Passed the Montana Bar on second attempt — what actually changed the second time
After failing with a 262 (passing is 266), I sat for the MT Bar again this February and passed with 271. I know a lot of people on here are in retake mode or preparing for a first attempt, so I wanted to share what actually made the difference rather than just the generic "do more MBE questions" advice that didn't help me the first time around.
The biggest change was essay structure. My first attempt I wrote everything I knew and hoped points would fall somewhere. The second attempt I forced myself into a rigid IRAC framework on every essay question, even when I was confident I could be less formal. My essay scores improved significantly — I estimate they accounted for most of the 9-point jump. I also cut my MBE practice volume and focused only on analyzing wrong answers deeply instead of grinding 50 questions a day without review.
Montana's MEE is graded on a curve relative to other MT applicants, which I completely underestimated the first time. I treated it like an absolute standard and it's not. Second time I focused on hitting all the issues rather than perfecting any one analysis, which is apparently what graders reward. Happy to answer questions if you're in retake mode.
The "analyze wrong answers instead of volume grinding" approach is real. I changed to that 6 weeks before my second MBE-heavy exam and my accuracy went from 58% to 69%. Quality over quantity isn't just a cliche for bar prep.
Good luck to everyone sitting in July.
Congratulations — a 9-point jump is meaningful. The point about curving MEE scores relative to MT applicants is something I hadn't considered at all and I'm sitting for it in July. That genuinely changes how I'm thinking about essay depth versus breadth.
I failed by 4 points last year and the essay structure note hits home. My practice essays were always too conversational. Did you use any specific IRAC template or just a structure you enforced mentally going in?
How much time did you spend on Montana-specific civil procedure versus general MBE subjects? I've heard MT tests a lot of state-specific procedure and evidence rules but it's hard to find solid materials for those sections specifically.
The thing that genuinely changed everything for me was stopping timed practice cold turkey about three weeks out and just doing slow, deliberate review of every rule I'd been fuzzy on. I know that sounds counterintuitive when everyone tells you to simulate exam conditions, but I'd already done months of timed sets and I wasn't learning anything new from them. My timing wasn't the problem. My actual knowledge of the rules was.
Specifically I printed out the Montana-specific MEE tested areas and went through each one asking myself if I could write a paragraph explaining it without notes. If I couldn't, I'd stop and really work through it until I could. That's it. No fancy system. It's boring and it feels slow but those four points I needed to pass came from having cleaner rule statements, not from squeezing out more practice essays.
Thanks for this post, seriously. I'm in a similar boat — first attempt didn't go well and I've been grinding through a retake prep since March. Just did a full practice exam yesterday and pulled a 274, which is the first time I've broken 270 consistently, so I'm actually feeling okay about where I'm at. The MEE writing practice has been the biggest shift for me too, I wasn't treating it seriously enough the first time.
I'm sitting in July so it's crunch time. Fingers crossed the real thing feels anything like yesterday's practice run. This thread has been helpful to read through, it's reassuring to know the score jump is doable when you actually change what isn't working.
The biggest thing I changed was stopping the "spray and pray" approach with MBE practice. I'd been doing hundreds of random questions without actually understanding why I got things wrong, and it showed. Second time around I slowed way down, did maybe 30 questions a day, and wrote out my reasoning for every single wrong answer. Painful and boring, but my MBE score jumped almost 8 points.
On the MEE side I finally got honest with myself that my issue wasn't knowledge, it was organization. My first attempt essays were basically brain dumps. I started timing myself strictly and forcing a real IRAC structure even when it felt awkward, and I stopped trying to show everything I knew. Graders aren't impressed by everything you know, they're looking for clean analysis on the issues that matter. That shift alone probably accounts for most of my score difference.
Honestly the biggest shift for me was stopping the "more is more" MBE grind and actually diagnosing why I got questions wrong. First attempt I just kept doing sets and hoping it'd click. Second time I tracked every single miss by topic and realized I didn't actually understand how to apply the rule, I'd just memorized it. Big difference. MEE essays were also where I think I picked up most of my points -- I wasn't finishing them before, so second time I practiced timed outlines obsessively until I could structure a response in like 4 minutes flat.
Montana also weighs the MPT heavily and I basically ignored it first time around. It's a skills test, not a knowledge test, and once I started treating it that way I actually enjoyed practicing it. If you're in retake mode, look at your score breakdown before you change anything -- I wasted two weeks studying the wrong stuff before I got my diagnostic report and realized where I actually lost points.