Hi, all. I’m taking the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) in August - has anyone here taken it recently? Honestly, I’m having trouble convincing myself that this is something I should worry much about - is that a mistake? I figure I’ll take a couple practice exams, and that should more or less be sufficient. However, I’d love to know if I’m mistaken.
I’ve just finished my second year of law school, and for whatever it’s worth, I earned an “A” in Legal Ethics. (This means, I assume, that I am a saint among men.)
Agreed. It’s not that big a deal and a lot of it is common sense for anyone with a decent ethical compass, but don’t dismiss it out of hand. A moderate review and you should be good to go.
I was actually going to give the opposite advice. It’s been almost 15 years now, but my recollection is that the test was trickier than you might think, because it’s not really a test on ethics – it’s a test on specific ethics rules. You’re not being asked, “what’s the right thing to do,” but rather things like, “If you want to do X in situation Y, do you have to get the client’s consent, or is it optional?” It’s sort of like the difference between being a good architect, and knowing your local building codes inside and out.
I’m not saying you need to prepare like the bar exam, but, unless it’s changed (and who knows, it might have) I wouldn’t rely too heavily on your internal moral compass. (Cue jokes about training to become a lawyer…)
My experience was 20+ years ago, but I recall it similarly to the earlier responders. Not a big deal. A review and a practice test or 2 are fine.
Is it possible to pull up passage rates for the Ethics exam? I’d bet a large sum that a tremendously small percentage of folk fail the MPRE - especially compared to the bar.
The map shows that most states require scores of 70-85. Kinda tough to calculate from bar graphs, but it looks as tho only 7-8% of test-takers score below 70, and maybe 20% below 80.
I’m not sure, but I think an 80% passage rate for the bar would be unusual in most states. So I stand by my previously stated believe that the MPRE is easier to pass than the bar.
It might be that I never took the time to truly understood the MPRE statistics, but I’m pretty sure that those numbers are scaled scores, not percentages. In my jurisdiction at the time, a passing score was 80, but because of dropped questions and a strange curve, I managed to score a 105 (I forgot what the ultimate score was, but my ethics professor said I did very good). From my experience, the MPRE was easier than the bar, but as others have said, you should prepare for it.
I just got my JD in May, and am studying for the Bar Exam. Point: I’ve been there, and recently.
My advice: the CALI lessons are very useful. Our school provided a master password to get access - check with your school to see if there’s one for yours.
Sadly, in Georgia, an attorney only has to be 25% ethical - the scale goes from 50 to 150, and you must score a 75 or better… :rolleyes:
My first go round I overthought and failed by 1 question (for NY. I believe my score indicated I was ethical enough for about 30 states).
Second time round, I answered every question as fast as humanly possible based on gut instinct alone, did not check my answers (I checked ONLY that I filled in the bubble I intended to fill the first time), finished in an hour, and passed.
My friend’s advice: Select the second-most ethical choice. The MOST ethical choice is more than the law requires, thus, not the right answer.
The MPRE is easy as hell. I studied for one night the night before the test (which was when I learned that the test also covers the code of judicial conduct, so I read that) and passed easily.
This thread was revived by some passing spammer. Since we’ve had some replies since that, I’ll leave it open, but please mind that the first 10 posts are from 2008.