Top Law Schools

Hey all!

I'm just wondering how are people approaching essay studying in these last two weeks?

I'm using Barbri and am starting to feel a bit frustrated/hopeless. I've been studying from the lecture handouts, like they suggested, but when I actually write out the essays, I often find myself failing according to their grading sheet because the rules I'm using from the lecture are sometimes not complete (they'll often be missing an element or a subrule, for instance). Should I only be looking at the Outlines for MEE book and be working exclusively off of that? Does Barbri perhaps grade harder than the actual bar examiners do?

Additionally, if anyone has tips for how they're going about actually memorizing this glut of rules, I'd love to hear. My memory is shit and I'd be open to any suggestions people have found helpful.

I took the February UBE and passed comfortably. I studied with BarBri.

Advice for Barbri MEE studying:

1) DO NOT EVER self-grade your essay. I did not self-grade once. I could have passed the bar if I put nothing on the paper for 2/6 essays. Maybe 3/6. I, unlike most, focused a lot on the MEE instead of ignoring it. Based on Barbri "grading," I would have got a below-passing score on most if not all essays I took.
2) DO NO EVER submit your essays for Barbri grading. Their graders are hired to make you feel bad about yourself, regardless of performance, so you will study harder.
3) DO read a ton of practice MEE's after studying the subjects. I would first review a MEE subject for a couple hours, then do 3-4 practice essays. By "do," I mean read thoroughly and spend 5 minutes jotting down a rough outline. I only wrote out 1 essay per subject, ever. Looking at the outlines helped me see egregious things I missed and should have known. Skimming some of their essays helps you realize how to organize for the grader, but should NEVER be a direct comparison to your work. You are not expected to write even half of what they say, and you can get stuff wrong.
4) In terms of memorizing, it's hard. But I focused on things I could not BS. Like, what are the requirements to have a valid trust? Things like that. I didn't want to have to think about that on the exam. I am sure many other people would not have bothered, and you could have easily written a passing essay without, but I can say it helped me stay calm while writing.

Be confident. The bar for essays is very low. If you do 6+ skim and outlines for each subject and feel confident, the MEE can be a score-booster. Look at it as an opportunity to shine. The essays made me feel more in control than multiple choice.

Also, in terms of not knowing everything... if something was in essays but not in outline, I would skim the Conviser relevant section. But wouldn't sweat it too much. I HIGHLY suggest, perhaps when you review a subject before MEE's, to skim the entire Conviser section. Conviser is still manageable amount of info, but more than the lectures.

jelly_bean3 wrote:I took the February UBE and passed comfortably. I studied with BarBri.

Advice for Barbri MEE studying:

1) DO NOT EVER self-grade your essay. I did not self-grade once. I could have passed the bar if I put nothing on the paper for 2/6 essays. Maybe 3/6. I, unlike most, focused a lot on the MEE instead of ignoring it. Based on Barbri "grading," I would have got a below-passing score on most if not all essays I took.
2) DO NO EVER submit your essays for Barbri grading. Their graders are hired to make you feel bad about yourself, regardless of performance, so you will study harder.
3) DO read a ton of practice MEE's after studying the subjects. I would first review a MEE subject for a couple hours, then do 3-4 practice essays. By "do," I mean read thoroughly and spend 5 minutes jotting down a rough outline. I only wrote out 1 essay per subject, ever. Looking at the outlines helped me see egregious things I missed and should have known. Skimming some of their essays helps you realize how to organize for the grader, but should NEVER be a direct comparison to your work. You are not expected to write even half of what they say, and you can get stuff wrong.
4) In terms of memorizing, it's hard. But I focused on things I could not BS. Like, what are the requirements to have a valid trust? Things like that. I didn't want to have to think about that on the exam. I am sure many other people would not have bothered, and you could have easily written a passing essay without, but I can say it helped me stay calm while writing.

Be confident. The bar for essays is very low. If you do 6+ skim and outlines for each subject and feel confident, the MEE can be a score-booster. Look at it as an opportunity to shine. The essays made me feel more in control than multiple choice.

This was super helpful, thanks!

jelly_bean3 wrote:I took the February UBE and passed comfortably. I studied with BarBri.

Advice for Barbri MEE studying:

1) DO NOT EVER self-grade your essay. I did not self-grade once. I could have passed the bar if I put nothing on the paper for 2/6 essays. Maybe 3/6. I, unlike most, focused a lot on the MEE instead of ignoring it. Based on Barbri "grading," I would have got a below-passing score on most if not all essays I took.
2) DO NO EVER submit your essays for Barbri grading. Their graders are hired to make you feel bad about yourself, regardless of performance, so you will study harder.
3) DO read a ton of practice MEE's after studying the subjects. I would first review a MEE subject for a couple hours, then do 3-4 practice essays. By "do," I mean read thoroughly and spend 5 minutes jotting down a rough outline. I only wrote out 1 essay per subject, ever. Looking at the outlines helped me see egregious things I missed and should have known. Skimming some of their essays helps you realize how to organize for the grader, but should NEVER be a direct comparison to your work. You are not expected to write even half of what they say, and you can get stuff wrong.
4) In terms of memorizing, it's hard. But I focused on things I could not BS. Like, what are the requirements to have a valid trust? Things like that. I didn't want to have to think about that on the exam. I am sure many other people would not have bothered, and you could have easily written a passing essay without, but I can say it helped me stay calm while writing.

Be confident. The bar for essays is very low. If you do 6+ skim and outlines for each subject and feel confident, the MEE can be a score-booster. Look at it as an opportunity to shine. The essays made me feel more in control than multiple choice.

Extremely useful, thank you. Like OP I was also starting to get worried about MEE.

Couple of follow-up questions:

1) When you say you could have passed even without writing 2-3 essays, how well did you do on the MBE/MPT to get there? Ideally that's the kind of cushion I'd like, but wondering if you just had a god-like performance on the MBE haha.

2) Out of the 6 essays, how many were MEE vs. the core MBE topics?

Thanks!

1) I ended up doing well on the MBE (scaled 159), although felt awful after the actual thing. And preparing, I knew multiple choice was always a struggle for me. So it felt more comforting to focus on MEE the last few weeks and destroy that to compensate if I needed to. I got a high MEE, and could have walked away with a scaled 120 on the MBE and still passed. So although I had a day of brilliant MBE guessing (because let's be honest, that's what it is), I am still happy I emphasized the MEE so much. Re: MEE v. MPT, I got a lump score for writing.

2) 4 MEE, 2 core. I think that was unusual, though. Usually, it is 3-3.

jelly_bean3 wrote:1) I ended up doing well on the MBE (scaled 159), although felt awful after the actual thing. And preparing, I knew multiple choice was always a struggle for me. So it felt more comforting to focus on MEE the last few weeks and destroy that to compensate if I needed to. I got a high MEE, and could have walked away with a scaled 120 on the MBE and still passed. So although I had a day of brilliant MBE guessing (because let's be honest, that's what it is), I am still happy I emphasized the MEE so much. Re: MEE v. MPT, I got a lump score for writing.

2) 4 MEE, 2 core. I think that was unusual, though. Usually, it is 3-3.

Thanks again, very helpful!

hellojd wrote:

jelly_bean3 wrote:I took the February UBE and passed comfortably. I studied with BarBri.

Advice for Barbri MEE studying:

1) DO NOT EVER self-grade your essay. I did not self-grade once. I could have passed the bar if I put nothing on the paper for 2/6 essays. Maybe 3/6. I, unlike most, focused a lot on the MEE instead of ignoring it. Based on Barbri "grading," I would have got a below-passing score on most if not all essays I took.
2) DO NO EVER submit your essays for Barbri grading. Their graders are hired to make you feel bad about yourself, regardless of performance, so you will study harder.
3) DO read a ton of practice MEE's after studying the subjects. I would first review a MEE subject for a couple hours, then do 3-4 practice essays. By "do," I mean read thoroughly and spend 5 minutes jotting down a rough outline. I only wrote out 1 essay per subject, ever. Looking at the outlines helped me see egregious things I missed and should have known. Skimming some of their essays helps you realize how to organize for the grader, but should NEVER be a direct comparison to your work. You are not expected to write even half of what they say, and you can get stuff wrong.
4) In terms of memorizing, it's hard. But I focused on things I could not BS. Like, what are the requirements to have a valid trust? Things like that. I didn't want to have to think about that on the exam. I am sure many other people would not have bothered, and you could have easily written a passing essay without, but I can say it helped me stay calm while writing.

Be confident. The bar for essays is very low. If you do 6+ skim and outlines for each subject and feel confident, the MEE can be a score-booster. Look at it as an opportunity to shine. The essays made me feel more in control than multiple choice.

Extremely useful, thank you. Like OP I was also starting to get worried about MEE.

Seconded! Thanks so much, jelly_bean3 - really really useful.