Scott Pearce is an experienced bar examination tutor in Los Angeles. He provides bar examination tutorial and home study services for bar students throughout the country. Previously, Pearce lectured and tutored at Bar/Bri, BarPassers, and PMBR. For more information, visit Pearce’s Web site at http://passthebar.com.
How can you tutor somebody to get better at a standardized, multiple-choice test?
I’ve been teaching bar exam essay writing since 1988, and I’ve written and produced several video series about every part of the bar examination. I’ve been a tutor this whole time, too. Over the years I’ve worked for all the big corporate bar exam companies, and my Master Essay Method has been an academic as well as a commercial success. And yet, for all of this experience, there’s something mysterious about the Multistate Bar Exam as far as I’m concerned. I can teach somebody to write, and I can explain all the details from most MBE questions, too – but those skills don’t necessarily correlate to student improvement on the MBE.
My instinct is to tell unsuccessful candidates to just do more questions. I’m the guy who always says people tend to study too much and not practice enough, so it would follow that I would prescribe more practice to anybody who didn’t get enough MBE questions correct. And yet, over the years I have encountered many students who worked hard and who did thousands of MBE questions in practice, only to be disappointed on the real MBE. What’s wrong? Why aren’t they improving?
One honest answer that comes to mind: maybe the candidate has a learning disability that nobody ever diagnosed, that is causing them to not make progress despite diligent work. Sometimes that’s true. Yet in my heart I know that very few people make it all the way to the bar exam without already having any disability recognized years ago. It’s also clear to me that these folks know the law. Often they can repeat it to me better than I could speak it out loud without notes myself. All this tells me that the problem is one of technique, not knowledge or intelligence or ability-vs-disability.
What then?
Over the years, MicroMash has been the solution for many of my students who have had more trouble with the MBE than with the essays, even during the years when PMBR was plagiarizing questions from the real MBE. I think it’s because the computer algorithm does a clever job of diagnosing the student’s shortcomings and giving them more practice on that point. This is wholly consistent with my idea that it’s wise to try to study and practice the material you’re weak at, not waste endless hours reviewing stuff you already know.
There are a variety of learning styles. That’s one reason why it is so important for a student to become familiar with the various options available as they get ready to commit to a long and serious study period. There are a number of competent programs available for each aspect of the bar exam. The better you study the market before you get rolling, the more likely it is that you’ll be pleased with the result in the end.
Remember, it is my experience that there’s a significant correlation between the amount of practice a student does, both for the MBE and for the written section, and that student’s chance for success on the bar examination.
Good luck, and keep practicing!
Copyright 2010 Scott Pearce and passthebar.com. Reprinted by permission.
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