a) Which materials should I use?
Based on my experience, I recommend the following.
(1) Critical Pass
You can see samples here.
This is a set of condensed flash cards for black letter laws and provides the major points that are likely to be tested. It is popularly used now.
There are many subjects on the exam and you do not have enough time to read through thick legal books for each subject.
Using this material, you can understand and memorize essential knowledge that you should be good at handling to do well on the exam.
I used this and a copy of the personal study notes made by a Japanese exam passer with excellent abilities a few years ago for the purpose of acquiring and organizing necessary knowledge.
(2) Bar Outlines
The price is relatively inexpensive compared with other materials.
For example, the one for Washington State is only USD 49.
Although it says “Washington Bar Outlines,” the contents are for MBE, MEE, and MPTs, which means you can use this for other UBE states.
You can see samples here.
I especially purchased this for MEE subjects.
Although the MEE Subject Outlines were useful for me, I preferred the script for the MEE Subject Lectures, because this was made up of sentence-typed explanations and was easy for me to understand.
b) How should I use them?
I used the following method and would be happy if you could find anything good for you.
(1) I printed out (or copied) materials and made a booklet of them so that I could refer to them every time I studied.
(2) I read through it and sought to understand the rules.
(3) When practicing questions or reading new materials, I kept it around and wrote down the page number on the edge of the new materials, so that I could link the knowledge already acquired with that in the new materials.
By doing this, I could clarify the issues handled in the new material and then organize them as my integrated “body of knowledge.”
(4) If I encountered new useful knowledge while practicing or reading, I wrote down the summary on the outline book.
By doing this, I could avoid the tendency of having necessary information scattered here and there and then forgetting them afterward. Instead, I could integrate them into one notebook.
(5) Especially for MEE, it was important for me to be able to remember and write the major rules quickly with no stress. As the exam approached, I condensed the rules further and memorized them.
(6) I read out and recorded these condensed rules. I listened to them as frequently as possible (e.g., when commuting).
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