The UBE Essays and OPE 860 subscriptions are generally available year-round (later updates are minor and do not impact the subscription), but the MBE outline module subscriptions are only available about 2-3 months before the exam (December for February exams or May for July exams) due to the updates to reflect the current upcoming exam. Unfortunately, the MBE outline generally doesn’t come out any sooner. Once I determine how much I expect each MBE category to contribute to an examinee’s upcoming MBE score, I rebalance by outline to reflect this (the outline is created entirely through Excel to enable me to include/exclude content for each exam and/or re-order it for priority purposes). This allows me to be more reactive than other outlines and hopefully better reflect the upcoming exam, but doing this makes it hard to release far in advance of the exam. For examinees who wish to study early, there is an older edition of the outline that is available. If you subscribe early, you should avoid marking up/editing this older edition because it will be replaced with a more on-point version approximately two months before the exam.

If you are a repeater, you should first complete my Retaker Advice Form so I know your situation. If you are a first time examinee, you should complete my UBE Score Estimator and submit it. Include a comment that you are interested in the modules. I will assess where you stand compared to other examinees and give you advice which worked for similarly situated examinees. For example, a subscriber to the Combined MBE subscription who passed J19 with an MBE of 133 after failing F19 with an MBE of 113 told me: “Want to begin by saying thank you for all your materials. I received my passing email, finally! Your MBE rules were absolute GOLD. I saw many questions that went hand in hand with your rules. I have also told my buddies who are graduating to 1000% purchase your materials.” When I asked him what aspect of the subscriptions he found most useful/helpful on the exam, he told me “The MBE rules by far were the most helpful.”

Meanwhile, another subscriber to the Combined MBE subscription who passed with a J19 MBE of 149 told me: “If I was to recommend just one product, it would be your 175 page MBE Outline Module. I had the Barbri convisor but I used the MBE outline exclusively. It was the one supplement that gave me all the information I needed without any fluff. I also felt like it followed the test very well. I remember reading the exam and thinking wow yeah that was in the outline the rule is xyz. A close second recommend would be the OPE rules. I got it in July so I didn’t have much time to use it but I think it’s brilliant and a must buy combined with the MBE outline. If I were to offer advice, I would recommend that for the OPE rules to have a table of contents. I ended up tagging each section using my PDF creator. Thank you for all the work you put into your materials and statistics. I will always recommend your products!”

A subscriber to my Combined MBE outline who went from a 117 MBE (about 46% correct) to a 131 MBE (about 58% correct) told me: “I increased 15 points on MBE by using BarBri Conviser Mini-Review as “primer” and your outline for deep info.”

One repeater (MBE of 117 on first attempt) passed J19 with an MBE of 139.4 and MEE/MPT of 140 after subscribing to the $500 Combined MBE Outline + UBE Essays Modules. The examinee told me the following: “Just wanted to let you know that I passed the Washington UBE with a score of 279. You had predicted that I would score a 290, so not far off! This was my second attempt (sat for Florida first time). Please let me know what I need to fill out for you so that you can use my statistics for others in the future. I relied heavily on your program and did not take a traditional bar course. I am quite certain that I would not have passed without your MEE/MPT materials. What was especially useful was the top 50 rules outline that you sent to us weeks before the exam. … Honestly, I thought my MBE would be a little higher because I focused heavily on MBE and practiced over 1,500 questions with Adaptibar and Emmanual Books. However, the first time I took the MBE I scored a 117 so I cannot complain. That time I took Themis and was nowhere near as intentional/methodical with my approach as this time.”

Another subscriber to the Combined MBE subscription who just passed J19 told me: “I passed the BAR with flying colors! Score: July 2018: 249 (MBE Score: 119.6) February 2019: 255 (MBE Score: 123.9) July 2019: 293 (MBE Score 153.7) What an improvement! I knew I had the capability within me to take this exam. I just needed someone to point me in the right direction and give me a step-by-step approach to taking the exam. Surely, you did it! Your content is absolutely astounding and I would dare to say a guaranteed means of passing the BAR exam if one puts the time and effort. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to sincerely thank you for your time on the phone and the email exchanges. I will say that following the failure of the BAR in February, I was extremely down. I flew to Israel to clear my mind and hopefully find the drive to attempt the exam again. I laid in my bed one evening in Jerusalem and decided to go on forums and search for folks who failed the BAR repeatedly. Luckily, I came across a thread of a subscriber of the forum who highly recommended you. Lo and behold, I found Joe Seperac, a fellow Croatian. I immediately purchased a part of your course and added AdaptiBAR too it as well. Truly, thank you. If you would like me to write a more detailed review of your course, I’d be happy to do so without hesitation. I also would like to meet you one day, perhaps at the infamous Croatian church one Sunday in Manhattan or anywhere else that works for you. You deserve to have your curriculum used nationwide because it truly is that much better than what the market offers. Thank you, kind sir and I hope to hear from you soon!”

This examinee started with the OPE 643 (now the OPE 860) module first about 90 days before the exam. He later subscribed to the Combined MBE Outlines and MBE Rules Subscription when it became available (78 days before the exam). He also subscribed to the UBE Essays Subscription 57 days before the J19 exam. For this examinee, my materials were very helpful as his MBE went from 124 in F19 to 154 in J19. Over the years, I have learned that for some examinees, my materials help immensely (see the Comments Page) while for others, their scores do not improve. However, if you are the type of learner who benefits from a “rule and application approach,” my materials should improve your score.

In your MBE practice, it is crucial that you practice with the OPE 860 questions (see the OPE 860 Page for an explanation why). You don’t need to purchase these questions from me (Adaptibar, Barmax, Strategies and Tactics also have these questions), but you need to make sure you master these 860 questions before you spend any time on other MBE practice questions. You should focus on the OPE 860 until you are consistently scoring 80% correct. This will make your MBE practice more efficient. For example, one examinee who did this passed J19 with an MBE of 153.7 after failing twice (F19 MBE of 123.9 and J18 MBE of 119.6). Another J19 subscriber (OPE 860 and my MBE Rules modules) who passed AZ on his third attempt with an MBE of 143 and written of 134 told me the following: “I wanted to let you know I passed the July ’19 Arizona bar exam. This was my third attempt. I scored a 277. Written: 134.1 MBE: 142.8 Your MBE/OPE questions were part of the reason why I scored so high on the MBE, so I thank you for that. I am extremely glad to have found you the first time I failed the bar exam in July ’18. This attempt I also did not write any essays at all and continued to follow your strategy and focus on your MBE audio of questions…my scores on the MEE were all over the place. I received a score of 4 on an essay where I literally ran out of time and wrote maybe 2 incoherent paragraphs? It really is all about the MBE. As far as the MBE went, it felt extremely easy taking it. I finished about 30-45 minutes early. I felt like every subject besides Contracts and Real Property were really easy, so I chalk that up to prep. In terms of my score, I feel like it is still a little low compared to how I felt following the exam. The first two times I took the bar I felt like there was a significant chance I would fail. This time around, I was extremely confident I would pass. I felt like I was good for at least a 280, but I will chalk that up to the examiners really gaming the multiple choice portion of the test.” Please note that this examinee failed in J18 with an MBE of 127 and written of 131, then failed again in F19 with an MBE of 132 and written of 137. The advice I gave him in J18 was to focus on the MBE, and it is the same advice I am giving to you now.

Another J19 subscriber (Combined MBE Outlines and MBE Rules Subscription + UBE Essays subscription) who was a multiple repeater told me the following after the exam: “I hope you’re well. I have great news I passed the NY Bar Exam!!! I think it’s mostly thanks to your materials. … My total score was 303 and my scaled MBE score was 159.9. Again, your materials really made the difference for me, and focusing on the MBE and Top 50 essays as you suggested. Thank you so very very much! I think you were right to advise me to focus on the MBE part, so I’ll say that the OPE 643 (now OPE 860) was the most helpful. I’ll recommend you to friends, that’s for sure! “ This examinee’s past failing score on the MBE were 130 in J15, an MBE of 128 in F15 and an MBE of 114 in J14.

Some examinees focus so much on the MBE that are able to make the written a non-issue. For example, a J19 subscriber (Combined MBE Outlines and MBE Rules Subscription) told me the following after the exam: “thanks again for your advice back then. I ended up purchasing your outlines and they were really helpful. Unfortunately, I had a complete blackout on the MPT section yesterday and ended up submitting nothing for one MPT and only „crap“ for the second one (never happened to me before, but had some private issues coming in). MEE was average (and/or slightly above). Multiple choice could go up high.” The examinee passed with an MBE of 169 (96th percentile) and a written of 108 (3rd percentile). The examinee told me after passing: “thank you again so much for your comforting words back then. They all turned out be true and I have one more story to add to your “good MBE = auto pass” theory. As predicted in July, I essentially got 0 points for the MPT, but scored average in the MEE section, bringing me to an MPT/MEE overall score of 108 points. However, I rocked the MBE with 168.5 points, bringing me over the finish line.”

The OPE 860 is a stand-alone module. I use these questions (along with others) in my MBE tutoring but you can purchase the OPE 860 separately through www.mberules.com for $400. It is printable, but keep in mind the questions are arranged for learning rather than practice. Accordingly, each answer explanation appears immediately after each question. Furthermore, the questions sorted by subject (Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Contracts, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts) and then by category. This is so you can see all the different angles of how the topics have been recently tested. By looking at one legal theory at a time, you will be able to make connections more quickly leading to a better grasp of the concept. For example, when you read 10 impeachment fact patterns together, you will begin to see what an impeachment fact pattern can look like. This will help you to spot the issue in the future (on both the MBE and essays). Grouping the questions also enables you to better compartmentalize your MBE mistakes (e.g. by answering all the MBE Torts Negligence questions together and then examining your mistakes you can efficiently identify the gaps in your knowledge without having to hunt through your notes). If you haven’t practiced with these questions, it is important that you do so. You should master these questions before you move onto any other NCBE questions. For example, NCBE is removing their MBE 1992 questions (about 1/3 of their released questions) from their licensing question bank. According to an August 2019 NCBE memo to licensees, the MBE 1992 questions (581 questions representing about 1/3 of the released NCBE questions) are being removed from the NCBE licensing program in 2022 because they “may no longer reflect the current law, the style is not consistent with current questions on the MBE, and their continued availability reflects poorly on NCBE.” Accordingly, examinees who spend time on these questions without first mastering the more relevant questions are simply hurting themselves. According to NCBE, “The 581 questions contained in this document appeared on MBEs administered between 1972 and 1991. Because of their dated nature, many of the questions may test principles that have been altered by changes in the law and thus are no longer suitable topics to be tested.” NCBE even requires licensees of the MBE 1992 questions to inform examinees in writing that “NCBE believes that many of these questions may no longer be representative of the MBE’s content.” These “old” questions represent about 30% of the Adaptibar questions, 30% of the 2016 Strategies and Tactics Volume I 6th Edition (ISBN 978-1454873129) and about 20% of the 2013 S&T Volume 2 book (ISBN 978-1454809937). Therefore, if you are spending time on these questions, you are practicing somewhat inefficiently. Put simply, the concepts behind the OPE 643 questions are much more likely to be “re-tested” on the upcoming MBE than the concepts contained in the non-OPE questions.

Yes. My MBE Outline is intended to dovetail with the released NCBE MBE questions to cover what I expect the current MBE to test, but not reflected in the released NCBE MBE questions. Examinee who have problems with Civil Procedure, Real Property, and Criminal Procedure don’t realize this may be due to the lack of relevant content in the released NCBE questions. For Civil Procedure, there are simply not enough released NCBE questions. For Real Property and Criminal Procedure, a lot of the old NCBE questions do not reflect the current MBE. For example, the entire area of Criminal Procedure (Constitutional Protection of Accused Persons) is severely under-represented in the released Adaptibar NCBE questions (it is just 3% of the released NCBE questions, but expected to be 7% or more of your MBE score). If you miss 50% of the Criminal Procedure MBE questions due to this incomplete knowledge, that represents about 5 MBE points. For example, one examinee told me (after failing with an MBE of 116) told me: “When I studied for the Feb ‘18 bar exam I used Adaptibar and S & T, 6th edition. My MBE scores were actually ranging between 60-70%, which is why I was so surprised that my scores were so low on the actual exam. My strongest scores (while studying) were torts and criminal; however, criminal was low on the actual exam.”

Basically, the released NCBE questions are not always reflective of the current MBE exam. Along with areas that are under-represented, the NCBE questions also over-represent certain areas. For example, future interests & RAP are now rarely tested on the MBE, but you will find a good number of them in Adaptibar. Meanwhile, the new topics that replaced these topics (e.g. Fair Housing Act and broker commissions) do not appear in the released NCBE questions. Thus, if your MBE study is based only on the law behind the released NCBE MBE questions, you will be under-prepared for some areas and over-prepared for others. These inefficiencies are evident even in materials of most major bar reviews. For example, based on the 2019 NBCE Subject Matter outline, the subject of Real Property consists of five categories: (1) Ownership; (2) Rights in Land; (3) Contracts; (4) Mortgages; and (5) Titles. Each category is equally weighted, meaning each category will represent 20% of your Real Property MBE score. However, if you look at the MBE outlines of the big bar reviews, you would not see anything remotely close to these proportions. For example, 44% of Barbri’s Real Property outline is based on category 1 (Ownership) even though it is only 20% of an examinee’s MBE score. Meanwhile, 7% of Barbri’s Real Property outline is based on category 3 (Contracts) even though it is 20% of an examinee’s MBE score. Likewise, 8% of Barbri’s Real Property outline is based on category 4 (Mortgages) even though it is 20% of an examinee’s MBE score. Kaplan and Themis are similar. For Kaplan, 45% of Kaplan’s Real Property outline is based on category 1 (Ownership); 9% is based on category 3 (Contracts) and 9% is based on category 4 (Mortgages). For Themis, 36% of Themis’ Real Property MBE outline is based on category 1 (Ownership); 9% is based on category 3 (Contracts) and 12% is based on category 4 (Mortgages). The average examinee gets about 18/25 correct on Real Property MBE questions. If you miss 50% of the category 3 (Contracts) and category 4 (Mortgages) MBE questions because your outline was 50% too small for those categories, that is about 5 MBE questions (which translates to 3-4 total UBE points).

Doing questions from other sources such as Kaplan/PMBR and Barbri can help balance these deficiencies. I also have an MBE Outline ($250) you may find useful. For example, an CA examinee who scored a 160.6 on the J18 MBE told me “Your outline is excellent and serves as a great equalizer since the questions on Adaptibar are not fully reflective of the exam.” While I am biased, I believe my MBE Outline is the best representation of the current MBE exam you will ever see in a commercially available outline – it is highly on point both proportionately and contextually. I have been maintaining/updating this outline for 14 years (the 2005 version is available for free on www.seperac.com). For example, the Criminal Procedure section of my outline may spend more time on the obscure topic of 8th Amendment rather than Prosecutorial duty to disclose because that is the direction the MBE is going. The best benefit of my MBE outline is that it is packed with the nuances you will see on the current MBE. For example, a subscriber who passed F19 told me: “Your MBE outlines are top notch. They address so many of the nuanced rules I’ve been tested on during this prep cycle and past prep cycles.” Another examinee who failed with an MBE of 127 and then purchased my MBE outline and subsequently passed told me: “Hi Joe! I wanted to let you know I got the great news that I passed the mbe portion of the FL bar! I’m a repeat taker and your outline helped me SO MUCH! THANK YOU! “ In regards to the examinee’s failing attempt, she told me “I felt extremely unprepared for the real property section because there were so many topics I hadn’t even heard of. For example there was a mortgage question regarding marshaling which was in NONE of my bar prep materials. And there was maybe a sentence regarding the fair housing act.” This is precisely what my MBE outline addresses. For example, a subscriber who scored a 174 on the MBE in NY and then a 177 on the MBE in NJ told me: “… as far as the MBE is concerned, your outlines have been most useful since you emphasize the fine distinctions.” Thus, you can regard my MBE outline as an excellent representation (both proportionally and contentually) of the current MBE. This MBE outline will serve as a much better reflection of the current MBE exam than the outline you will use with your bar review. Subscribers generally treat my outline as their MBE bible and adjust their MBE studying based on it. For example, if there is very little coverage for a topic in my MBE outline but it is heavily covered in your Barbri/Kaplan/etc. materials, you should pay less attention to it. Conversely, if my outline stresses a topic but it is not covered in your materials, you need to learn it.

Please note that this is a comprehensive outline rather than an attack outline so it will take you some time to get through it. While an attack outline (i.e. an outline that is 3-5 pages per subject) may be more manageable as the exam nears, I find that outlines significantly smaller than 25 pages per subject are too superficial for productive MBE study. With each exam, I actually have to force myself to limit each subject to only 25 pages of black letter law. I honestly feel that I need more than one page of black letter law per MBE question to cover all the nuances for each MBE topic, but I have settled on one page per MBE question for the time being. Since I put a lot of time into trying to understand the exam, so you can regard my outlines as an excellent reflection of it. Basically, what you can expect on the exam is what you can expect in my outline (which also illustrates how comprehensive the scope of the MBE is). As I mentioned, the best benefit of my MBE Outline is that it is packed with the nuances you will see on the MBE.

Aside from this MBE outline ($250), I also have an MBE Rules module (which consists of rule statements I wrote for the 1,800+ released NCBE questions including the recently released 210 MBE Study Aid questions ($250). The MBE Rules subscription includes MP3s of the rules in case you commute, work out, etc. Finally, there is an option for the Combined MBE Outline ($400) which essentially is the MBE outline and MBE Rules merged together into a single outline. If you are interested, you can look at www.mberules.com for more information and samples.

The Combined MBE and Essay module is a one-time fee of $550 and expires August 1 for a July exam or March 1 for a February exam. Accessing the site after you sign up is very simple – you will receive an email and then you simply go to your Registered Member Page and login using the credentials you entered during the payment process. You will have access to two different modules (UBE Essays and the Combined MBE module) and can toggle between them through the Registered Member Page (or just add the links to your Favorites/Bookmarks). On the pages for each subscription, the materials and be downloaded immediately (you can even use a download manager to download all the contents automatically).  

I generally encourage first-time examinees to take a standard bar review course and supplement with my modules. Even if you are in an at-risk demographic as a first-time examinee (e.g. foreign examinee or part-time studier), you really can’t gauge your ability to pass until you take the exam. For example, one recent first-time foreign examinee from West Africa passed with an exceptionally high UBE score of 321 despite numerous impediments. The examinee told me: “This was my first attempt ever and all the odds were heavily stacked against me. I’m a foreign educated attorney from west Africa. Additionally I’m a mother of a toddler who was 17 months when I sat bar, a wife, and I was 7 months pregnant during exam. I was also breastfeeding months leading up to exam and was throwing up a lot during bar prep (made me weak and tired all the time). We also moved across state 2 weeks to the exam and that took a significant amount of time away from my prep.” On top of all these issues, the NY UBE pass rate for this demographic is about 10%, making this accomplishment even more noteworthy. Accordingly, you simply don’t know how you will do until you do it.

In contrast, UBE Course subscribers are generally examinees who have repeatedly failed but absolutely need to pass on their next attempt (e.g. because their job is at risk or it will be their last full attempt). Thus, it makes more sense to choose the economical route first and see what happens. If you are contemplating the UBE Course, any amount you pay for a subscription module will be credited if you later decide to sign up for the UBE course. For example, if you purchase a Combined MBE Outline + UBE Essays Modules for $500 but fail that exam, if you decide to enroll in an upcoming UBE Course, it will be discounted by the amount you paid. Please further note that to enroll in the UBE course, you must provide me with information to verify your examinee status and also sign a comprehensive Non-Disclosure Agreement. If you are unwilling to do this, you should not sign up or purchase any subscriptions with the expectation of a later credit.

With the Combined MBE and Essays subscription, you will find all the subscription materials helpful, but the MBE materials will likely contribute the most to your UBE score (and odds of passing). In a UBE state, you want to spend at least 70% of your overall study-time on the MBE. A good MBE will overcome a lot of problems with the other components. For example, according to a 1976 American Bar Association Journal interview with Joe E. Covington, the director of testing of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, when asked whether state bar examiners can use only the MBE score and not look at the essays at all to make a pass or fail designation, the NCBE director responded: At least four jurisdictions do not read the essay answers of applicant who make a predetermined score or above that score. Some states select an M.B.E, score of 140 for this purpose. Applicants who achieve this selected score or above are admitted to the bar solely on the M.B.E. score. If an applicant scores this high on the M.B.E., the correlation of the essay and M.B.E tests is so good that in only very rare cases would the essay score of an applicant be low enough to bring the average of the scores below the passing score were his essay answers graded. see Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Multistate Bar Examination, American Bar Association Journal; Mar 1976, Vol. 62 Issue 3, p315. Although this article is from 1976, I believe this still holds true today. This is why out of 4,500+ UBE examinees who failed and sent me their scores, only 110 failed with an MBE score above 140 (meaning about 98% failed with an MBE below 140). This is why you should focus on the MBE and try to get above 140 (which is usually about 65% correct).

The goal of my MBE materials is to help examinees achieve a scaled score of 140 or higher on the MBE. In that regard, I believe my MBE Outline as the best representation of the current MBE exam you will ever see in a commercially available outline – it is highly on point both proportionately and contextually. The best benefit of my MBE outline is that it is packed with the nuances you will see on the current MBE. For example, a subscriber who passed F19 told me: “Your MBE outlines are top notch. They address so many of the nuanced rules I’ve been tested on during this prep cycle and past prep cycles.” Another examinee who failed with an MBE of 127 and then purchased my MBE outline and subsequently passed told me: “Hi Joe! I wanted to let you know I got the great news that I passed the mbe portion of the FL bar! I’m a repeat taker and your outline helped me SO MUCH! THANK YOU! “ In regards to the examinee’s failing attempt, she told me “I felt extremely unprepared for the real property section because there were so many topics I hadn’t even heard of. For example there was a mortgage question regarding marshaling which was in NONE of my bar prep materials. And there was maybe a sentence regarding the fair housing act.” This is precisely what my MBE outline addresses. For example, a subscriber who scored a 174 on the MBE in NY and then a 177 on the MBE in NJ told me: “… as far as the MBE is concerned, your outlines have been most useful since you emphasize the fine distinctions.”

Thus, you can regard my MBE outline as an excellent representation (both proportionally and contentually) of the current MBE. For example, an CA examinee who scored a 160.6 on the J18 MBE told me “Your outline is excellent and serves as a great equalizer since the questions on Adaptibar are not fully reflective of the exam.” This MBE outline will serve as a much better reflection of the current MBE exam than the outline you will use with bar reviews such as Barbri or Kaplan. Subscribers generally treat my outline as their MBE bible and adjust their MBE studying based on it. For example, if there is very little coverage for a topic in my MBE outline but it is heavily covered in your Barbri/Kaplan/Themis materials, you should pay less attention to it. Conversely, if my outline stresses a topic but it is not covered in your Barbri/Kaplan/Themis materials, you need to learn it. For example, an examinee who subscribed to the $500 Combined MBE and UBE Essays module who just passed Feb 2019 told me the following “I just wanted to let you know that I passed the TN UBE with a score of 302. I wanted to thank you sincerely for providing such an amazing program for the MEE, MPT, and MBE. It allowed me to really focus my studying and pass with flying colors. Thank you again!”

Please note that this is a comprehensive outline rather than an attack outline so it will take you some time to get through it. While an attack outline (i.e. an outline that is 3-5 pages per subject) may be more manageable as the exam nears, I find that outlines significantly smaller than 25 pages per subject are too superficial for productive MBE study. With each exam, I actually have to force myself to limit each subject to only 25 pages of black letter law. I honestly feel that I need more than one page of black letter law per MBE question to cover all the nuances for each MBE topic, but I have settled on one page per MBE question for the time being. Since I put a lot of time into trying to understand the exam, so you can regard my outlines as an excellent reflection of it. Basically, what you can expect on the exam is what you can expect in my outline (which also illustrates how comprehensive the scope of the MBE is). As I mentioned earlier, the best benefit of my MBE Outline is that it is packed with the nuances you will see on the MBE.

The Combined MBE outline also contains my 1,800 NCBE MBE rules which are built into it. Subscribers find these MBE rules very helpful in their MBE studies. Thus, the black letter law sections of the MBE outline will appropriately tell you what to expect on the upcoming exam (both contextually and proportionally), while the built-in MBE rules will tell you what was tested on the past. This is about as complete a picture as you can have of the current MBE exam while being able to study everything for the MBE in one place. Typically, subscribers rank my MBE Rules outline as 2nd or 3rd most helpful in their MBE studies (the UBE MASTER outline is ranked most helpful, but this is only available through my UBE Course). For example, as one examinee recently told me: “Knowing now that I passed, I can confidently say that your MBE Rules outline was indispensable. Even though I probably completed only 400-500 practice MBEs, I really focused on thinking about why I got answers wrong, what aspect of the law I didn’t quite understand, and creating rules that directly addressed that misunderstanding. I then reviewed these rules multiple times.” This is because the past questions serve as a good reflection of the legal concepts currently tested. A 2004 research report entitled A Multivariate Generalizability Analysis of the MBE concluded that “variance component estimates for sub-tests for the February and July administrations are very stable, which indicates that the table of specifications for the MBE is well-defined and faithfully followed, and various forms constructed based on the table of specifications are quite ‘parallel’ to each other.” This is why reviewing NCBE questions is so important. Because the MBE forms are ‘parallel’ to each other, reviewing released MBE questions is the best way to familiarize yourself with future MBE questions. Granted, the farther back you go, the less relevant the questions become (NCBE even warns about this), but there is no better way of understanding the MBE exam than by examining the law tested in the released questions by the exam maker. Accordingly, you should frequently review the rules I wrote for the NCBE OPE questions from 2006-2013 and the NCBE MBE Study Aid questions from 2019.

Included in this Combined MBE + UBE Essays subscription is a separate MBE rules outline you can read or listen to via MP3. It consists of the same MBE rules which are built into the Combined MBE outline, but they are separated based on their importance. Thus, the important NCBE MBE rules (based on questions from 2006 and later) are separated from the less-important rules (based on questions from 1998 and earlier) to enable subscribers to  focus additional time on the 644 most important rules while still spending some time reviewing the less important ones. This is because while any of the 644 legal concepts in the “OPE” MBE Rules can be tested on the upcoming MBE (and therefore important), there are a number of legal concepts in the “NON-OPE” MBE Rules that are no longer tested (making this older set of questions less important). If you answer the released NCBE questions, this serves as a great second perspective and if you don’t answer all the released NCBE questions, this serves as an excellent hedge. Thus, since you are taking Kaplan and may not review the released NCBE questions in your MBE practice, reviewing these rules through my outlines serves as an excellent hedge because you will at least become familiar with the legal concepts tested on the actual MBE.

  The UBE Essays subscription will give you a lot of insight into what is required on the MEE and MPT. The subscription includes the licensed MEEs, but I transform them into more efficient study tools such as condensed outlines, comparison banks and MP3s. Please keep in mind the available component modules (i.e. UBE Essays and MBE Rules) do NOT contain any topic priorities for the upcoming exam. Any material I produce which prioritizes/predicts upcoming exam topics such as my UBE MASTER Outline or Top 50 MEE outline is only available through the UBE Course.

For the MEE, I recommend that subscribers review the MEE Issue Spotting Practice Outline or listen to the MP3s of it. This outline contains every released MEE question from 2002 to present (200+ MEE questions) grouped by subject with the questions sorted from newest to oldest with the corresponding issues and short answers for issue spotting practice. If you don’t have enough time to do full MEE study, this is a great alternative (especially to fill time while you are commuting/working out/etc.). You can listen to these essays in MP3 form while you commute which serves as an excellent way to study more efficiently while also forming different memory impressions.

  For the MPT, there is a very large bank of graded MPTs (500+) spanning the past 19 exams. By looking at a wide variety of real graded MPTs, especially the high scoring MPTs, you will learn by example of how a good MPT answer should be constructed. There is also an MPT Format Bible which will efficiently illustrate to you the majority of past MPT formats (according to NCBE, the MPT format can account for up to 10% of the MPT grade).

In regards to the MBE materials, the 175 page MBE Outline or the 285 page Combined MBE Outline (which contains 25 pages of black letter law for each MBE subject plus another 110 pages of MBE rules for the 1,800+ released NCBE questions) is printable and searchable, but you cannot copy/paste content from it (there is also a watermark on every page for security purposes). If you have access to the MBE Rules subscription, the MBE Rules outlines are likewise watermarked, printable and searchable, but you cannot copy/paste content. There are also MP3s of the MBE rules which can be streamed or downloaded and played in a device. In regards to the MEE and MPT materials, they are in WORD format and can be edited, printed, copied, etc. There are also a good number of MP3s on the UBE Essays site that can be streamed or downloaded. Please also note that I update the materials where applicable. For example, once the F19 essays are released, I will post a new MEE Issue Spotting Outline and MP3. Likewise, when I complete the MEE and MPT Essay Comparison Banks, they will also be added to the site.

No, I don’t. With each exam, I actually have to force myself to limit each subject in my MBE Outline to only 25 pages of black letter law. Quite honestly, sometimes I feel that I need more than one page of black letter law per MBE question to cover all the nuances for each MBE topic, but I have settled on one page per MBE question for the time being. Unless you are domestic educated first-time candidate, smaller outlines will leave you with too many gaps in your MBE knowledge. Basically, the closer you are to the demographic of a domestic educated first-time candidate, the greater your margin of error in MBE study (meaning such examinees can afford to miss questions on new MBE topics because these examinees will still score 65%-75% correct on the MBE based on their demographic). However, the further away you are from this demographic, the lower your margin of error on the MBE (meaning you really need every point you can get because your expected MBE % correct is typically lower than 65%, i.e. below 140 scaled). Put simply, at risk candidates must study as efficiently as possible because they either don’t have the time or ability to fully comprehend everything, so they really can’t afford to study anything that is not on point. However, I put a lot of time into trying to understand the exam, so you can regard my outlines as a very good reflection of it. Basically, what you can expect on the exam is what you can expect in my outline (which also illustrates how comprehensive the scope of the MBE is). I honestly feel that the best benefit of my MBE outline is that it is packed with the nuances you will see on the MBE. If you try to make the outline significantly smaller, it will be too superficial for productive MBE study. I fully understand your desire to drill down the topics and end up with an “attack outline” for when the exam nears, but that is something other supplemental bar reviews provide and I don’t want to re-invent the wheel unless I have a better wheel.

For most examinees, especially first-time domestic educated examinees studying full-time while enrolled in a bar review course, the answer is no. I made the UBE Score Estimator (https://seperac.com/zcalc-passcalc.php) so examinees can predict an estimate of their total UBE score based on the entered demographic/grade data. The further away you are from passing, the fewer inefficiencies you can have in your studies. For example, a Domestic-educated Caucasian First-Time examinee with a high LSAT/LGPA can study rather inefficiently (e.g. not study full-time, put a lower percentage of their time into MBE study, or answer MBE practice questions from only one source, or answer only a few hundred MBE questions in practice) and still pass the exam. This is because when a high-ability examinee studies for the bar exam, these examinees understand the material better because they had previously understood it in law school (you don’t get high grades in law school unless you demonstrate your knowledge of the subject matter on exams). These examinees generally also have good writing ability and good memory capacity (which contribute to both law school success and bar exam success). Thus, a high-ability examinee can do inefficient things like listen to the bar review lectures and still do fine on the exam.

In contrast, if you are on the other end of the spectrum (Foreign-educated Non-Caucasian Repeat-Taker), you can’t afford any inefficiencies in your studies. The lower your ability, the less room for error you have in your studying. For example, I strongly believe examinees MUST do well on the MBE in order to pass. There will always be outliers where examinees pass based on a low MBE score and a high written score, but in general it is the best measure of an examinee’s ability. This opinion is shared by NCBE who recently stated that “MBE scores are highly related to total bar exam scores.” In a perfect world with no time constraints, you would memorize your full outlines and then answer each NCBE MBE question over and over until you fully understood the law behind every single NCBE question. However, all examinees are limited in some way by study time, memory capacity, and exam ability. In such cases, you may benefit from a supplement that gives you a better picture of the exam in a more efficient manner and format. Otherwise, lower-ability examinees try to be good at everything, but if their MBE score languishes, they almost always fail.

If you are a re-taker, if you send me your past score information, you will receive a $25 discount coupon code. Please just email me at joe [@] seperac.com and tell me what exam you sat for and I will send you the link to the appropriate form to fill out.

In addition, if you are interested in a quid pro quo, I offer a $30 discount coupon code to any examinee who agrees to complete my post-exam followup form within one week after taking the UBE exam (probably takes about 10 minutes of your time). The current version of the post-exam form is here: http://seperac.com/postexamform.php

This post-exam followup form enables me assess the effectiveness of my materials/advice. It can also help you later if you find out you failed the exam. For example, using this information, I track the key details of your attempt, so if you fail, I will try to match your responses/statistics to whoever previously submitted the most comparable details (and later passed) to give you their advice on what worked for them. Over the past five years, this pin-pointed advice has helped a number of failers pass on their next attempt. Please email me at joe [@] seperac.com for more details if you are interested.

To give you an example of how examinees use the Combined MBE + UBE Essays subscription to pass the exam, a foreign examinee who passed F19 with a scaled MBE score of 152.1 and total UBE score of 296 told me the following:

Here is how I used my subscription:

MBE Rules:I read through your rules fully at least 3-4 times before the exam. This was the first time I begun to feel that I understood possible questions that could be tested on the exam. Your rules were the closest thing to the exam questions. I started studying for the bar with Barbri and even though I was learning a lot with Barbri I felt like I wasnt being directly prepared for possible bar exam questions. I researched online and read rave reviews about your materials. I decided to follow my gut and try your subscription. You responded quickly to my questions and welcomed me to your subscription family! Once I read your MBE rules, I finally felt like I was hitting the nail on the head and truly understanding potential MBE questions. My advice to anyone is first make sure you understand each MBE subject as well as possble (using Barbri or whatever your primary study material is) then read Joe’s MBE rules thoroughly, at least 3-4 times before the exam. Make sure you understand and can apply each rule fully. Another thing: Barbri advises you wait till last two weeks to memorize for all the subjects. I highly disagree. I was memorizing as I went along–and by memorizing I mean I was making sure that I fully understood each rule in your outline. Whatever didnt “stick” in my mind on the first read would eventually stick on subsequent reads before the exam. Also, start your study early. I dont believe in Barbri’s calender of 2 months of study. Start 1-2 months ahead of Barbri if possible (unless you are already very familiar with the bar materials). It takes time for your mind to digest all the information.

MPT: I followed your advice. First, I fully answered all the MPT essays assigned and graded by Barbri as homework (3-5 full MPT questions). Then I applied your advice… I read through as many additional MPT questions as possible (perhaps 6 additional questions) then read the sample answers as well . I didnt write out these 6 additional questions I just read both the question and the sample answer and it gave me a solid understanding of the pattern of questions tested on the MPT and the pattern of acceptable answers. I believe I read the additional 6 the weekend before the exam so it would be fresh in my mind since NY tests MPT on Day 1.

MEE: Your advice made all the difference! I did all MEE questions assigned by Barbri. Then I read through NEARLY ALL of your MEE questions and answers. I read until I just couldn’t anymore. I noticed your answers to the MEE questions were more thorough and easy to comprehend than Barbri’s. The summary at the beginning of your answers was also super helpful when I felt I was running out of time to read the full answer. Your predictions made a HUGE difference for me as well. It helped me hone in on potential topics that could be tested. It boosted my confidence knowing possible subjects that could be tested. I did make sure that I understood all 13 MEE subjects clearly then I paid extra attention to the topics you predicted. I believe most of your predictions were spot on!!

One more thing: your advice to do all 4 OPE’s and the NCBE study questions was spot on!!!! I believe a few OPE questions were repeated on the test and changed very slightly. I did not get to the NCBE study book due to lack of time but I am sure that would have raised my score even more!! I also did some of the questions in Emmanuel’s Strategy and Tactics which matched the exam questions as well.

Overall, I think another thing that made a BIG difference for me was the level of attention you gave me. When I felt down or unsure or confused I could write to you and get encouragement and a strategy. I DID NOT EVEN GET THIS LEVEL OF ATTENTION FROM BARBRI WHOM I PAID WAY MORE. I could always ask for your advice whenever I felt I hit a wall and you would give me invaluable strategy advice. This made all of the difference. Even when I finished the exam and I was unsure of how I would score your advice boosted my confidence that I passed. Now, I am happy that my score is high enough to transfer to any UBE state. Thanks to you I wrote the bar once and aced it so I dont have to worry about it again!

Joe I believe you have DECODED THE BAR EXAM!! Keep up the excellent work!! If I can do anything to support your business please let me know. I am forever a fan and will spread the word any chance I get.

Another examinee who scored a 150 on the MBE told me:

I did roughly 3,000 mbe practice questions from a variety of sources, wrote down the rule, used your rules and outlines, and self studied. I was scoring between 72-85 percent before the exam so I felt good about the mbe. I’ll be swearing into other states, besides Maine (I can swear into ME by motion in a few years). Thank you for the help and great subscription site. I improved my mbe score by 15 ish pts from the first go-around, which I definitely attribute to your page.