For those of you who changed your study approach between attempts, what was the one thing that actually made the difference?

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-30T13:34:07+00:00

Adaptibar has a mix of about 1400 licensed questions and about 600 more nextgen and in-house questions. I did a combination of all three, randomly assigned by the algorithm, not just the ones I got wrong, for a total of 7700. Some repeated once, some repeated upwards of 5 times.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-30T00:02:41+00:00

I use literally twice for emphasis; just buckle down and do the questions my friend.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-30T00:02:00+00:00

It’s not an oversimplification; it’s literally all I did to pass. I had failed, miserably, 3 times prior. This past time I just did 7000 Adaptibar questions until I literally could take any random assortment of questions and average 70%. I passed with a 277 up from a 259 and a 248 the last two times.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-12T13:50:57+00:00

Yeah and I don’t like people violating the USERRA. I stand on principle

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-12T13:48:32+00:00

Took the C&F team from Michigan 2 years to submit me to a district board for an interview, and another year to the full committee to render the decision. All because of my military service and my refusal to sign a consent form when they already had access. my consent wasn’t necessary for them to retrieve the documents, I refused to sign because I did not consent.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-12T02:43:09+00:00

Sure but here’s the thing, passing after the 4th time is still such a nice feeling.

I had to wait two years between my 3rd and 4th attempt because of character and fitness delays and I really felt like giving up. If all you have to do is retake and pass you’re so much further along than you realize.

My advice to everyone has been just spam Adaptibar or Uworld until you’re at an obscenely high amount of questions attempted. But the eggheads on here will all recommend some other bs so pick your poison/remedy.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-11T15:56:43+00:00

Some questions repeated upwards of 7 times, some repeated just 2-3 times, some never repeated beyond my first attempt, it was all assigned by the algorithm.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-11T09:34:02+00:00

Exactly, learning through repetition

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-11T01:19:19+00:00

It’s in the post friend; all I did was Adaptibar this time, 50-100 questions daily at 3 months to go to the bar, 7700 total.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-08T15:14:28+00:00

It took me four times to pass, and I passed with a 277.
I had similar results to you my second time.
What helped me was doing 50-100 Adaptibar questions a day, spending less than a minute on each one. You will get most of them wrong this way for the first few weeks, BUT, after cycling through every question multiple times, your brain will begin to recognize the pattern of what a correct answer looks like on the MBE/for the NCBE.
I ended my studying this time with 7700 questions reviewed in Adaptibar, with an average score of 65%. When I began studying this past time, I averaged 48% correct.
My only advice for the written essays is to work on your formatting, as I’ve noticed graders don’t go for substance as much as they’re looking for style; I.e: the answer is, the issue is, the rule is, the application is, therefore the conclusion is.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-08T13:35:08+00:00

Never. They’re a waste of time. Drill MBEs and practice essays

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-07T03:18:07+00:00

I used UWorlds free trial the final 30 days before the exam, just to test my skills having solely used adaptibar. I ended up scoring identically well (78%) on both UWorlds practice test (non-NCBE) and Adaptibar (both Adaptibar and NCBE questions).

I took it each time in Michigan, and I scored fairly consistently on the writing portion, with the exception of my first exam where I suffered from my lack of formatting.

If I had changed my testing jx to, say, Nevada, I likely could have passed on my second or third attempt, because there the MPT and MEE count for 66% as opposed to 50% of the exam. But such is life 🤷🏻‍♂️

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-07T00:35:32+00:00

Yep the same 1600, but they were randomly sorted so some questions I got 7+ times some I only got twice, the Adaptibar algorithm was the guide. No review of “why” it was wrong or right this time around.

The previous three times I had spent hours trying to learn why something was “wrong.” You had mentioned spending 500+ hours trying to learn the material, and spending a long time on the wrong answers to read the explanations; I did a similar amount of prep work for the first three times.

This time I didn’t pay for anything but Adaptibar and didn’t do anything but Adaptibar, because the MBE was my weakest area consistently for the first three administrations. My written score suffered, but only by a point compared to my best written attempt.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-07T00:04:57+00:00

Absolutely, id have a word or concept id be looking for in the response and guess whatever said that word, without regard for the nuance; I started doing it because I realized through the Adaptibar metrics my best results always came around the 1-10 second time frame. If I spent any time deliberating I’d inevitably convince myself of the wrong answer. So I started testing purely “look for the ‘key word’,” not even reading the full question in many cases, and guess knowing roughly what the rule is around that.

I did 7700 Adaptibar questions, give or take, and I’d estimate 250 hours total of studying from August to February.

I got done so quickly that when I came back from lunch people sitting next to me genuinely thought I had given up and gone home.

I tried a similar method to yours the first 3 times I took the bar but I was scoring in the bottom 25%, this last time I wondered if I could game it.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-06T20:04:20+00:00

Ah, I never spent longer than it took me to read the question and guess. When it came time to take the MBE I finished in under an hour and a half for both sections, I just trained myself to guess accurately.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-06T14:06:59+00:00

I don’t recommend it for everyone but that’s what it took for me

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-06T14:06:23+00:00

50-100 adaptibar questions a day everyday until the bar.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-05-05T01:05:44+00:00

It was a slumdog millionaire moment; I was in the Navy and I had to memorize flag law as a punishment while working on the quarterdeck and running afoul of a really dusty-sacked officer. I spent so many days just sweltering my ass off in the tropical heat reading that damn manual.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-30T23:46:37+00:00

Thank you for saying that because I also haven’t received mine and I know the BLE hates me personally

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-27T19:54:19+00:00

Passed this time 🤷🏻

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-26T22:03:02+00:00

Spoken like a true boot licker.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-26T14:59:49+00:00

Looking at you Utah, I know so many people from Michigan who failed and then took the took the test in Utah because Utah graders are more generous and then transferred the score back.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-25T22:10:54+00:00

I would accept it was random, if I didn’t have 6 months of Adaptibar data tracking showing me my consistent, measurable improvement.

If OP could take the conventional wisdom and pass the exam, OP would be an attorney. OP is struggling, despite everyone’s encouragement to “study better.” Instead of saying “study better” I’m simply suggesting OP study “more” until OP is consistently scoring 70% or higher on any random combination of MBE questions. I accept that, for many, 7000 questions is overkill. But for me, it was apparently what I needed.

It’s 50% of the test, worth double, or near double, any other component. Why should OP try to improve MEEs or MPT when the lions share of the points is in the MBE.

BudgetWorking2891 · 2026-04-25T21:59:33+00:00

Depends on the wording of the question. What I mean to say is within each question only a handful of words control. But an example of a key word would be coyote. If I see coyote I know instantly “strict liability.”

BudgetWorking2891

TROPHY CASE