A Short & Happy Guide to the Bar Exam's Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
Authors:
Darrow-Kleinhaus, Suzanne / Crisci, Irene McDermott
Edition:
1st
Copyright Date:
2019
9 chapters
have results for bar exam
Chapter 2 Learning the Black Letter Law 9 28 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Just as you studied from your professor’s old exams to prepare for law school finals, you’ll review released MEEs from NCBE when you study for the bar exam. While your bar review course includes a good number of simulated practice tests and essay writing exercises, there is no substitute for the real thing. It is essential that you become familiar with the structure, style, and content of the questions you can expect to see on bar day. Since the ultimate authority on the bar exam are the bar examiners, their questions should be your primary source for practice questions.
- There is a method to learning from practice exams and you may be surprised to discover that it’s not just about sitting down and answering the questions. That’s what you’ll do on bar exam day but not when you’re studying. The difference is between answering the questions and using the questions to learn.
- Memorization is essential to success on the bar exam. As you proceed through your bar review course, make it a priority to memorize basic definitions and the elements of rules.
- The key to success is to have a study plan that puts you in control of your time and the material. However, before you can define your study schedule, it’s important to know “what” and “how” to study for the bar exam.
- This process also “trains your brain” to think this way so that on the bar exam you will formulate such paragraphs for any area of law by working from what you know about how the law works. Consequently, you will no longer be paralyzed with fear of not remembering every word in your notes. You will “own the words” because you are their creator.
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Chapter 1 MEE Basics 1 21 results (showing 5 best matches)
- It is impossible to overemphasize the value of working from released bar exam questions. There is no greater authority on the bar exam than the writers and graders of the exam themselves and when they provide their questions and answers, they are doing what they can to make the test process as transparent as possible.
- Each jurisdiction sets the format for its bar exam and relative weight given to each section in calculating a bar passage score and makes this information available to candidates—unless it is a UBE jurisdiction where the weighting of each section is prescribed (the MBE is weighted 50%, the MEE 30%, and the MPT 20%). To this extent, each state’s bar exam is unique and you’ll want to know everything there is to know about the make-up of your particular bar exam. You should check your individual jurisdiction’s scoring policies very carefully for how it weights each section of the bar exam in calculating a passing score. A regularly updated list of each jurisdiction’s bar admission office address and phone number is available from NCBE’s website.
- The MEE is administered by participating jurisdictions on the state day of their bar exam and consists of six 30-minute essay questions. MEE questions are developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (“NCBE”), the entity that develops the licensing tests used by most U.S. jurisdictions for bar admission. These exams include the Multistate Bar Examination (“MBE”), the Multistate Performance Test (“MPT”), the Multistate Professional Responsibility Test (“MPRE”) and, of course, the Uniform Bar Examination (“UBE”).
- The goal of the bar examiners is to test your competency for the practice of law. To pass the bar exam, you must demonstrate a
- All of these are “practical” skills yet too many students spend most, if not all, of their bar prep time studying only the substantive law. Success on the bar exam requires mastery of both.
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Chapter 3 Writing for the MEE 31 34 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Now that you have de-constructed exam questions, it’s time to de-construct exam answers—an equally important part of your preparation. Here, rather than studying past exams to see what can expect from the bar examiners, your goal is to learn what
- Budgeting your time and working within that time is the only way to ensure that you’ll complete the exam—or come as close as possible. You begin working toward this goal the minute you start studying for the bar exam. Every practice essay is a dress rehearsal.
- The National Conference of Bar Examiners’ Analyses Sheets are very helpful in your preparation for the MEE since they allow you to self-assess your work. They identify the issues you need to address in your answer, the rules of law, and the appropriate arguments. However, the Analyses Sheets are not written as “sample answers.” Rather, they are intended for the bar examiners in the individual jurisdictions who are using the MEEs as part of their bar exam.
- Aside from the usual exam jitters, the bar exam does present a unique set of circumstances. After all, it’s not many tests that we take with hundreds or even thousands of other candidates at the
- Before we discuss specific strategies for writing successful bar exam essays, let’s talk about writing in general: I’m sure a good number of you have been very successful in law school and a large part of that success can be credited to your ability to communicate effectively in writing. For you, doing well on the MEE will be a matter of gaining familiarity with the types of essays and their structure. But for those of you for whom essays posed a bit more of a challenge, we want you to know that you, too, can do well on bar exam essays. There is a method to scoring points and this is what we are going to share with you.
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Chapter 5 An MEE Make-Over Using Legal Forensics 113 13 results (showing 5 best matches)
- No doubt these are both very serious problems. However, while the bar exam grader treats both problems alike with respect to the amount of points lost on your exam, we need to figure out which problem is yours. It makes a difference in how we go about fixing it.
- Here, you’ve decided to show the bar examiners how much time you’ve spent studying so you display that knowledge by writing everything you know. What happens is that you provide far more information than is necessary, often miss the relevant point, and take up valuable exam time without adding to your grade.
- Even if you struggled with “conclusory” statements throughout law school, there is no reason you can’t cure the problem for the bar exam—just study the following examples.
- First and foremost, the bar examiners expect your exam answer to demonstrate a firm grasp of black letter law. Quite aside from a sound mastery of legal principles and basic knowledge of core substance, a firm grasp of the law means that you know exactly how much detail is necessary to provide for a meaningful factual
- This is an easy fix: show all work. Writing an exam answer is like solving a math problem: if you leave out the evaluation, it’s like saying that to solve for X, you need to first multiply and then divide—and then not doing it!
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Appendix 141 28 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Viewing a bar exam in its entirety lets you see the selection of MEEs on a particular administration and compare administrations over time.
- The Appendix contains two types of tables. One is organized by bar administration and identifies the MEE subjects tested on a particular bar exam. The other is organized by subject and allows you to focus on individual topics.
- Table of Issues by Bar Exam Administration
- The individual Subject Charts and NCBE’s Subject Matter Outlines for the MEE work together to give you a comprehensive picture of the essay portion of the Uniform Bar Exam. You can see which issues have been tested and how frequently they have been tested. Once again, we must repeat that there is no sure way to predict what will be on the next bar exam. The Subject Charts are not meant to be predictive guides, but study guides: knowing the frequency of some issues allows you to target your study time to where it is most effective.
- By Bar Exam Administration: 2005–2018
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Chapter 4 Practice Makes Points 69 23 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Please note that your bar exam questions will not come labeled by subject area. You will figure it out for yourself as you work through the problem. Still, do not be so concerned with labeling the subject into set categories because the questions may combine subjects. For learning purposes, we are identifying the MEE by exam administration and topic.
- This MEE is an excellent example of what you can expect to see on the bar exam for a Torts question, substantively, and for any question, structurally.
- You can use the “clues” in the bar examiners’ specific use of language to lead you to the issue and the rule. Often, the clues are written in the language of the rule itself. This is not an accident: the bar examiners are providing prompts to direct you where you need to go. The careful reader will not ignore these gifts but look for them actively and use them to facilitate memory and recall.
- After reading the question, the next step is outlining your answer. We’ve used the Rule/Chart to map out what a handwritten outline might look like. Once again, our chart is probably a lot neater than it would be on exam day but we had to be clear so you could read what we wrote.
- On the exam, use your own form of shorthand to get to the point and note only the facts you need to connect with what you will write. Remember—the outline’s objective is to guide your writing so make it as concise as possible—only what you need to prompt your thinking.
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Table of Contents 3 results
- Publication Date: February 26th, 2019
- ISBN: 9781683288572
- Subject: Bar Exam Success
- Series: Short & Happy Guides
- Type: Overviews
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Description:
A “Short & Happy Guide to the MEE” is shorter than other books on the bar exam because its sole focus is the Multistate Essay Examination. It is a one-source resource for what you need to maximize your performance on the MEE—not a generic essay writing guide, but a treasury of information, issue identification, and subject area frameworks tailored specifically for the MEE. This book is not intended to replace a bar review course for the substantive law you need to know to pass the bar exam. However, a bar review course does not show you how to turn the law into point-worthy essays. We do.
We teach you everything that you need to know about preparing for and taking the MEE to achieve the highest possible essay scores, beginning with how to use the individual Subject Charts (organized by MEE subject) and Table of Issues (organized by bar administration). These charts identify every issue and sub-issue tested on the MEE over the past 14 years, thus letting you see the frequency of tested topics and gain familiarity with how they are tested. When combined with our unique strategies for writing under timed conditions, developing a well-organized answer, and writing a solid analysis, you are ready to write your way to bar passage.
