BarWrite graduate Wayne Perry has kindly allowed us to share his report on challenges on the October remote MPT and his suggested tips.
With regard to the possible challenges, it is reassuring that according to the Executive Director of the New York Board of Law Examiners, John McAlary, with whom I spoke last week, the NCBE also took a survey after the exam. Since no one knows what changes, if any, the NCBE will make in the short time between October 6 and their own deadline, we urge all bar candidates to read this report carefully and to follow Wayne Perry’s “tips.
Difficulties
- 1) The Examiners fit a lot into the screen on exam day, which makes the MPT hard to navigate.
- The right side of the screen includes the MPT File and Library and the left side of the screen contains the text box where you write your answer. Because the File and Library are fit into a small corner on the right side of the screen, the examinee needs to either zoom in to see the contents or scroll through them without zooming in. The latter option seemed almost impossible because the font is very difficult to read unless it is magnified.
- 2) It is time consuming and difficult to balance zooming in and out constantly during the exam, and obviously something that an examinee would not have to do with an in-person exam. See above.
- 3) When you double click on the File and Library documents they pop up in the middle of the screen. If you want to write anything down with the File and Library on the screen you must drag them away from the text box where you write your answer. This also can be time consuming and uncomfortable to deal with.
- 4) On the New Jersey exam, the page numbers were not in order for the File and Library. Each document had its own numbering, and then the numbers restarted from “one” once the new document began. This was an adjustment from what I saw with the practice MPTs.
Tips
- Take the Mock Exam seriously!
- New Jersey had three practice tests and each included 25 multiple choice questions, 3 Essays, and 1 MPT. The Examiners only allowed examinees access to each Exam for 90 minutes.
- The Mock Exams are very useful to test your substantive knowledge AND more importantly help you become more comfortable with the program that you will use on exam day.
- Don’t be afraid to spend as much time as you need getting more and more comfortable with the online Exam format. For me, doing the essays and multiple choice electronically were not that much different from doing them during practice. However, doing the MPT electronically definitely takes some practice.
- I spent the entire 90 minutes one practice exam doing an MPT and I highly recommend it as it made me more comfortable during exam day.
- The more you practice the MPT electronically, the more comfortable you will be.
- Realize that everyone taking the exam is in the same boat!
- For me, it was very helpful to realize that I was in the same boat as everyone taking the exam. I knew that for me taking the MPT electronically made me a little uncomfortable but that everyone was using the same unfamiliar program during the exam. This realization reduced my anxiety on exam day. This principle definitely applies to the other sections of the exam as well.
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