Are You Completing Multiple-Choice Questions Correctly?
As students are getting in full swing of their bar review courses, many have asked me what else can they do? The say they’ve been watching lectures, taking notes, reviewing outlines, and working on practice questions—both multiple-choice and essay questions.
I usually respond that if they’re effectively doing all those things, then they’re on the right path to increasing their chances of passing the bar exam.
However, the key word is “effectively.”
Simply clicking off boxes on a “to do” list isn’t effective.
Specifically, when it comes to completing multiple-choice questions, I’m surprised at the lack of time graduates spend on reviewing the explanatory answers to the multiple-choice questions they answered.
Generally speaking, graduates should plan on spending twice as much time reviewing the explanatory answers as they do completing the questions. So if it takes them 30 minutes to complete 18 multiple-choice questions, they should spend about an hour reviewing all 18 explanatory answers. They should review the explanatory answers to EVERY question, regardless of whether they answered the question right or wrong. After all, they might have answered the question correctly but for the wrong reason. They won’t know this if they bypass the explanatory answers. Plus, the explanatory answers usually provide solid reasons why wrong answers are wrong.
At this stage of their bar review, graduates should not think of completing multiple-choice questions as simply an assessment tool; that is, measuring how effective their studying has been. Instead, they should think of completing the questions and reviewing the multiple-choice questions as another study tool like watching lectures, completing lecture handouts, and reading the outlines. Reading the explanatory answers is another vehicle for delivering content for them to review and learn.
So the question isn’t: What else can I do?
Rather, the question is: How should I best complete the assignments I’m supposed to be doing?
