Answering the Multistate or Multiple Choice Questions on the Bar Exam

Today we will talk about how you answer the Multistate and State Multiple Choice questions. The procedure is the same, whether you are answering the multistate or if your state requires you to answer state multiple choice questions, like Florida.

1) Read the Call of the Question Critically

Reading the call of the question will determine what legal inferences you see, and what subject you are in. What does the call of the question ask for?

2) Skim the Answer Choices for the sub-topic of the subject

Look at the answer choices quickly and find out what sub-topic it is discussing. For example, if it’s a constitutional question, are the answer choices about procedural due process?

3) Read the Fact Pattern in a Directed Fashion

What words of legal significance do you see? What important facts do you see?

4) Eliminate Wrong Answer Choices

Look through the answer choices again and identify the issue. You can usually get eliminate one or two wrong answer choices based on the issue right away.

5) Apply the Elements of the Law to Pick the Right Answer

Once you have identified the sub-topic the fact pattern is discussing, remember the elements of the law. For example, if it’s a procedural due process issue, remember that the elements of procedural due process – is there a governmental deprivation of life, liberty or property? If no, there is no violation of due process. If yes, apply the balancing test of interest to see if the petitioner is entitled to notice or a hearing or both.

You are in the process of memorizing these elements of law so that you can do this analysis on the multistate or multiple choice examinations.

6) Reread the Call of the Question to Pick the Right Answer Choice

Prior to you picking the right answer, reread the call of the question quickly to make sure you have the right answer in sight.

7) Don’t Look Back

It is very common for bartakers to let a difficult question haunt them throughout the exam. Often, your first instinct is right and you’ve picked out the right answer. If you have confidence, you won’t let doubt get you. Even if you picked the wrong answer, there are still 199 more questions to go. Forget about it and move on. You do not want to mess up the next questions because you are still thinking about the one you let slip away.

Approaching the California Performance Test and the Multistate Performance Test

In order to put a successful answer together for the California Performance Test and the Multistate Performance test, you must outline your approach.

1. Have a Plan

Have a plan so you can save time and prevent panic. If you know what you are going to do and practice the routine, it becomes second nature to you by test day. #5 below is a good plan you can implement.

2. Practice from Actual PTs

Since the PT tests your ability to extract legal principles from cases and statutes and apply these principles to solve a specific client problem, you will need to practice this skill. Work from past PT questions and use the grading guidelines to evaluate your answers. Review sample PT answers.

3. Allocate Your Time

You must complete the assignment to maximize your points. The bar examiners suggest that you allot 45 minutes to reading the materials and 45 minutes to organizing and writing your response, if the MPT is 90 minutes. In California, allot 90 minutes to reading the materials and 90 minutes to organizing and writing your response.

4. Find Your Baseline

You have no idea how long it will take you to answer a PT until you’ve already done one. After you’ve read one or two PTS to see what they’re like, start practicing writing PTs. First, note how long it takes to read and outline the answer. This is your baseline reading time. Second, proceed to write the response. Once again, time yourself. This is your baseline writing time. Don’t be surprised if it takes longer than the suggested time to get through the materials. Keep practicing and work on writing the assignment within the time period.

5. Follow the Blueprint

Practice this approach until it becomes automatic. Follow each step of the sequence for each PT you take.

a. Skim the Instructions
b. Review the Table of Contents
c. Read the Task Memo
d. Review the Instruction Memo
e. Read the Library and use the rule from the cases to form your outline
f. Read the File and add the relevant facts to your outline
g. Re-read the Task Memo to verify the task
h. Review the Instruction Memo to verify the task formal
i. Write your Response

The Components of the California Performance Test and the Multistate Performance Test

The California Performance Test and the Multistate Performance Test simulates the experiences of a new attorney.

You’ll be given a client “File” and asked to complete what would be considered a typical assignment for a first year associate. Most likely, you’ll be asked to write a legal memorandum or persuasive brief, although it is possible to be asked to draft interrogatories, a will provision or a closing argument. Although you may not have performed all of these types of tasks during law school, the bar examiners expect you to be able to follow their instruction memo and rely on your basic legal training to complete the assignment.

Each task is designed to test your legal skills such as fact analysis, fact gathering, legal analysis and reasoning, problem solving and ethical issue problems.

The Components of the CPT and the MPT

The File

Here you’ll find the factual information about your case in the form of:

• Excerpts from deposition testimony
• Client correspondence
• Police reports and medical records
• Invoices and purchase orders
• Witness interviews
• Contract provisions, a lease, or a will.

While the File contains all the facts you need to know about your problem, it also contains irrelevant information just as in real life where your client will volunteer much more information than you actually need. The File will include irrelevant or ambiguous information, unreliable and conflicting witness testimony and inconsistent statements.

The “Task” Memo

This is the first memorandum in the File and the single most important piece of paper in the File. It introduces your problem and identifies your task. Your job is to answer the questions presented in the memo and perform the assigned task as precisely as possible.

The Instruction Memo

If the bar examiners think you need guidance in completing your task, they’ll include a second memo in the File. This memo will tell you exactly what to include in your answer. Sometimes the examiners tell you what not to include in your answer.

The Library

The Library contains all the legal authorities you’ll need to complete the assigned task. They are the only legal authorities you may use to solve the problem.

The Library may consist of:

• Statues, codes and commentaries
• Constitutional provisions and regulations
• Rules of professional conduct
• Cases
• Secondary sources such as Reinstatement provisions

The cases may be actual cases, modified cases, or cases written specifically for the exam. The rules also may be actual rules or rules written specifically for the exam. Even if you think you are familiar with a rule or a case from law school, you must still read all the material in the Library. You cannot assume that the material has not been modified.

Next time, we will discuss the best approach to answering the performance test.

29 Days Until the Bar Exam: Strategies for the California Performance Test

The California Performance Test and the Multistate Performance Test (the MPT) is designed to test your proficiency in the basic skills you’ve developed in the course of your legal education and not just your ability to memorize. The goal of the MPT is to test an applicant’s ability to use fundamental lawyering skills in a realistic situation. It seeks to evaluate your ability to complete a task which a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish.

In most jurisdictions, you’ll have 90 minutes to read through 15 to 25 pages, analyze the problem, outline an answer, and write a response. In California, you’ll see one long MPT for 3 hours. Thus, the MPT is a test of your ability to work within time constraints and remain focused and organized.

The MPT tests the following:

1) Reading Comprehension

You must read proactively, with a critical eye toward solving a specific problem rather than answering a professor’s questions in class. You must read carefully and quickly, while you search for useful information and answers to the particular issue you’ve been asked to resolve.

2) Organizational Skills

You must organize your time and the materials effectively to complete the required task in the time allowed. The MPT is extremely time-sensitive. You must analyze an assortment of unfamiliar materials and compose either a memorandum of law, a letter to a client, a persuasive brief, a contract provision, a will, a settlement proposal, a discovery plan, or a closing argument, to list but a few of the possibilities.

3) Communication Skills

You must write concisely, coherently, and in a tone and manner consistent with the nature of the assignment. You must demonstrate your mastery of the language of the law and convince the bar examination that you “sound” like an attorney ready to begin the practice of law.

4) Ability to Follow Directions

The MPT is task-specific. You must perform the task identified to receive credit. If you are instructed to write a letter to the client, do that. Do not do a brief or a memo; write the letter. Show the bar examiners that you can read and follow directions.

Next time, we will talk about how to organize your performance test.

The Keys To Passing The California Bar Exam Essays: "The System"

First, to be successful on the California essay portion of the bar exam, you must implement your organization.

Once you read the fact pattern, you will organize your essay, then you must analyze.

This is where you make the outline looking for issues. Look back to the fact pattern for facts which should be used for applying the law and then you can apply the facts to the law.


Please go to barprofessors.com for more information on the California and Florida bar exams.

Organization and Analysis: Essay Writing for the Bar Exam

In order to write a successful essay answer you must learn to organize your answer as your analyze the fact pattern.

Once you read the fact pattern, you will organize your essay, then you must analyze.

This is where you look through the fact pattern for facts which should be used for applying the law and then you can apply the facts to the law.

The Mechanics of a Good Essay Answer for the Bar Exam

I am including a checklist as to the mechanics of a good answer for a bar essay. Whether you are writing an essay question in California or in Florida or in any other jurisdiction, use this checklist as a model for all your answers. As you practice your essay writing, keep this checklist in mind.

You must state a rule of law.

You must apply the rules to the facts.

You must reach a conclusion.

Keep Sentences Short

Keep your sentences short and concise. You are not writing a book or some thesis.

Write for an Uninformed Reader

Use your IRAC. For those applicants in New York, that state requires you to use IRAC in answering your essay question.

Also, restate your question as an answer or conclude how you want the court to rule and then why.

Conclusion

Take the call of question and convert it into a statement.