I'm six weeks from the Illinois Bar Exam and my Themis practice scores are all over the place. MBE is sitting around 63-65% and I need to be closer to 68-70% to feel safe. MEE essays I'd say average about a 3.5 out of 6. Illinois is a UBE state so at least I don't have to worry about Illinois-specific topics beyond standard UBE subjects.
I'm doing about 40 MBE questions a day and two MEE essays per week. Evidence and Torts are my strongest subjects, Constitutional Law my weakest — around 55%. The MPT is something I've been almost completely ignoring, which I know is a mistake. I did one full practice and ran out of time with 15 minutes of work left unfinished.
Anyone who's passed the IL Bar recently have advice on these final six weeks? Especially curious if ConLaw is worth the grind or if I should bank points elsewhere.
At six weeks out I wouldn't try to fix ConLaw from scratch. Focus on the doctrines that repeat most — Commerce Clause, First Amendment tiers, equal protection analysis — and accept you won't hit 70% there. Shore up your strong subjects to 75%+ instead.
For ConLaw just drill the landmark cases. The MBE tests application of Lemon, Chevron, and tiers of scrutiny more than obscure doctrine. That's where you can pick up points without rebuilding from zero.
Do not ignore the MPT. It's 20% of your total UBE score and most people can reach a 4 or 5 with focused practice. I did one MPT per week for my last five weeks and went from finishing late to finishing with eight minutes to spare. Also bump MEE essays to at least four per week — graders reward structure over substance.
I passed in February with a 274. My MBE was 139 and essays carried me. At your stage don't increase volume, increase review time. I spent 45 minutes reviewing every wrong answer and that's what actually moved my scores.
I was exactly where you are six weeks out, maybe worse -- my MBE was hovering around 61% and I honestly thought about withdrawing twice. What clicked for me was stopping the "do more questions" grind and instead spending two full days just auditing which subjects were dragging me down. For me it was Real Property destroying my average, so I went deep on that one subject, used every free resource I could find including free il bar real property practice sets, and my MBE jumped almost four points in three weeks just from shoring up that one hole.
On the MEE side, 3.5 is honestly closer than it feels -- you're not failing those essays, you're just not organizing fast enough. I started writing my issue-rule-analysis-conclusion outline in the first 90 seconds before touching the actual writing and it changed everything. You've got six weeks, that's real time. Don't panic, just get specific about what's actually broken.
I was in almost the exact same spot six weeks out and honestly the thing that moved my MBE score wasn't grinding more questions, it was identifying my two worst subjects and going deep on just those. For me it was Real Property and Civ Pro. I spent a week doing nothing but property questions and reading the corresponding Themis lecture outlines, and these free il bar real property questions helped me figure out where my gaps actually were versus where I just felt shaky. That's a real difference and it matters.
On the MEE side, a 3.5 is actually not that far off. The jump from 3.5 to a 4.5 usually isn't about knowing more law, it's about structure. I didn't realize how much graders care about spotting the issue upfront and labeling it clearly before you analyze. Once I started writing issue statements the way I'd write a mini-thesis, my scores bumped up noticeably. Six weeks is enough time, I promise.