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So I've been doing pretty much only Kaplan questions, including their midterm and final practice exams. I've heard that overall their questions tend to be very similar to the actual MBE and maybe a little bit harder on average. On the final practice exam, I got a 155/200. I have access to a recent 100 questions NCBE set that I'm debating doing (untimed). Anyone have thoughts on this? Should I not mess with my current state of mind from my last big set of questions? Should I do the actual NCBE questions to get a taste of exactly how those questions are asked?

For one, I'm nervous that the actual NCBE questions might be easier, which may catch me off guard and I'll end up overthinking them, which is why I'm thinking that I should get a sense of them, with at least a decent practice set.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

whitecollar23 wrote:So I've been doing pretty much only Kaplan questions, including their midterm and final practice exams. I've heard that overall their questions tend to be very similar to the actual MBE and maybe a little bit harder on average. On the final practice exam, I got a 155/200. I have access to a recent 100 questions NCBE set that I'm debating doing (untimed). Anyone have thoughts on this? Should I not mess with my current state of mind from my last big set of questions? Should I do the actual NCBE questions to get a taste of exactly how those questions are asked?

For one, I'm nervous that the actual NCBE questions might be easier, which may catch me off guard and I'll end up overthinking them, which is why I'm thinking that I should get a sense of them, with at least a decent practice set.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

I'd do the NCBE questions, timed. It's good to get a feel for what has been actually tested on prior exams, even if it isn't exactly representative of what the current bar questions may look like.

lawstoodent wrote:

whitecollar23 wrote:So I've been doing pretty much only Kaplan questions, including their midterm and final practice exams. I've heard that overall their questions tend to be very similar to the actual MBE and maybe a little bit harder on average. On the final practice exam, I got a 155/200. I have access to a recent 100 questions NCBE set that I'm debating doing (untimed). Anyone have thoughts on this? Should I not mess with my current state of mind from my last big set of questions? Should I do the actual NCBE questions to get a taste of exactly how those questions are asked?

For one, I'm nervous that the actual NCBE questions might be easier, which may catch me off guard and I'll end up overthinking them, which is why I'm thinking that I should get a sense of them, with at least a decent practice set.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

I'd do the NCBE questions, timed. It's good to get a feel for what has been actually tested on prior exams, even if it isn't exactly representative of what the current bar questions may look like.

Oh, I'm not gonna do it timed because I don't want to burn myself out more and have done four sets of 100 timed and haven't had issues with timing. I don't think the actual questions would be so different as to create timing issues. But yeah, makes sense to do them to get a sense of a decent sample of actual questions.

Do it timed.

What is the point of this thread?

LionelHutzJD wrote:Do it timed.

What is the point of this thread?

Why timed? My purpose in doing the questions isn't to see if I can do the questions under timed conditions, but to get a familiarity with the questions or to see if they're any different.


And, it's asking a question. That's pretty self-explanatory.

I would do them. Idk about Kaplan but barbri has a different style/format of asking questions as compared to those on Adaptibar so it's helpful to just familiarize if you can.

If you are going to bother doing those questions, doing it timed will offer better diagnostic results than untimed. Part of what makes a good representative test is taking it under timed conditions. If we had all day to do the MBE, we would have better results because we could work out every question thoroughly and methodically.

bobbypin wrote:If you are going to bother doing those questions, doing it timed will offer better diagnostic results than untimed. Part of what makes a good representative test is taking it under timed conditions. If we had all day to do the MBE, we would have better results because we could work out every question thoroughly and methodically.

I feel like I'm being trolled right now. I must have said three times in this thread that my purpose in taking them wouldn't be diagnostic, but to get a familiarity with the questions. I specifically stated that I've taken 4 100-sets thus far and haven't really seen time to be an issue, and that I don't want to do any more timed sets b/c that creates burnout.

But the overwhelming feedback from people who don't seem to be trolling me is that I should do such questions, as they may be slightly different. Thanks, y'all.

It's not trolling. It doesn't matter how different or similar the questions are if you have all day to look at them. The time pressure is part of determining how well you can access the knowledge stored in your brain to answer the question. You obviously don't like the answer, so go do what you want to do. But don't complain about our suggestions.

bobbypin wrote:It's not trolling. It doesn't matter how different or similar the questions are if you have all day to look at them. The time pressure is part of determining how well you can access the knowledge stored in your brain to answer the question. You obviously don't like the answer, so go do what you want to do. But don't complain about our suggestions.

Oh, I apologize. I think we have a miscommunication. When I say I've done 4 100-sets, I mean that I've done 4 100-sets under timed conditions. Full practice Kaplan MBEs on different days. 3 hours in the morning; 3 hours in the afternoon, and had no major issues with time.

whitecollar23 wrote:

bobbypin wrote:It's not trolling. It doesn't matter how different or similar the questions are if you have all day to look at them. The time pressure is part of determining how well you can access the knowledge stored in your brain to answer the question. You obviously don't like the answer, so go do what you want to do. But don't complain about our suggestions.

Oh, I apologize. I think we have a miscommunication. When I say I've done 4 100-sets, I mean that I've done 4 100-sets under timed conditions. Full practice Kaplan MBEs on different days. 3 hours in the morning; 3 hours in the afternoon, and had no major issues with time.

Wouldn't hurt to do a 5th

If you're going to do 100 more, go ahead and do it timed

No one is trolling you

BigZuck wrote:

whitecollar23 wrote:

bobbypin wrote:It's not trolling. It doesn't matter how different or similar the questions are if you have all day to look at them. The time pressure is part of determining how well you can access the knowledge stored in your brain to answer the question. You obviously don't like the answer, so go do what you want to do. But don't complain about our suggestions.

Oh, I apologize. I think we have a miscommunication. When I say I've done 4 100-sets, I mean that I've done 4 100-sets under timed conditions. Full practice Kaplan MBEs on different days. 3 hours in the morning; 3 hours in the afternoon, and had no major issues with time.

Wouldn't hurt to do a 5th

If you're going to do 100 more, go ahead and do it timed

No one is trolling you

My reason for not wanting to do a timed fifth is the burnout. And also a little bit because it's partial, so it won't necessarily be a proportional dividing of questions.

Bro. Do what you want, America is a free country.

FlowBro wrote:Bro. Do what you want, America is a free country.

True. I got the advice I was looking for in here. As for super specifics, I am a free man!

whitecollar23 wrote:

FlowBro wrote:Bro. Do what you want, America is a free country.

True. I got the advice I was looking for in here. As for super specifics, I am a free man!

Ok, i'll offer some advice to the contrary. Don't worry about doing the questions timed - I disagree with the poster who said with unlimited time you'd get 100% correct. In fact, if someone doesn't have an issue with timing, then i'd argue their overall score timed and untimed might not be that much different. Just my opinion.

Second, if you're worried that NCBE questions might be "easier" and you'd overthink them - then you'd still be likely to get "easier" questions wrong, correct? My advice - mix up the different sample sets. Do sets of 10, 17 or 35 questions from kaplan/barbri/NCBE and see how they go.

My advice is based on my own success of taking a few 50 Q mixed sets and scoring above 80%. My thinking was I want this to continue, but upon missing some other questions I realized that an 80% score could be just as much a fluke as a 55%. So keep taking questions and keep trying to learn/improve. My $0.02.

LockBox wrote:

whitecollar23 wrote:

FlowBro wrote:Bro. Do what you want, America is a free country.

True. I got the advice I was looking for in here. As for super specifics, I am a free man!

Ok, i'll offer some advice to the contrary. Don't worry about doing the questions timed - I disagree with the poster who said with unlimited time you'd get 100% correct. In fact, if someone doesn't have an issue with timing, then i'd argue their overall score timed and untimed might not be that much different. Just my opinion.

Second, if you're worried that NCBE questions might be "easier" and you'd overthink them - then you'd still be likely to get "easier" questions wrong, correct? My advice - mix up the different sample sets. Do sets of 10, 17 or 35 questions from kaplan/barbri/NCBE and see how they go.

My advice is based on my own success of taking a few 50 Q mixed sets and scoring above 80%. My thinking was I want this to continue, but upon missing some other questions I realized that an 80% score could be just as much a fluke as a 55%. So keep taking questions and keep trying to learn/improve. My $0.02.

Of course. I plan on continuing to do questions. Two weeks ago, I had gotten 69.5% on the 200 question practice timed MBE. Over the two weeks since then I reviewed those 200 questions way too intensely than a normal person and did some more with some more review, which I think is what helped me get 77.5% on the timed 200 question practice MBE I took this week. So both of those MBEs were broken down by how many questions per topic, etc. are likely to be seen on the actual MBE. But I want to keep going because I'm reviewing this past one and there a bunch of questions I got wrong where I overlooked something simple in the question or b/c I misremembered the law slightly. So I gotta keep pushing.

whitecollar23 wrote:

LockBox wrote:

whitecollar23 wrote:

FlowBro wrote:Bro. Do what you want, America is a free country.

True. I got the advice I was looking for in here. As for super specifics, I am a free man!

Ok, i'll offer some advice to the contrary. Don't worry about doing the questions timed - I disagree with the poster who said with unlimited time you'd get 100% correct. In fact, if someone doesn't have an issue with timing, then i'd argue their overall score timed and untimed might not be that much different. Just my opinion.

Second, if you're worried that NCBE questions might be "easier" and you'd overthink them - then you'd still be likely to get "easier" questions wrong, correct? My advice - mix up the different sample sets. Do sets of 10, 17 or 35 questions from kaplan/barbri/NCBE and see how they go.

My advice is based on my own success of taking a few 50 Q mixed sets and scoring above 80%. My thinking was I want this to continue, but upon missing some other questions I realized that an 80% score could be just as much a fluke as a 55%. So keep taking questions and keep trying to learn/improve. My $0.02.

Of course. I plan on continuing to do questions. Two weeks ago, I had gotten 69.5% on the 200 question practice timed MBE. Over the two weeks since then I reviewed those 200 questions way too intensely than a normal person and did some more with some more review, which I think is what helped me get 77.5% on the timed 200 question practice MBE I took this week. So both of those MBEs were broken down by how many questions per topic, etc. are likely to be seen on the actual MBE. But I want to keep going because I'm reviewing this past one and there a bunch of questions I got wrong where I overlooked something simple in the question or b/c I misremembered the law slightly. So I gotta keep pushing.

My point was to keep taking questions of all types, including NCBE - which is what you were asking in your first post. You seem to start posts asking for advice then proceed to inform everyone that you know what you're doing. Must be a good way to spend your downtime, eh?

Not really. It's more like I ask for advice on one thing and then people start giving me advice on about 10 different things that I didn't ask for advice in my question. I asked specifically regarding one set of 100 questions, as that's what I have and that's what I'm considering to do. Didn't ask for advice about the other 10 things people chimed in on. Smh.

whitecollar23 wrote:Not really. It's more like I ask for advice on one thing and then people start giving me advice on about 10 different things that I didn't ask for advice in my question. I asked specifically regarding one set of 100 questions, as that's what I have and that's what I'm considering to do. Didn't ask for advice about the other 10 things people chimed in on. Smh.

You should definitely do the set of 100 questions NCBE. Timed.

hellojd wrote:

whitecollar23 wrote:Not really. It's more like I ask for advice on one thing and then people start giving me advice on about 10 different things that I didn't ask for advice in my question. I asked specifically regarding one set of 100 questions, as that's what I have and that's what I'm considering to do. Didn't ask for advice about the other 10 things people chimed in on. Smh.

You should definitely do the set of 100 questions NCBE. Timed.

Smh. Enough. No more trolling.

Just did 17 of the actual MBE questions and they seem deceptively easy. Went 15/17 and the questions were shorter and seemed easier than the Kaplan ones. But I worry that the actual Bar exam might be more difficult based on things I've read. Anyone hear that released MBE questions aren't actual old questions?

whitecollar23 wrote:Just did 17 of the actual MBE questions and they seem deceptively easy. Went 15/17 and the questions were shorter and seemed easier than the Kaplan ones. But I worry that the actual Bar exam might be more difficult based on things I've read. Anyone hear that released MBE questions aren't actual old questions?

I don't think the NCBE is going to charge us $50, tells us the questions are from an administered MBE and then have the questions NOT be real.

If you're hitting about 155 raw on Kaplan, you should be fine. The 20 point jump Kaplan talks about between their raw diagnostic and the actual MBE score was true for me. I've seen other anecdotal evidence of that as well, although I'm sure some people don't actually see it.

If you've already done the full Kaplan practice tests, I don't think it hurts you not to do the 100 altogether. However, hopefully you're doing the individual questions in the time you would on the exam.

The questions are real but they're also the ones the MBE selected to release. Some on the real exam will feel much different than the released MBE and Kaplan. Others will feel more familiar.

Mr. Archer wrote:If you're hitting about 155 raw on Kaplan, you should be fine. The 20 point jump Kaplan talks about between their raw diagnostic and the actual MBE score was true for me. I've seen other anecdotal evidence of that as well, although I'm sure some people don't actually see it.

If you've already done the full Kaplan practice tests, I don't think it hurts you not to do the 100 altogether. However, hopefully you're doing the individual questions in the time you would on the exam.

The questions are real but they're also the ones the MBE selected to release. Some on the real exam will feel much different than the released MBE and Kaplan. Others will feel more familiar.

I hear ya. I question whether the 20-point jump applies with high raw Kaplan scores, as I'm assuming the curve adds less points the better you score. Is that true or am I completely wrong about that?

Stop worrying about silly stuff so much and start doing more practice questions.

And make sure you do them timed.