Study suggestions for subscribers

I suggest that UBE ESSAYS account subscribers use the materials as follows:

RELEASED MEE ESSAY COMPILATION AND MP3s: Examinees should start with a combination of reading the Released MEE Essay Compilation and listening to the Released MEE Essay MP3s. Start with the February 2016 MEE and work backwards (e.g. July 2015, February 2015, etc.). Much like the recent OPE exams are a good reflection of the current MBE, the recent MEEs are a good reflection of the current MEE. You will not be reviewing the most recent MEEs (July 2016 to Feb 2018) because you will be testing on these questions later. It should take an examinee 6-10 minutes to read one MEE question and answer analysis in the Released MEE Essay Compilation or 12-18 minutes to listen to the MP3 version (unless you speed up the MP3 to 1.5x-2x speed using a player like VLC to bring it in line with reading speed). How many of these MEE questions/answers you review depends on how much study time you have, but I suggest reading a minimum of 30 questions and listening to a minimum of 30 different questions. This would require 12 hours of your study time. An added benefit to reviewing the law in the MEE questions is that the questions based on MBE subjects will help you on the MBE. For example, when NCBE introduced the MBE subject of Civil Procedure in 2015, they needed to create a large bank of MBE Civil Procedure questions, and I believe they borrowed issues from past MEE questions that could be turned into short answer questions. Thus, reviewing these MEE questions will count towards MEE and MBE study.

MEE ISSUE SPOTTING PRACTICE OUTLINE AND MP3s: I make the past MEEs even more useful/efficient by creating an MEE Issue Spotting Practice outline along with MP3s of it. After reviewing full NCBE MEE questions to familiarize themselves with the MEE and using them as learning tools, examinees should then go through the entire MEE Issue Spotting Practice outline. This outline will take about 10-12 hours to read once in its entirety (or 17 hours to listen to the MP3 version). In doing so, you will be reviewing the 200 most recent MEE questions as efficiently as possible since the only things you will be reviewing are the question itself, then each issue tested (along with how much that issue contributed to your score), and then a short summary of the answer just to give you a gist of the law being tested. This is absolutely the most efficient way to review a large number of MEE questions in volume. This outline serves not only as a study outline, but also as a practice outline since examinees can read/listen to a question and then pause to issue spot in their head, and then continue on to the answer. My suggestion is to read the entire MEE Issue Spotting Practice outline and then listen to the subjects you are having the most difficulty with (e.g. Civil Procedure). By employing two different methods of review/memorization, you will hopefully form multiple memory impressions to help you better recall the information on the exam.

MEE COMPARISON BANKS: Next, you should practice answering MEE questions using the most recently released MEE questions. At present, there are 18 MEE Comparison Banks. Thus, once you have reviewed a subject (e.g. Civil Procedure), go to the MEE Comparison Bank for that subject. At the top is the MEE question. Open the PDF for the question (dont look at the answer) and then either print/read it and then answer the question under timed conditions (30 minutes in total). After you answer the question, spend 30 minutes comparing your answer to the answers in the MEE Comparison Bank. Start by looking at the NCBE Answer Analysis which breaks down each of the issues and how much each issue is worth. Then go and look at exactly passing answers to see how close you were to them. Then look at high scoring examinee answers to see what they did differently (did they do more analysis, address issues differently from you). Then look at the very low scoring answers to see if you did anything they did (areas to avoid). Over one month, repeat this for every single essay in the MEE Comparison Bank (roughly 18 hours of your study time in total)

MPT FORMAT BIBLE: For the MPT, review the MPT Format Bible for about 2-4 hours. Use the MPT Format Bible to review the most commonly tested formats and styles. Examinees should review the MPT answers to understand how a Persuasive MPT answer is written versus an Objective MPT answer. Examinees should review the answers for the MPT types that did not have guidelines or had minimal guidelines to ensure they understand the formats required for these types of MPTs. Finally, examinees should briefly review MPT answers that contain a Statement of the Case or a Statement of Facts to understand how to compose one if necessary.

MPT COMPARISON BANKS: Next, examinees should answer 2-4 MPTs in practice depending on the amount they are studying. At present, there are 19 MPT Comparison Banks. There are 6 MPTs from 2010-2012 which can be downloaded free here: https://www.ncbex.org/exams/mpt/preparing/. Pick one of these MPTs (choose the ones which correspond with the MPT Comparison Bank) and either print/read it and then answer the MPT question under timed conditions (90 minutes in total). After you answer the question, spend 90 minutes comparing your answer to the answers in the MPT Comparison Bank. Start by looking at the NCBE Point Sheet which breaks down each of the issues and how much each issue is worth. Then go and look at exactly passing answers to see how close you were to them (look at word count also). Then look at high scoring examinee answers to see what they did differently (did they do more analysis, better formatting, better layout, addressed issues differently from you). Then look at the very low scoring answers to see if you did anything they did (important areas to avoid). Over one month, do this once a week until you answer 2-4 MPTs in total (roughly 6-12 hours of your study time in total). Note: If you have access to the MPT questions from 2013-2018, you should choose a few MPTs from this date range that are also in the MPT Comparison Bank.

All together, the above MEE/MPT study and practice will require a minimum of 50 hours of your study-time if you are a full-time examinee. However, depending on how much you study, you should adjust it accordingly. For example, if you are studying part-time rather than full time, only follow 50% of every suggestion. In contrast, if you are studying early and therefore studying more than a typical examinee, increase the proportions accordingly.