With two weeks till exam day, we are entering the home stretch! From here on out, it's all about practice, practice, practice and working on your weaknesses. Keep your foot on the accelerator. Tou can learn a lot of law in two weeks. YOU CAN DO THIS! You will pass this @#%^ exam!

MBE: Practice exams & focused practice

• Themis preppers: After you take the Themis practice exam, use your results to identify weaknesses and attack those weaknesses with focused practice, just like the Barbri peeps did a couple of weeks ago. Themis makes this a little bit more difficult than Barbri because your results are split between the morning and afternoon sessions; combine the sessions to identify weaknesses.

• When you complete a practice exam in Adaptibar, analyze the results by subtopic (just like you did on the Barbri/Themis midterm) and target your weaknesses in Adaptibar by doing some focused practice on the weak subtopics. Do this after each practice exam.

• Don't have Adaptibar? You can achieve much the same result with focused practice in Themis's UWorld (or Barbri's MCQ Bank, though the questions there are not NCBE-written).

• When you are not doing practice exams or focused practice in Adaptibar/UWorld, keep doing mixed practice (questions from all topics).

Essays: More=Better

With the MEE lectures behind you (or soon to be), it's time to turn up the heat on essay practice even higher. In week 9, aim for at least 4 to 6 essays per day. Switch from mostly outlining answers to mostly "read/think/review" (reading the prompt, thinking about the answer, then reviewing the sample answers). A good ratio is write 1, outline 4, and read/think/review 8. When you run across a rule you don't know (or don't know well enough), make a flashcard. Review as many essays as you can. So doing will (a) fill in gaps in your knowledge, (b) improve your issue-spotting efficiency, and (c) lessen the odds of your being surprised on exam day by the way a particular topic is tested. Cycle through all the essay topics, but spend more time on your weak topics.

If you have not completed 6 fully written-out essays back to back, consider doing that before exam day. I don't think it's essential to do so, but it will help acclimate your mind and body to the rigor of writing 6 essays in 3 hours. If you have time, it's probably a worthwhile exercise. If you're short on time, skip it.

MPT: Enough is enough

You're probably as good at the MPT as you're going to get. I would do one more before exam day; maybe two if you feel particularly shaky. Review the formats for some of the unusual tasks [link] but don't bother to write them out. Your time is better spent answering practice MCQs and essays and filling gaps in the outlines in your head.

Freeing up time for practice

A common sentiment at this point in prep is, "I'm studying as many hours a day as I possibly can! I don't have time for even more practice!"

Good news: With the substantive lectures in the rearview mirror, your prep company will give you outline-review assignments that you can skip! For example, most Barbri students will see "Review Real Property lecture notes—2 hours" on their schedules this week. Reviewing outlines is somewhat useful, but not nearly as useful as answering practice questions.

So when your prep company tells you to review an outline for x hours, mark it "done" (so your completion percentage doesn't suffer) and spend that time answering multiple-choice and essays questions on that same topic instead. In the Barbri example above, a prepper would do, say, an hour of Real Property MCQs in Adaptibar and an hour of Real Property essays from our MEE essay bank.

Still looking to free up more time? When Barbri or Themis assigns you mutliple-choice questions, do Adaptibar instead. The theory here is that the AB questions—written by the NCBE—are more like what you can expect on exam day.

Covid: Here we go again.

Just when you thought Covid was a historical footnote . . . a new variant comes roaring back. Covid cases are on the rise again. I recommend limiting your in-person social interactions and masking in public for the next couple of weeks in an abundance of caution. Contracting Covid will derail your study plans and exam-day performance. The Texas BLE says to follow CDC guidelines regarding quarantining if you are exposed or sick (seems vague and unenforceable to me). The BLE will allow you to wear a mask during the exam; if you plan to do that, start studying with a mask on. Stay well and make smart social decisions!

Question of the week 1: What materials do we receive on exam day?

This question has come up a few times this week:

Q: If we take the exam on a laptop, what hardcopy materials will we receive, if any?

A: Everyone receives printed materials; laptops are used only for typing your MPT and essay answers. The hardcopy materials are:

• The two MPT packets. You will receive both packets at the same time. The packets will be separate, not stapled together. You may apportion the 3 hours between the two MPTs as you see fit.

• The essay packet. It will contain all 6 essays.

• The MBE booklet and a scantron sheet. Note: You cannot use your laptop on MBE day; everyone completes the MBE on a bubble sheet. And you may take only pencils (no highlighters!) into the exam room on MBE day.

See the General Instructions for more details. If you have not yet read the General Instructions, do so today!

This answer pertains to the Texas exam only. If you are taking the exam in another state or online, consult the rules for your jurisdiction. But unless the exam is online, the materials should be the same.

Question of the week 2: How many hours per day should I be studying?

At this point, everyone should be putting in at least 9-11 hours per day of solid study: Barbri/Themis+Adaptibar+Essays+Flashcards. That's a lot, I know. But the end is in sight. You don't have to sustain that pace for long! You've got this.

Question of the week 3: How do we upload our essay answers on exam day?

Q: The laptop instructions say we have to turn off WiFi during the exam. How do we upload our answers?

A: Your answers are encrypted and stored on your laptop's hard drive. The BLE will give you a set time after the exam to upload your answers—typically 24-48 hours, but pay attention to the exam-day instructions. So you'll go home or to your hotel room, reconnect to WiFi, and upload your answers.

Don't forget to register your laptop by the July 15 deadline!

That's all for this week. As ever, if you have questions or need talked back from the ledge, email or call me or Prof. Deutsch. Our contact info is on this blog's home page.