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I just found out that I failed the MPRE for the fourth time. Should I abandon law at all?

Are you a current student? If so, where? And how did you prep for the exam?

I am a LL.M graduate from a T-14 school. I prepared it by doing the Kaplan exam questions, but when it comes to the actual test, I just couldn't get a good grip on the exam.

waterville wrote:I just found out that I failed the MPRE for the fourth time. Should I abandon law at all?

Do the free Themis and Barbri course, and all the practice problems they offer.
If you still can't pass, then I don't really know.

waterville wrote:I am a LL.M graduate from a T-14 school. I prepared it by doing the Kaplan exam questions, but when it comes to the actual test, I just couldn't get a good grip on the exam.

No. Study, prepare more and take it until you pass it. The MPRE has no correlation to how good of a lawyer you may become, just like the MEE and MBE. However, you can't practice without it. So you've got to take it again.

kellyfrost wrote:

waterville wrote:I am a LL.M graduate from a T-14 school. I prepared it by doing the Kaplan exam questions, but when it comes to the actual test, I just couldn't get a good grip on the exam.

No. Study, prepare more and take it until you pass it. The MPRE has no correlation to how good of a lawyer you may become, just like the MEE and MBE. However, you can't practice without it. So you've got to take it again.

This.

I took it 3 times passed on the 4th. Keep taking it. The first time I just did questions and scored 84 - you need an 86 in California. I then studied the law with little questions and failed again - got a 84. Barely studied the third time and got a 76.

For the last time I studied the rules and took notes on every question I got wrong. Before I did a new set of questions I read the notes of the ones I got wrong. I did the over and over for 2-3 weeks and got a 101 on the fourth try.

Keep your head in the game it's a stupid test

waterville wrote:I just found out that I failed the MPRE for the fourth time. Should I abandon law at all?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

One of my best friends took the MPRE 9 times. After we graduated she still hadn't passed so she took the CT bar and passed the first time. She then continued with taking the MPRE 3 more times and on the 9th time she passed. I have faith that it wont take you 9 tries but NEVER give up!!

One reason why some students fail the MPRE or do so poorly in a law school ethics course is because they are overly cautious. You have to recognize, legal ethics is not a subject matter on morality and the truths of rights vs. wrong. Ethics is a subject matter focused on where the line is. If you approach studying and the exam with this frame of mind, you will note that there are trap answers on the exam that appear to be the absolute safest possible thing a lawyer could do. While those answers are technically kosher in real life, they are not the correct answer on the exam because you are not demonstrating to the examiners that you know where the line is and what an attorney can do without crossing the line.

Ethics is my lowest grade in law school because of this mistake. Heeding the lesson of being too cautious, I studied for the MPRE for just 2-4 hours a day just for the three days prior to the exam and I passed with a 110 on the first try. I echo the suggestion of using both BarBri and Kaplan's free MPRE courses, they were most helpful.

Also, if you are doing Kaplan or Barbri questions...make sure you are reading the explanations for each answer. That helped me a ton.

I passed with a 110 using Themis. However, I felt like many of the questions on the actual exam did not mirror the practice questions Themis provided. I would use a prep course for lectures/reading material, and maybe even for additional practice Qs, but perhaps look into past questions or exams offered by NCBE.

I remember taking it a few years ago and I used the Barbri lecture and questions. When I got to the exam I saw 70% of the questions that were either repeats reworded or were discussed in the lecture. I was done early and I knew I passed, which I did with a score that is high enough to sit in any state. My vote is to use the Barbri lecture and do all of the questions you can get your hand on.

YOU GOT THIS!!!!

I failed it twice and got it on the third go. I just passed with a 113 after doing all the questions in the Kaplan database free program. I highly recommend doing that and reading all the answers! I only studied about half an hour a day for two weeks.

z0rk wrote:One reason why some students fail the MPRE or do so poorly in a law school ethics course is because they are overly cautious. You have to recognize, legal ethics is not a subject matter on morality and the truths of rights vs. wrong. Ethics is a subject matter focused on where the line is. If you approach studying and the exam with this frame of mind, you will note that there are trap answers on the exam that appear to be the absolute safest possible thing a lawyer could do. While those answers are technically kosher in real life, they are not the correct answer on the exam because you are not demonstrating to the examiners that you know where the line is and what an attorney can do without crossing the line.

Ethics is my lowest grade in law school because of this mistake. Heeding the lesson of being too cautious, I studied for the MPRE for just 2-4 hours a day just for the three days prior to the exam and I passed with a 110 on the first try. I echo the suggestion of using both BarBri and Kaplan's free MPRE courses, they were most helpful.

Incredibly well said. I failed the first time and just passed. In my head I fought some of the rules, particularly the may/must disclosure stuff. Like everyone has said, I would dig into the free courses, but then read the Rules too. Maybe even a few of the comments. This stuff, at least for me, is not intuitive in the least..

Have you taken any legal ethnic classes?
It may help.
I do think that MPRE is quite like MBE. More exercises will help. Just don't overkill it.

waterville wrote:I am a LL.M graduate from a T-14 school. I prepared it by doing the Kaplan exam questions, but when it comes to the actual test, I just couldn't get a good grip on the exam.

The MPRE requires like 10 hours of study, max. Really more like 6-8.
I've literally never even heard of anyone needing to take it more than twice before this thread.

rinkrat19 wrote:The MPRE requires like 10 hours of study, max. Really more like 6-8.
I've literally never even heard of anyone needing to take it more than twice before this thread.

Not really helpful. Think it just makes the OP feel worse. OP, I'd suggest doing Barbri's free MPRE. They have 3-4 free exams, where a lot of the questions are really similar to the actual MPRE exam. Many people also watch the video. And if you want to be even more prepared, you can also go through the Themis MPRE book, they have a decent outline of the important topics and a practice exam at the end with explanations.

Still maintain that if you're failing it repeatedly, there's something fundamentally wrong with your approach.

Also, I can't believe nobody has mentioned the only advice my ethics prof gave us before the exam: if you don't know the answer, guess the 2nd most strictly moral option. The MOST moral answer choice will be wrong a surprising amount of the time, and the answer is basically never the least strictly moral choice.

Watch the barbri video, and do questions until you're hitting ~60% correct. That's all you need.

rinkrat19 wrote:The MPRE requires like 10 hours of study, max. Really more like 6-8.
I've literally never even heard of anyone needing to take it more than twice before this thread.

This may sound harsh and I'm not trying to put anyone down but rinkrat is pretty much on point here. I'm NOT a good test taker. I have a crap SAT, LSAT and failed the Bar on my first try. The MPRE was the easiest test I've ever taken. I spent 1-2 evenings prior to the test studying and passed with a score high enough to allow me in any jurisdiction. It's strictly memorization so to anyone having trouble, change your approach. This test isn't supposed to be tricky. All you need to do is memorize the rules (you can find them online), half of which are common sense or really easy to remember because its just testing black letter law knowledge. I didnt use any barbri or Kaplan prep, I took maybe one practice test.

rinkrat19 wrote:if you don't know the answer, guess the 2nd most strictly moral option. .

An attorney I interned for 2L year told me this but like this "ask yourself what would Jesus do, and then pick the answer and throw that out. Ask what what would Jesus do only with the remaining answers and you have your correct answer." So basically what rink was saying, the second most moral.

I just did the Barbri free video lecture course the night before and passed with high score as well (also mediocre standardized test scores and failed the bar exam first time...) I got a B+ in the ethics course during law school. I memorized the main rules and used the WWJD guessing for the rest. Best of luck!

I used both free BARBRI and Themis programs (I was auditioning them for bar prep). I probably spent a LOT more time preparing than most people, I wasn't working at the time so I spent pretty much a week on it. I listened to both lectures and did both program's practice tests. The test itself was HARD and I had no clue how I did--I even paid for the next exam. I passed with a 113 way more than I needed. Im not a great standardized test taker but going full throttle on the prep seemed to work for me.

OP, definitely don't give up, especially after spending so much time (and, presumably, money) on getting your legal education! I failed the MPRE (passed NY Bar the first time, though) after reading many comments, including comments on this site, about how "easy" the exam is and how many only studied for a couple of hours. Perhaps this is the case for some, but I needed to put in at least two week's worth of studying for a few hours a day in order to feel confident and, ultimately, to pass. Passed on my second try (don't know my score and I don't care).

OP, I used all three free MPRE programs (Kap, Them, Barb) and over studied. I think the questions are like the MBEs because the more you do, the more you discern patterns and the correct answer. Don't quit, you are far too far along in the process to let this test defeat you.