The Value of Redoing Practice Questions (You’ll See Them Again on the Bar Exam)

“How do I do MBE questions faster?”

“The way to approach these questions is not staying with me.”

“I thought I ‘got’ it and moved on, but I keep getting questions wrong.”

Have you ever felt that?

There is a SIMPLE and UNDERRATED way to fix this: REDOING practice questions.

I say elsewhere that DOING is the best form of thinking. If you’re doing that, great. Now the next step is to REDO.

“But wait,” you say, “I’ve seen and remembered those questions and answers before. Should I be worried because I’m not practicing new questions?”

If you really knew how to solve a problem, you’d be able to get it perfectly the next time. And isn’t that actually the goal on the exam?

This is the weakness of the bar exam: There’s only a finite number of ways they can test you.

If there’s only a limited number of ways they can test you, it’s actually GOOD if you recognize fact patterns. You’ll see them again on the exam.

If that’s not the point of preparation, what is?

We can’t expect to “get” something after reading or doing something once. So when it comes to preparing for the bar exam, should you really limit yourself to just doing things once and dusting off your hands?

These empty speed dates with the questions are what cause you to forget. The more you see the questions and the subjects, the more you’ll remember next time.

If you had to choose between anxious uncertainty about whether they’ll stay with you vs. feeling like they’re predictable and stable, which would you pick?

Becoming bored is a good thing

You can learn the patterns ahead of time by seeing and solving a range of problems. Each subject and each type of call wants you to recognize issues in a particular fashion.

Unlike real-life situations, questions on the bar exam can’t go beyond a reasonably clear-cut set of facts—especially MBE questions, which have one credited answer.

That’s why there’s another term for hypotheticals: fact patterns.

Patterns become predictable. Predictability makes you feel calm and confident because you’re more certain.

It’s like that time I asked a girl to Junior Prom after hearing that she wanted to go with me.

How lame is that? I went for the choice I already knew the answer to. Everyone saw me bring flowers in a tux at school also. This was even lamer.

Life is a constant stream of embarrassment. And people will do anything for the sake of certainty. (At least I asked my actual crush to Senior Ball.)

But my pain is your insight:

If you already KNOW the answer can be narrowed down to one or a few viable paths, the question becomes more predictable and less anxiety-inducing. This predictability increases confidence. This is how we reduce uncertainty.

This is a bar intuition that will be valuable on the exam. On the actual MBE or essays, you’ll be able to tell right away after having studied a particular issue or a particular “facts-rules-issue” association a few times. Maybe not as obvious if you’ve only seen it once!

You develop this intuition by enduring embarrassment over and over until it becomes less embarrassing.

Make the predictable your own. When it becomes so predictable and routine that you lose those butterflies, you move away from being lost, scared, and stressed. All that’s left is to move your fingers while sighing “here we go again.”

That is composure.

Depth vs. breadth in your studies

Yes, see if you can do (and review) as many of the MBE, essay, and performance test questions available out there. This gives breadth.

But you’re missing out if you don’t check whether you can do an encore. Doing the same practice problem again helps you:

• Refresh your memory
• Notice new angles that you don’t see with just one attempt
• Understand and memorize important rules, issues, and sequences of issues

Redoing the same essays and MBE questions you recently did is a simple and powerful but often overlooked way to grasp a concept you think you know or are about to forget the next day. It’s more effective for retaining and understanding than “I just have to do a bunch of questions” or “PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE” (not a fan of this vague suggestion—use this 10-40-40-10 framework instead).

This adds depth.

While there’s value in re-attempting at least some of the same questions, I’m not suggesting that you stop doing new ones. Redoing is a way to add depth instead of just breadth and variety in your training. 

I’m also not suggesting that you redo every question you ever do. But if there’s something you don’t feel confident about or quite get, it may be worth coming back to it. Who learns something perfectly after looking at it or even trying it just once?

In general, don’t be afraid to redo the same practice essay or MBE question until you “get” it. Even if you think it’s a waste of time because you already did it, even if you think you should know it already, even if there are other questions to grind through, even if you’re worried that you’ll get the issues or rules wrong again…

“I know this already” is the most dangerous thought.

If you get them wrong again, good, you found an opportunity to solidify your learning even more.

This is a hard test. So let’s get the fails out of the way first. No one’s judging you but yourself.

Wouldn’t you rather fail now than on the real thing?

Much like recalling rules to memorize, one attempt is mere familiarity, and multiple attempts contribute to a deeper understanding.

And then when you see something similar on the bar exam, it’ll be just like practice.