Posted on by Brian - 16 Comments on Passing the Bar Exam with the Tripod Approach (Just Triage These Areas)

Passing the Bar Exam with the Tripod Approach (Just Triage These Areas)

Let’s say you have an overwhelming amount of material to learn for the bar exam with limited time. (Who doesn’t?)

Or when one door opens, another door closes. You’re not consistently scoring well on the essays. Or you just need a little push to get to a passing score on the MBE, but then you feel like you’re sacrificing the written portion.

It might make sense to focus on a few key areas (rather than spreading yourself thin) that could get you enough points without stressing about marginal gains.

This is the basis for the Tripod Approach (click to scroll directly there), which is a minimally effective approach to get the largest return for your efforts in preparing for the California Bar Exam or the Uniform Bar Exam.

Table of Contents
show

Here are the base components of the Tripod Approach

1) MBE subjects

This part is pretty straightforward. But it’s not always easy.

Some bar takers find the MBE easier than writing essays and PTs. Some find it the opposite.

Regardless, in most jurisdictions, HALF of your score hinges on a series of 200 choices on the MBE.

Not only that, MBE subjects often show up in the majority of essays. For instance, 3-4 of the 5 essays on the California Bar Exam will likely cover MBE subjects. Some of the 6 MEE questions on the UBE will of course test MBE subjects as well.

But there is no “auto-pass” just from scoring high on the MBE. It’s simply about earning enough points to get to a passing score. You’ll pass if you do well on the MBE and other portions of the exam.

2) On the written portion, prioritize performance tests (PT/MPTs)

California Bar Exam: The performance test (PT) is worth 200 out of the 700 raw points for the written portion of the California Bar Exam (or for the entire Attorneys’ Exam). In other words, the PT is worth 2 essays, and you get 1.5x the time allotted. The points are highly concentrated in the PT, and it’s worth 14.3% of your overall score on the California Bar Exam.

Uniform Bar Exam: The Multistate Performance Tests (MPTs) are worth 10% each. There are two, so the MPTs are worth 20% of your UBE score in total.

Some people will read this and immediately think about essays instead of obsessing over PTs…

I know it’s a pain to spend 90 minutes or more practicing each PT, and then more time to review it. But I’d rather risk losing 1% of my score than 5% from not learning the PT.

Many bar takers ignore performance tests until the last moment (if at all). Or they might rely on their “lawyer-like” writing skills to wing it because they’re too busy memorizing obscure rules for marginal gains.

The Tripod Approach to Passing the California Bar Exam

In addition to the above, Professional Responsibility (PR) is a subject that is practically guaranteed to appear as an essay.

(It’s not 100% guaranteed to appear. For instance, it didn’t show up as an essay in 2015 February and 2007 July, although ethics showed up as a theme for the PT-A in both administrations.)

We now have three key components to a minimally effective approach to preparing for the California Bar Exam:

  • MBE: Takes up 50% of overall score and overlaps with 3-4 of the 5 essays.
  • PT: Takes up 2/7 of written score, or about 14.3% of overall score. Worth 2 essays over 1.5x of time allotted.
  • PR essay: Takes up 1/7 of written score, or about 7% of overall score. Practically guaranteed to be tested.

This is a three-prong approach that focuses on the MBE, PT, and PR essay in your bar preparation which covers over 70% of your overall score by stabilizing a few key areas that you know will be on the California Bar Exam.

You’re triaging portions of the exam based on their importance to your score.

Now that’s what I call a big win!

“Are you sure this is enough?”

Let’s say we aim for a respectable score of 65 on the PT and the PR essay. You can then make do with 55-60s on the rest of the essays—assuming you do well enough on the MBE to get a scaled score of at least 1390 (roughly 125 questions correct).

Here’s how many raw written points you need to be on track to pass—and why every 5-point increment gets you that much closer to passing the CBX.

It doesn’t take a great answer to get a 55! You can miss a few issues and rules.

Therefore, nailing the PT and the PR essay gives you more leeway on the rest of the essays on the California Bar Exam. The same is true if you nail the MBE. Although doing well on the MBE by itself is not an “auto-pass” like some claim, it will still give you slack elsewhere.

I’ll show you how to do better on PR essays below.

The Modified Tripod Approach to Passing the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE)

UBE takers can take a modified approach to the above, as follows:

Focus on the MBE and the MPTs.

The MBE accounts for 50% of your score. Two MPTs account for 20% of your score. Together, they account for 70% of your overall score.

UBE takers should also ensure that they can answer two MPTs back to back first thing Tuesday morning. This is also a test of endurance and time management.

Endure both MPTs on Tuesday. Nail the MBE on Wednesday. Pass the UBE.

What This Means for You

It would behoove you to prioritize these key portions, since you know they will show up on the bar exam.

Since you KNOW these few highly leveraged areas will show up, you can make sure you stabilize these few key areas and then coast on the rest, while letting everyone else cry about predictions and stress over memorizing random rules.

Put your hand down. This doesn’t mean you ignore everything else. I’m not suggesting you should ONLY focus on these leveraged areas. These are just some ways to prioritize your focus. Just use your logic and common sense as well as understand what “prioritize” means. It’s up to you how you incorporate the Tripod Approach into your studies.

Whatever you do with the Tripod Approach, at least it’ll be better than gambling on predictions.

James (a foreign attorney) leveraged this concept to pass the California Bar Exam and later pass the Illinois Bar Exam (UBE) despite the sheer overwhelm he faced as an Australian lawyer.

Doreen also used this concept to pass both the California Bar Exam and the New York Bar Exam (UBE) back to back in 2025. She spent one (1) week preparing for the NY UBE. Case study coming soon.

Preparing with the Tripod Approach

Here’s how to prepare for each “leg” of the tripod:

MBE

Get one or more of these excellent resources:

(Pick just one of AdaptiBar or UWorld. Compare AdaptiBar and UWorld here.)

Some strategies to improve your MBE score:

The past will guide your future. Most people find the questions on the MBE similar to the ones tested in the past. One person told me that he thinks they take old questions and just change the information.

There are only so many ways they can test you! They’re called fact PATTERNS for a reason.

Performance Test (PT/MPT)

This is one area where quantity beats quality. You want to get exposed to a variety of PTs and know how to organize them and do them in time.

How can you improve on the performance test?

Common mistakes regarding the PT:

  • Letting the PT be a submarine missile that comes out of nowhere because you ignored it for weeks like that succulent you forgot about. It’s sometimes the reason people fail the exam.
  • Not finishing on time (my PT Toolkit suggests a simple rule for how to prevent this)
    • This is especially critical on the UBE to answer both of the back-to-back MPTs within 3 hours

If you’re taking the California Bar Exam, you may want to consider doing the PT first in the afternoon session on Tuesday if you want to use your post-break brainpower on it first.

[California] Professional Responsibility Essay

The PR essay is typically an open-ended racehorse issue spotter (“What are L’s ethical obligations?”). Thus, focus on identifying as many relevant issues as possible. Punch the grader in the face with clearly identified issues and sub-issues rather than the nuances of the rules.

Examples of Passing the Bar Exam Using the Tripod Approach

Here are some case studies of successful bar takers using the Tripod Approach:

All that said, don’t just blow off the other (CA-specific) subjects! This approach shifts your attention to cover the most predictable areas, but that alone doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the scores you need. This person just memorized Magicsheets for CA-only subjects and passed, though.