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Hey, sharing my experience as a first-time bar taker who took a pretty unconventional route. I relied almost entirely on Adaptibar for prep and didn’t do any traditional MEE or MPT practice beforehand.
I didn’t follow a commercial bar prep course, just consistent question practice + targeted review.
Study Approach (MBE-Heavy)
I drilled a high volume of Adaptibar questions and reviewed explanations closely. That was the core of my prep. Over time, I focused on patterns, commonly tested rules, and why wrong answers were wrong. My scores improved steadily, and I kept a mental (and sometimes written) list of questions.
I mostly did sets of 20 and 40, but most of my questions I did in sets of 5. All in all, I did about 3000 questions and averaged a 68%.
MEE Strategy
No Practice, Just Structure + Rule Dumping
I didn’t practice essays beforehand. My approach on test day was:
* Use CRAC to stay organized
* In the Rule section, I wrote everything I could remember related to the topic , even if I wasn’t 100% sure it was all relevant
* In the Analysis, I applied those rules to the facts as best as I could, even if I felt unsure
Basically, I prioritized getting rules on the page and showing the grader I knew the law, then backed it up with some application.
MPT Strategy
Learned the Pattern, No Full Practice
For MPTs, I didn’t do timed practice exams. Instead:
* I read past MPTs to understand the structure and expectations
* On the actual exam, I followed the format given in the task memo
* I made sure to include and restate the rules provided in the library
* Then I added a straightforward analysis applying those rules to the facts
Nothing fancy, just organized, complete, and responsive to the task.
Happy to answer questions about my approach or what I’d change!