Washington DC (UBE) & Virginia Bar Exam Tutoring & Self-Study

Think I did pretty well… The test started at 9:50AM… I got there at 8:50AM… It was supposed to start at 9AM. Waited about 15 minutes in line to get my seat assignment.

Test was straightforward, many of the questions were very similar to the practice exams I did… I like PMBR/Kaplan the best, then Bar/Bri, followed by NCBE’s free sample questions, then Baroutlines last… Baroutlines was decent, but the sample tests in Baroutlines were terrible and many questions copied directly from the sample questions on the NCBE website, plus there were a bunch of typos, and some questions/answers were incomprehensible with terrible typos.

Anyway, I did about 5 practice exams total, only 1 did I time in a simulated 125 minute fashion and do straight through… The rest I did in blocks of 30 questions at a time… I tended to take about 70 seconds per question, so the exams took me about 1 hour 15 minutes to about 1.5 hours total… The actual MPRE today only took me about an hour (I really cruised through it) but I slowed down a bit at the end, and reviewed 4 questions I couldn’t decide on during the exam. In total I spent 1 hour 20 minutes, including the questions about the testing center facilities.

There were about 10 questions on the exam that were VERY tricky, I am not confident in those answers, and I am really hoping they were the 10 experimental questions! :-)

This Saturday at 9AM is the MPRE. I know people say it’s a joke, but I am taking it seriously… I finished up the Kaplan/PMBR MPRE self-study materials, and also the baroutlines.com materials. I am going to take the sample tests today for both of those, then finish off with the Bar/Bri course book Thursday and Friday in final preparation. On the 25 question quizzes that PMBR has, I have been scoring a little above 70% consistently, which is what they say you should aim for, but I’d like to get in the 80-90% range to really feel comfortable… I will probably also review the MRPC and CJC one more time, especially the 2007 changes to the CJC…

OK, so it’s a bit early, but I never took Professional Responsibility (PR), and I have a busy week the week before and week of the November MPRE, so I figured I’d start perusing the MPRE materials now and officially begin my studying for the MPRE. It’s just under 3 weeks till the test…

Here are the materials I plan to use studying for the 8-NOV-2008 MPRE:
1) Kaplan/PMBR MPRE (2008) (Free with online code available to almost anyone, $199 otherwise)
2) BarBri MPRE Green Book (2008) (Free if you sign up for BarBri Bar Review, I got mine used for a few dollars)
3) Baroutlines.com MPRE ($25)
4) NCBEX Sample MPRE Questions (Free to everyone)
5) Ameribar MPRE (Free to everyone)

I spent 4 hours today listening to the Kaplan/PMBR MPRE Online Lecture given by Steven Bracci and at the same time reading the printed Kaplan/PMBR MPRE Outline I received in the mail from Kaplan/PMBR. I also had a copy of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) and the Model Code of Judicial Conduct (CJC) open in my web browser to refer to. The MRPC are available online at: http://www.abanet.org/cpr/mrpc/mrpc_toc.html and the CJC is available online at: http://www.abanet.org/judicialethics/ABA_MCJC_approved.pdf

The lecture is good, and a great way to get familiar with the Model Rules. Steven Bracci is a good lecturer in that he does not put you to sleep. I think it was a good first step in studying for the MPRE…