I had a gripe back in May about calling myself a “rising 3L.” Despite finishing my finals, there was one last hurdle to jump before the fall. That hurdle was the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, or MPRE. Unlike some of my peers, I registered for the August 2026 administration of the MPRE instead of November or March. That gave me the summer to study and create a guide for the new crop of 2Ls reading this post. Like all my guides, please take what works for you and leave what does not apply.
Continue readingMPRE
What Exactly is the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam?
This past week, like many of my 2L peers, I took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam or the MPRE. This exam is a vital prerequisite or co-requisite to the bar exam for admission in most U.S. jurisdictions. So why have many people never heard of it before?
What is the MPRE?
The MPRE is a 2-hr, 60-question, multiple-choice exam, administered three times a year (March, August, and November), designed to test knowledge of the rules related to a lawyer’s professional conduct. There are two important things to note. There is no negative scoring so it doesn’t hurt to guess. And while you answer 60 questions, only 50 questions are graded. The remaining 10 are used for testing purposes and are indistinguishable from the graded questions on the test. In other words, answer every question. As for the material tested, while each state has its own set of ethical standards, the MPRE tests on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct so only worry about that.
Continue readingThe Path to the Bar: Step 1, MPRE
Last Spring, we published the first of a series of posts about the bar. That post talked about course selection with the bar in mind; you can read it here. Today we are looking at the MPRE, which is a first step on the path to passing the bar.
In most states, before you can sit for the bar, you must pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). It’s two hours long, and contains sixty multiple choice questions testing knowledge of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which most states have adopted in some version. The MPRE does not test your personal ethics; it tests how well you know the Model Rules and how you apply them to factual hypotheticals. Continue reading
