How important is the rule statement for the MEE? Forum

[rustyburger2]

I've been doing a bunch of practice MEEs with Kaplan and generally score between 4–5 out of 6. But I'm pretty god awful at getting the rule statement down. Even when I know what the rule is, I just write down my understanding of the rule - not the actual language of it.

What especially worries me is that there have been times where I've blatantly written down the wrong rule statement and still gotten a 4 or 5 out of 6. Like, even where the rule statement wasn't even in the same ballpark & lead to the wrong conclusion, I didn't even get a comment saying the rule statement was off.

You guys think the essay graders are just being lazy and rubber stamping everything, or is the rule statement not the most important part of the MEE?

[tiffannybrown]

Thats odd. I would assume that the rule statement is the most important aspect of the essay- I mean I think your analysis but can be anything- bc... thats what lawyers do, argue which ever side they want. But if you don't know the rule, your analysis can't be right.

I don't think getting the exact wording of the rule is important, i think its more important to get the concept, even if that is in your own words.

I have no information about this, besides common sense.

[SilvermanBarPrep]

It’s important in the sense that the wrong rule statement could be the beginning of the wrong analysis. But you definitely don’t need to state word for word. Understanding is always better than memorizing!

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

[CLSGumbo]

My understanding is that you could put the entire wrong rule statement, and therefore have the entire wrong analysis, and you could still get a 4/5 out of 6 as long as your application and reasoning were sound. Like the Kaplan's will's essay they just had us do, I got the rule/conclusion wrong for whether the will was revoked, but I still had an entire application of my incorrect rule. Gave me a 4/6

[kingkonglaw]

My understanding is that you could put the entire wrong rule statement, and therefore have the entire wrong analysis, and you could still get a 4/5 out of 6 as long as your application and reasoning were sound. Like the Kaplan's will's essay they just had us do, I got the rule/conclusion wrong for whether the will was revoked, but I still had an entire application of my incorrect rule. Gave me a 4/6

That's reassuring to hear.. So you're saying that as long as the guts of the essay are sound you can still get a decent amount of points if you apply the wrong rule and thus the wrong analysis to a potential question that appears?

Can anyone else clarify on this?

Thanks!