Guides: Casebooks, Study Aids & Guides for Law School Courses & Bar Exams: Preparing for Law School Exams & Bar Exams

BLS Academic Success Program & BLS Exams on File

BLS students can access additional resources in BLSConnect > Academics > Academic Success. The Academic Success Canvas page includes recordings of workshops and information sessions, such as: 1L Friday Weekly Skills Workshops & Pass the Bar and Don't Think About It Again. (In the Canvas page, click: Zoom or Panopto.)

BLS students can access past exams in BLSConnect > Academics > Registrar > Exams & Grading > Exams on File.

BLSConnect requires users to sign in with your BLS credentials.

CALI Lessons: Law School Success

CALI: Law School Success Subject Index
CALI: Law School Success Subject Outline
This outline links to CALI tutorials on:
Exams - Preparing & Attacking
Reflection - Maintain or Improve on Prior Performance

Guides: Law School Exams

Mastering the Law School Exam: A Practical Blueprint for Preparing and Taking Law School Exams by Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus
Call Number: KF283 .D37 2023 (2 copies on Reserve)

Publication Date: 2nd ed. c2023

Includes Mastering Assessments (= hypotheticals & other questions) for Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Property & Torts. Also includes a Performance Test (= "a simulation of a type of performance test that has been included in many states' bar exams").
Law School Exams: A Guide to Better Grades by Alex Schimel
Call Number: KF283 .S335 2022 (Main)

Publication Date: 3rd ed. c2022

Section IX includes a practice exercise + model answer for criminal law, torts & property.
Law School and Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win by Charles R. Calleros
Call Number: KF283 .C35 2021 (Main)

Publication Date: 3rd ed. c2021

Includes chapters on: success in taking law school exams; learning what to expect on a professor's exam; techniques common to all essay questions; fact-based essay questions with uncertain conclusions; essay questions of a different kind; & objective questions.
Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School by John C. Dernbach
Call Number: KF283 .D47 2014 (Main)

Publication Date: 4th ed. 2014

Access through Aspen Learning Library. In SARA catalog record, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - ASPEN.
1 print copy also is available in the Main Collection.

Casebooks & Guides: Legal Writing & Legal Analysis

Casebooks & many guides on legal writing & legal analysis appear in these resource boxes of BLS Library's LibGuide for 1Ls:

CALI Lessons: Bar Exam Planning & Success

ABA Law Student Division Material: Bar Admissions & Exam Resources

Law students can join the ABA's Law Student Division for free, "basic access" to many resources, including: Bar Admissions & Exam resources Recent articles include:

Guides: Bar Exams

New Book by BLS alumnus & Adjunct Prof. of Academic Success John W. Reilly:

The Brand-New Lawyer's Guide to Passing the Bar, Learning the Trade, and Building a Sustainable Career by John W. Reilly
Call Number: KF297 .R455 2025 (1 copy in Main + 1 copy in Alumni Publications Coll.)

Publication Date: 2025

Information from this author's website: "John W. Reilly is a lawyer, adjunct professor, and writer dedicated to guiding new legal professionals. A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Brooklyn Law School, John began his career as a Real Estate Law Associate, only to encounter unexpected challenges that reshaped his understanding of the profession. In The Brand-New Lawyer’s Guide to Passing the Bar, Learning the Trade, and Building a Sustainable Career, he candidly shares his journey. From dilemmas to successes, he offers vital insights for new lawyers navigating a legal career and personal well-being."

Also Available:

The Bar Exam in a Nutshell by Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus
Call Number: KF303 .D37 2024 (Reserve)

Publication Date: 4th ed. 2024

In the Preface, Prof. Darrow-Kleinhaus states that this guide discusses "how to get a 'head start' on bar preparation during law school, guidelines for selecting a bar review course, bar planner checklists for each phase of the bar preparation period,... advice on how to manage the mountains of material you cover in bar review courses and how to learn the law you need to know in a way that you can remember it and use it to answer exam questions."
Bar Exam Success: A Comprehensive Guide by Sara J. Berman
Call Number: KF303 .B452 2023 (On Reserve)

Publication Date: 2nd ed. [2023]

Prof. Sara J. Berman is Director of Academic Success at University of Southern California's Gould School of Law. The ABA's website describes the 1st ed. of this handbook as "a personal success guide." The ABA's book description states that this guide will teach law students how to: "Develop a plan for success; Get and use quality expert help; Maximize your schedule for productivity; Prepare with practice tests; & Eliminate distractions and embrace success."
Clearing the Last Hurdle: Mapping Success on the Bar Exam by Wanda M. Temm
Publication Date: 4th ed. 2023

In SARA catalog record, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - EBC. BLS Library has 1 e-copy. Wanda M. Temm is the Eleanore C. Blue Lawyering Skills Professor & Director of Bar Services at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law.
This book includes chapters on: Understanding memory and mind maps; Developing your game plan; Building essay-writing skills; Building multistate performance test skills; Building multistate bar examination skills; specific chapters on mapping various MBE and other legal topics (some of these chapters include essay questions); and an Appendix of Essay Scoresheets and MBE Practice Analyses.
A Short & Happy Guide to the MPT [Multistate Performance Test] by Katherine Silver Kelly
Publication Date: 1st ed. 2023 (On Reserve)

Excerpt from How to Use this Book (p. v): "This book [about the MPT] gives concrete and practical advice but it does not contain any actual MPTs."
Strategies and Tactics for the MBE: Multistate Bar Exam by This rev. prepared by Steven L. Emanuel
Call Number: KF303 .W345 2023 (2 copies on Reserve)

Publication Date: 8th ed. c2023

Includes many new actual MBE questions in each of the MBE subject areas (Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Property & Torts) + Practice Multistate Bar Exam & detailed answers by the author.
Bar Exam MPT [Multistate Performance Test] Preparation and Experiential Learning for Law Students by Sara J. Berman
Call Number: KF303 .B448 2021 (Main)

Publication Date: 2nd ed. 2021

Excerpt from an ABA news article (Feb. 19, 2021) describing this book: "It contains practical exercises, online practice exams and role-play simulations that will help students pass the bar and gain critical exposure to practical lawyering skills."
Strategies and Tactics for the MPRE: Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam, by Alex Ruskell
Call Number: KF306 .E46 2021 (On Reserve)

Publication Date: 7th ed. c2021

Provides: a plan of attack for the MPRE; model questions/answers; & 4 practice MPREs.
Passing the Bar: A Quick Reference Guide For Today’s Law Student by Allie Robbins
Publication Date: 2nd ed. published Dec. 2020

CALI's book description notes that this bar exam preparation guide focuses "on those who aspire to be public interest or social justice attorneys, first-generation law students, those law students who do not come from families of lawyers, or who come from communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the legal profession." This is an open-access CALI e-book. CALI requests a user's name, email & law school to access this e-book.
The Complete Bar Writer by Alexa Z. Chew & Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Call Number: KF303 .C44 2020 (Main)

Publication Date: 2020

Excerpt from Carolina Academic Press book description: "[R]eaders will learn how to approach any MPT problem, no matter what kind of document they're assigned to write; how to evaluate their own practice exams and carry that knowledge forward to do better on their next ones; how to prepare for test day; and how to prepare for things that might go wrong."

Free Bar Exam Sample Questions & Tests

MBE = Multistate Bar Examination

MEE = Multistate Essay Examination

MPT = Multistate Performance Test

MPRE = Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination

NYLC = New York Law Course

NYLE = New York Law Exam

Material Provided by National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE):

NCBE, NextGen Bar Exam Sample Questions
NCBE states that the sample questions available here "provide a preview of some of the question types that will appear on the NextGen bar exam, which will launch in July 2026."
Provides: Sample Multiple-Choice Questions + Sample Integrated Question Sets + Sample Performance Task.
NCBE, Study Aids
See: NCBE Free Study Resources. Includes: MBE Sample Test Questions; Free MEE Questions and Analyses from Older Administrations; Free MPTs and Point Sheets from Older Administrations; & MPRE Sample Test Questions.
Note: Also sells Next Gen Practice Sets.

Material Provided by The New York State Board of Law Examiners (NYSBLE):

Some Free Material Provided by Vendors:

BLS Library does not endorse any specific bar review company.

BARBRI, Free MPRE Prep Course + MPRE Prep Materials
Bar Prep Hero, Start a Free MBE Practice Test
Kaplan, Free MPRE Review
Includes MPRE Qbank & MPRE practice tests.
Pieper Bar Review, Free MPRE Course
Quimbee, Free [Sample] MBE Practice Questions
Themis, Free MPRE Review
Includes multiple practice exams & 200+ questions/answer explanations written by Themis experts.