MPT: Multistate Performance Test
What the MPT tests
The MPT is the UBE's two-part performance component: two 90-minute tasks worth 20% of the New Jersey UBE score. Each task supplies a File of facts and a Library of authorities. You must produce a practical work product-office memo, brief, client letter, contract provision, discovery plan, or similar-using only the Library. The MPT tests legal analysis, fact analysis, problem solving, organization, and writing, not memorized doctrine.
Core approach
- Read the task memo first. Identify the audience, purpose, format, length, and deadline. The instructions control.
- Read the File for facts. Note names, dates, documents, and inconsistencies; do not invent facts.
- Read the Library for rules. Use relevant cases and statutes; distinguish adverse authority.
- Outline before drafting. Use headings that match the task; apply law to facts in each paragraph.
- Manage the 90 minutes. Reserve time to review for accuracy and completeness.
Worked example
A task memo asks for an office memo to a supervising attorney on whether a client's noncompete is enforceable. The File shows a 24-month restriction covering the entire state; the client is a low-level technician. The Library has a statute requiring a reasonable time and geographic scope and one case invalidating a statewide restriction on a low-level employee. Reasoning: state the statutory rule, apply the two factors, use the case as analogous authority, and conclude the covenant is likely unenforceable as written. A memo should use To/From/Date/Re headings and an objective tone.
Traps that cost marks
- Copying Library language instead of analyzing it.
- Ignoring the task memo's required format.
- Over-researching and leaving too little time to draft.
- Missing File facts that change the analysis.
- Using outside law not found in the Library.