Feb 2016 MEE & MPT (UBE states) Forum

[swtlilsoni]

I know the MBE topic got too specific, but people are saying essays are okay to discuss?
Regardless, please keep this to general concept discussion rather than specific fact-patterns.

Curious to hear what you all thought of MEE & MPT.

I thought the second MPT was crazy long since there were two writings required!
For MEE, I studied only MBE topics, so I only knew 2/6 and guessed on the other 4

[LawGamer]

I thought the MPTs were fine. Felt OK about the first one and pretty good about the second. Law school should have prepared you for the first MPT. As far as the second goes, while I actually think it was probably a better question in the sense of actually evaluating someone's capacity to be a lawyer, it's one of those things that your level of preparedness would be highly dependent on your coursework/prior practice. Not every school requires pre-trial as a course, and that's where you likely would have encountered demand letters.

If you'd something like that before, and understood the format enough to know you didn't need to write a dissertation, it was easy peasy. If you were just having to wing it in an unfamiliar format and were trying to cram in a ton of law with cites and everything, I think it would be pretty frustrating and I could easily see how time would have been a problem.

As far as the MEEs go, it was surprising to see 4/6 being essay only topics, as my bar prep course had not led to me believe that would happen. As far as content, the Secured Transactions and Evidence questions were exactly on point for what the bar prep course prepared me for. Con Law wasn't a topic covered by my courses' practice essays, but I still felt like I knew the material. The only one I felt was really off base was the PoA/Wills questions, since the bar prep materials I had gave us all of one tiny paragraph on it. Thankfully, I actually practice in that area in a different state from where I took the bar, so I dredged up enough law to answer. The downside is it was state-specific law, but it was at least enough to muddle through.

My main problem was I could definitely feel myself getting tired as the day went on. Pretty sure I was just writing gibberish by the time the final Family Law question came along.

[fearless16]

I felt pretty good on both MPTs, even with the time crunch on the longer ones. It was the two essays (con law, POA/wills) that hemmed me up. I think I muddled through the con law one with some actual rules but the POA/wills was purely a hail Mary based on what I know of POAs in practice (I work in healthcare compliance) and what I could remember from wills. I'm feeling 50/50 on passage at this point.

[longtimelurker123]

I felt pretty good on both MPTs, even with the time crunch on the longer ones. It was the two essays (con law, POA/wills) that hemmed me up. I think I muddled through the con law one with some actual rules but the POA/wills was purely a hail Mary based on what I know of POAs in practice (I work in healthcare compliance) and what I could remember from wills. I'm feeling 50/50 on passage at this point.

Same here. Con law and POA/wills just had me making stuff up. I think I correctly remembered a few buzz words to sprinkle in there but otherwise it was total bogus. I feel 60/40 I passed with the advantage being solely that I took the bar in an easier jurisdiction (DC).

[BVest]

Could someone share with me what the two MPTs were this February? Not the actual questions, just what the assignments were, e.g. client letter, memorandum, brief language, etc. I'll update the OP in my thread about past exams.

[LawGamer]

Could someone share with me what the two MPTs were this February? Not the actual questions, just what the assignments were, e.g. client letter, memorandum, brief language, etc. I'll update the OP in my thread about past exams.

For the MN exam, MPT 1 was a memo. MPT 2 was a two-part question. The first part had you writing a demand letter for tort damages and the second part was a memo to the partner analyzing what amount of damages should be requested.