I started law school thinking that the bar exam was a post-law school problem, only to find that one exam can be taken as soon as post 1L year — the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam, or MPRE! The MPRE is a two-hour, 60-question multiple choice exam that tests your ability to apply legal ethics or professional conduct standards to hypothetical legal practice scenarios. (Here is a great overview of the exam.)
While I didn’t want to think about the bar exam so soon, I quickly found that it would be advantageous to take the MPRE sooner rather than later. In fact, I would recommend taking it soon after you take Legal Ethics at your law school — I took it during my 1L summer, but also have several classmates who took it during their 2L year. It’ll be one less thing on your plate when the bar exam rolls around. The MPRE is offered three times a year: for 2023, it will be offered in March, August and November.
Here are 3 steps you can take to prepare for success on the MPRE!
1. Pay attention in your legal ethics class
While your ethics class may not be directly structured to passing the MPRE, it will most likely cover the bulk of the material that will be tested on the MPRE. I went into the class thinking I could get away with doing less work compared to my other law school classes, but that turned out not at all to be the case — legal ethics isn’t as intuitive as one might think, and there are a lot of complex rules to know (my professor was also known for giving tough exams). Therefore, study for your ethics class like you would your other law school classes, and it will also save you a headache from having to relearn material when you begin to review in preparation for the exam.
That said, don’t expect your ethics class to be sufficient in preparing for the MPRE! The questions can be tricky, so additional preparation is crucial. You’re investing time and money to take this exam, so don’t wait until the last minute, especially if it’s been a couple months since you took ethics.
2. Set aside time and make a study schedule (and then follow through on it)!
Consider dedicating around 20 hours to studying for the exam. Depending on your schedule leading up to the exam, it might be more feasible to do a couple hours each week for several weeks, or have several full days to study the week or two before the exam.
There are plenty of free study materials — bar review companies like Kaplan, Barbri, and Themis have free MPRE courses that you can take! Your school may offer free resources as well. I used the Barbri prep book and found it helpful — I like that it prioritized the most commonly tested topics and included practice questions for each topic as well as online videos, which I watched for concepts I was less clear on or wanted to solidify my understanding on. If you’re pressed for time, focus on the key topics that will likely appear most often, such as the attorney-client relationship, client confidentiality, and conflicts of interest. But I would try to at least review the other topics too — aim to have a broad and deep focus!
3. Treat practice tests like the real deal
After reviewing all the material, practice questions are the best way to prepare for the exam. I found it helpful to keep a running list of notes and concepts to remember. Certain concepts and types of scenarios would come up over and over again, so when I got a question wrong and learned a “rule” from the question that might apply to future questions, I would jot it down in a notebook and review it from time to time. In addition, here is a step-by-step approach to tackling the multiple choice questions, as well as suggested tips on taking practice exams and reviewing your answers in a systematic and thorough way.
Make sure to time yourself on the practice tests. Consider giving yourself a little less than two hours on the practice tests, so that you have some buffer time during the exam and ensure that you have plenty of time for the harder questions.
It may have been awhile since you last took a standardized test in a physical classroom location, so don’t forget to do all the essentials on test day! Give yourself plenty of time to get to the testing center, taking into account traffic and finding the right room. Bring whatever you need, like an ID and water. The MPRE is not an exam to overly stress about, and it’s certainly not the end of the world (or your law career) if you have to retake it (another reason to take it early). But now that you’ve done the preparation, you can go into the exam confident and ready to ace it!
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