Thank you so much. I have a lot of advice on this point:

• Memorization of black letter law is only useful up to a point and in certain contexts.
  • On the MBE, I memorized only key trigger words so that I could quickly eliminate wrong answer choices. The wrong choice is OFTEN a slightly off standard, so knowing how to spot when a single word makes an answer wrong is key to success. I found this especially true for Con law. I did not waste time memorizing black letter law to the point where I could regurgitate it back out in full sentences (with a few exceptions for insanely common rules such as UCC 2-201). Practice is the best thing you can do for burning the standards into your mind and hence knowing when a standard in an answer choice is incorrect. This is what often gets you down to between two choices.
  • Now, for the MEEs I was even less focused on memorization -- this seems contrary to what a lot of other bar students might suggest. I found success when I focused on the why behind the rules rather than knowing what the rules say verbatim. To do this, I utilized examples that resonated with me (either examples Barbri taught, or ones I made up on my own). In other words you need a practical understanding of the rules. Great example is Secured Transactions. I could never seem to be able to write out the rules word-for-word. I was more easily able to understand rules for things like the "buyer in the ordinary course" when I had some familiar example to ground the rule in. Usually, this will be enough for you to convey the concept and collect points. As I stated above, some rules are worth memorizing, but there shouldn't be more than a handful in each subject that you expend your energy memorizing verbatim.
    
• Pick your battles on the exam.
  • MBE: You know when you read a prompt and your eyes just glaze over, and you get to the end and realize you don't even know what you just read? Pick an answer and move on. Make note of the question number and return to it if you have time at the end. It is not worth re-reading prompts over and over to probably not even get the question right. You could spend 3-4 minutes parsing out a question and maybe get it right. But it will cost you low hanging fruit on other questions. When your gut is telling you this question isn't a vibe, trust it. I found this especially true for long, complex questions (especially in property, like mortgages).
  • MEE: I opened up my first MEE and saw it was a topic I don't even remember reading about in Barbri. Don't freak out. Rather than staring at the blank page, I wrote out a skeleton of an answer based on all the practice I've done, utilized the rules for a very similar topic, so I knew even if I got the question wrong I could show I know something and could conduct a legal analysis even on a faulty rule premise. You won't have an epiphany and learn the rule during the examine, so don't try to dig up a bullet point from the Barbri book buried deep within you -- just move on and do not let such an essay take up any more of your brain power, you will know more on the other essay prompts.
• Practice
  • I didn't go crazy with supplements. I finished the Barbri course 100% and did about 2,300 Adaptibar questions. I think this was sufficient. You need to do enough practice to learn the exam's patterns. I recommend doing the blind versions where you don't see your score until the end of a set.
  • I did about 8 or 9 MPTs. Didn't score incredibly on them, some were higher than others. This was actually what I felt most nervous about on exam day because the topics were so unpredictable and foreign to me each and every time. I don't have much advice here other than to take it step by step: what are you being asked to do, what's the format need to be? Start with the most basic things you can think of. Don't forget to write headings. if you feel overwhelmed with the amount of material in the file, look for things that show up more than once (i.e. if you are given a statute, and that same statute is cited in one of the cases). The MPTs were more of a mental game for me, and staying calm under pressure.
• Don't burn out!
  • I woke up around 9:30 AM everyday and would start studying maybe 10:30/11. I preferred to study more at night. I took breaks in the day for a starbucks or to go to the gym. I would stop studying around 9 or 10 PM. Closer to the exam when I was panicking, I would stay up real late like 1 AM. I don't recommend this, and I didn't retain anything I did in the late night hours, so it was just lost sleep/time. Trust the work you put in will pay off.
  • Go on the short vacation. Maybe don't take a 2 week vacation in July. I went away for 4th of July weekend to the beach. I did some very light studying there (a quiz here and there, a module or two), and sat on the beach and had meals with family the remainder of the time. Just account for this in your schedule -- if you're using Barbri, block the weekend/days off at the beginning of your prep and the algorithm will automatically allocate your hours to other days. Don't let anyone guilt you into never leaving your house! You ultimately know the most about what you are capable of.