Not much.

Actually, surprise surprise, the comparison is a metaphor.  Here is the metaphor:  no matter how hard a rock is, water will eventually wear it down to dust if the water just keeps dripping against the rock.  See where this is going?

If you were like me, you probably have been scoring pretty poorly on the first practice MBE questions you have been taking as you start your bar exam preparations. When I studied for the Oregon bar exam, I signed up for the pre-BarBri six-day PMBR course.  I drove to some deserted business park, took practice exams, got only 50% correct or worse (I think I got 30% correct on the Real Property portion), and spun into a cycle of fear.  To make matters worse, after day 3 of the course, I got a horrible stomach virus, and was “purging” for 2 days straight and did not attend the remainder of the class.  I was convinced I would never pass the bar exam.

Of course, I did pass the bar exam.  In Oregon, the written portion is weighted 50% of your final score and the MBE is 50%.  So, I must have done sufficiently well on the MBE.  (Oregon does not release scores to people who pass the exam.)

How did I go from getting at least half of my MBE questions wrong to passing the MBE two months later?  I became like the water and went with the flow, slowly wearing down my confusion with the MBE.  I practiced as much as possible, taking the time to understand why I got answers wrong so that it would not happen again.

The key is to be focused while you study.  Don’t think doing 2000 MBE questions alone will make you pass.  You must understand why you are getting the answers wrong.  You could probably answer only 500 practice questions and pass so long as you learn the lesson of each incorrect answer.

[Photo: Hamed Saber]

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