MPT cheat sheet

Performance Test: File and Library Lawyering Tasks

• The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) gives two 90-minute tasks; each task supplies a File (facts: transcripts, correspondence, memos, contracts, client documents) and a Library (authorities: statutes, regulations, cases, rules).

• Grading rewards task completion against the assigning memo's instructions; a polished document that omits a requested element scores below a complete one that covers every instruction.

• The assigning memo or partner instruction controls the deliverable's format, audience, and scope; identify the requested document type (office memo, client letter, brief, contract provision, will clause, email) before reading the Library.

• Read the File before the Library: the File determines which authorities matter, and Library reading without facts produces abstract, unusable rules.

• Every factual assertion in the finished document must trace to a File document; facts not in the File cannot be invented, and favorable but unsupported facts are a common scoring error.

• When a File contains conflicting facts (e.g., two dates, inconsistent witness accounts), state the conflict and its legal significance rather than silently choosing one.

• Objective analysis uses the structure: legal rule, application to the client's facts, counterargument or unfavorable fact, and conclusion; the conclusion should follow from the analysis, not precede it.

• Persuasive documents (briefs, demand letters) must acknowledge and distinguish adverse authority found in the Library; ignoring a case that appears in the Library is treated as a missed issue.