free ones, but you can also buy other, more recent ones at the NCBE Study Aids Store linked from the MEE page somewhere). As for frequency of tested subjects, I know bar prep courses will give you that info, but I don't know if there are independent resources for that.

I can't say much about the MPT - in my jurisdiction this was very easy, but mostly because it relied on legal writing skills that US law students learn during law school, so there was little need to prepare. My impression is also that the MPT on the UBE is much easier than/a different beast from the MPT on the California exam, which is difficult and requires a fair amount of prep.

[trustmouse83]

I took a UBE exam. I think that the "high MBE=autopass" idea holds some weight, since the MBE is weighted at half the exam, but do different jurisdictions require different passing scores? (I can't remember.) I don't think you can tank all your essays but I think the idea that focusing on MBE subjects will get you through tends to hold good (since a bunch of the essays will address MBE topics).

Using IRAC should be fine. Just skip the "Under [whatever source of law]" and go straight to the law. (Instead of "Under the NY EPTL, a trust requires elements A, B, and C," just start with "A trust requires elements A, B, and C." Or instead of "Under the NY EPTL, the trust is valid because...." just write "The trust is valid because...")

There are past essays with analyses available at the MEE site: http://www.ncbex.org/exams/mee/preparing/ (that links to older, free ones, but you can also buy other, more recent ones at the NCBE Study Aids Store linked from the MEE page somewhere). As for frequency of tested subjects, I know bar prep courses will give you that info, but I don't know if there are independent resources for that.

I can't say much about the MPT - in my jurisdiction this was very easy, but mostly because it relied on legal writing skills that US law students learn during law school, so there was little need to prepare. My impression is also that the MPT on the UBE is much easier than/a different beast from the MPT on the California exam, which is difficult and requires a fair amount of prep.

Thanks for the answer.
I should say that, yes different jurisdictions have different passing scores. NY requires 266.
Is it then fair to say that the MPT's used previously in NY, and the MPT's on the UBE are of different levels of difficulty? That would be great if it were true. I was always under the impression that all students, both UBE and state bar exam takers, took the same MPT's as they were all drafted by NCBEX. Perhaps I had that wrong...

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't know about NY, I just know that people here have said that you have to prepare for them in the context of the California bar. But I don't know if California uses the same MPTs as on the UBE - people always talk about it differently. Also I think non-UBE jurisdictions can give different amounts of time?

(As for different scores - I meant that I thought even different UBE jurisdictions score the same exam differently. But is NY UBE now? Maybe we mean the same thing.)