Greetings, user "Discouraged"Discouraged wrote:Just checked the mail, reporting in:
1: 55
2: 65
3: 60
4: 55
5: 55
6: 65
PTA: 55
PTB: 60
Raw Written: 585
Scaled Written: 1377.0573
Scaled MBE: 1343
Total Scaled Score: 1365.1372
Any suggestions on what was my weakest area? I'm thinking MBE which honestly I was pretty sure I was bombing. I wonder how many more MBE questions I would have needed to make up for the (approx 75pt gap)...
Here are my two cents.
First thing I notice is that your scores are pretty consistent across the board. You have a few 55s and a couple of 65s. None of the essays are particularly excellent (none over 70), and none are particularly terrible (no 50s).
This tells me that you may need to work on something that applies to all the essays. Specifically, your may want to make sure that your IRAC structure is CLEAR and on point. Signal your competence to your graders. Use clean headers to signal each issue, IRAC is clearly (break up I, R, A, C into at least one separate paragraph each), use clean organization.
Next, your MBE isn't anything to write home about. Based on the scaled scores, your MBE was weaker than the written portion. Use real questions and understand all the answer explanations for every question you get right/wrong. Each question is an opportunity for validation or a lesson. How do you know you understand? If you come back to the same question in a few days and you still get it wrong, you didn't understand. Once you put in the quality work and treat each question with respect, your score will improve.
Having better knowledge of the law will also help with your essays.
Don't ignore PTs either. Many people are realizing they underestimated the PTs, but this is an actual section that accounts for like 30% of your grade. I thought I was pretty good at the PTs until they threw some gnarly ones at me that destroyed me. You don't need to go crazy on practicing, but don't procrastinate. Do a full three-hour PT one every Tuesday or a lazy Sunday and compare your answer to sample and model answers. You got 4-5 hours to spare every week.
Basically, you're in the same situation I was my first time. You just need an approach that works for you. Hopefully the ones I briefly discussed above will give you some ideas.