I have a love-hate relationship with Civil Procedure. Maybe a like-dislike relationship since I did get a B+ in my 1L Civ Pro class (almost A-), and that ain’t half bad for Civ Pro.
It can actually be somewhat straightforward if you get to know it, but it’s a pretty technical subject. Not all of us is a gunner nerd who went on to clerk for some circuit judge.
Here’s the real problem: Civ Pro has been a wild card since it was introduced as a new subject in the MBE. It used to be pretty simple to find practice questions for the other subjects, but…
What are the best places to get Civ Pro MBE questions to practice with now?
To get you started, here’s a compilation of supplements, resources, and sources of Civ Pro MBE questions (free and paid, authentic and author-written options):
| Free | Paid | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentic/Real | – The NCBE has 10 sample questions with official annotationshere |
– AdaptiBar has all the official questions, with explanations written by AdaptiBar’s legal team (get a $40 coupon code here) – UWorld MBE QBank includes over 1,900 MBE questions, including over 1,350 written by the NCBE. – NCBE’s official study aids: “MBE Study Aid” does not have answer explanations, but “MBE Complete Practice Exam” and “The MBE Bar Exam Value Pack” come with answer explanations – 7Sage’s MBE Question Bank – Premium version has the 30 official Civ Pro questions from the NCBE Study Aid (without answer explanations). But I don’t think it’s very helpful to have the answers but not the explanations The Starter version has 10 official Civ Pro questions and may be worth it ONLY if you were already planning on getting at least one of the official Simulated MBEs (with official annotations/explanations), which are included with 7Sage for less than what you’d pay the NCBE |
| Author-written | – BarPrepHero has free practice exams sample questions here | – Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE Has excellent answer explanations. Reviewing and understanding these thoroughly is where the learning happens Online comprehensive universe of licensed questions from past MBEs, with analytics built in 200 simulated Civ Pro MBE questions (not counting the 30 newly added official Civ Pro questions) – If you’re using a bar course, it probably comes with some Civ Pro questions. Might as well use them if you already spent four figures on your course |
For AdaptiBar coupon mentioned above, click here.
In list form, separated by free, paid, authentic, author-written variants. There will be overlaps:
Free Civ Pro MBE questions:
- BarPrepHero has free practice exams with sample questions
- The NCBE has 10 sample questions with official annotations here
Paid Civ Pro MBE questions:
- Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
- Has excellent answer explanations. Reviewing and understanding these thoroughly is where the learning happens
- AdaptiBar—see review here ($40 coupon code)
- Online comprehensive universe of licensed questions from past MBEs, with analytics built in
- 200 simulated Civ Pro MBE questions
- 30 newly added official Civ Pro questions
- Explanations written by AdaptiBar’s legal team
- UWorld MBE QBank
- Similar to AdaptiBar, less robust software, but the price is right
- NCBE MBE Study Aids
- 7Sage’s MBE Question Bank – Premium version has the 30 official Civ Pro questions from the NCBE Study Aid (without answer explanations). But I don’t think it’s very helpful to have the answers but not the explanations
- If you’re using a bar course, it probably comes with some Civ Pro questions. Might as well use them if you already spent four figures on your course
Authentic/Real Civ Pro MBE questions:
- Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
- AdaptiBar recently added the 30 official questions from the Study Aid above, with explanations written by AdaptiBar’s legal team ($40 coupon code)
- UWorld MBE QBank includes licensed Civ Pro questions and more written by their legal team
- The NCBE has 10 sample questions with official annotations here
- NCBE MBE Study Aid (doesn’t include explanations)
- 7Sage’s MBE Question Bank – Premium version has the 30 official Civ Pro questions from the NCBE Study Aid (without answer explanations). But I don’t think it’s very helpful to have the answers but not the explanations
Simulated Civ Pro MBE questions:
- AdaptiBar—see review here ($40 coupon code)
- Online comprehensive universe of licensed questions from past MBEs, with analytics built in
- 200 simulated Civ Pro MBE questions (not counting the 30 newly added official Civ Pro questions)
- BarPrepHero has free practice exams with sample questions
- If you’re using a bar course, it probably comes with some Civ Pro questions. Might as well use them if you already spent four figures on your course
Of course, you don’t need ALL of these to study for the MBE. You don’t have to limit yourself to just one either. Whatever you decide, consider these factors when picking resources for Civ Pro MBE:
Answer explanations?
This is where the learning happens.
It’s not putting in the time itself that makes you better. Improvement comes from constant feedback and learning every time you try to solve a difficult problem. You’ll make progress if you spend just as much as time figuring out what went wrong and what went right.
If you’re just doing problems, seeing how many you got right, and moving on without reflecting on the right and wrong answers, you may as well have not done them at all.
To that end, choose a resource that includes answer explanations so you know why you got a question right or wrong.
My pick: UWorld MBE QBank
Honorable mentions:
- AdaptiBar
- Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
- NCBE’s “MBE Complete Practice Exam” and “The MBE Bar Exam Value Pack” and 10 sample questions with annotations
Real vs. “fake” MBE questions?
Generally speaking, yes, I’d stick mostly to past MBE questions.
You wouldn’t study for the essays on the bar using final exams from law school, right? You study with essays released by your state bar to train as if it were the real thing and do the real thing as if it were practice.
So it makes sense to stick to real questions. The style and feel are most similar.
If you only consider that, the best questions for Civ Pro MBE would be the 10 sample questions. They meet the ideal conditions: direct from the examiners with answer explanations. But that wouldn’t be nearly enough.
Also, the MBE is getting trickier every year. If you use AdaptiBar alone (for example), you may be leaving some blind spots open. It’s reasonable to assume that the examiners are aware of the common supplements like AdaptiBar. They license out the questions to them, after all.
To account for the unpredictability, it’s not a bad idea to mix in some questions from elsewhere, such as your bar course. It may be coming back full circle to the point where doing non-licensed questions is more useful than we thought. Or maybe it’s always been useful.
Draw, say, 10-25% of your questions from non-licensed sources. I recommend drilling with “fake” questions for your trouble topics anyway so that you don’t “waste” the real questions.
My pick: NCBE’s 10 sample questions with annotations and the MBE Study Aids — as authentic as you can get
Honorable mentions:
Mix drills with:
- Prep course questions
- AdaptiBar‘s 200 simulated questions
- Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
- BarPrepHero
Online vs. paper?
People prefer different formats when practicing.
Some resources are in paper form. This simulates the actual exam. Just note your answers on a separate sheet of papers because you may want to redo the questions later (and you get a higher resale value (plus why would you want to deface a perfectly clean book that you only have one copy of)).
My pick for pencil-and-paper format: Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE
Some resources are accessible on your computer or mobile devices. This is convenient because you can work on the go or on different devices. You may also have the option of printing certain things on paper.
My picks for online format:
Printable:
- NCBE’s 10 sample questions with annotations and MBE Study Aids
Having overlapping resources (for example, using AdaptiBar + Strategies & Tactics) is not necessarily a superfluous waste
First, I strongly recommend redoing problems anyway.
Second, most Civ Pro questions won’t be the same, since there aren’t many questions released by the NCBE.
While AdaptiBar will completely overlap S&T, for example, for the other MBE subjects (which is fine), you’ll get different flavors of Civ Pro.
What you may want to avoid is getting a supplement that’s mostly useless unless you get it exclusively. Specifically, I wouldn’t buy both 7Sage’s MBE Question Bank and the NCBE questions for the reason I offered above.
That said, this typically isn’t a big concern, especially it comes to Civ Pro. Maybe what’s more important to you is…
Price?
The price of the supplement can vary anywhere from as low as $50 to as high as $365 (not counting the cost of your bar program) and anywhere in between.
This is a decision you’ll have to make based on the above factors. Here’s my take on the cost effectiveness:
My picks:
- NCBE’s 10 sample questions with annotations
- BarPrepHero has free practice exams with sample questions
They’re free.
Prices of other supplements, in order of worthiness:
- Emanuel’s Strategies & Tactics for the MBE: $70-100
- AdaptiBar: $355 (using $40 coupon) for almost all the past MBE questions, along with their 200 Civ Pro and 15 simulated Real Property questions
- UWorld MBE QBank: $399
- NCBE MBE Study Aids
- 7Sage’s MBE Question Bank: $149 (Premium) for the 40 official Civ Pro questions (30 from Study Aid + 10 free) or $109 (Starter) for the 10 official Civ Pro questions (yes, the free ones)
If you decide to get some of these supplements, a $40 discount for AdaptiBar is available. Enter and confirm your email here to get the discount code instantly.
good stuff