MicroMash Guarantee & the California Bar

I forgot to email essay #2 into the MicroMash mentor guy last night, and failure to do so results in me having forfeited any possibility of making good on the MicroMash guarantee. I’ve decided, though, that an attempt to meet the MicroMash guarantee - while an incentive - is not a realistic or SMART goal for someone taking the California Bar. There are people who have ran the numbers to figure out what sort of score you need on the MBE to have a decent chance at passing California’s bar, but the reality is that the MBE is 35% of your total Bar score. To get the MicroMash guarantee, I believe you have to send in all 6 essays by the specified dates, do ALL 3000+ of their MBE practice questions at least once, get ALL of them right at least once, and spend at least one minute on every question. I initially thought this might be a reasonable goal, but I realize now that it is dumb to dedicate so much time to the MBE when it is only 35% of my Bar score. Instead of spending additional hours going through all the questions I got wrong just for the sake of getting them RIGHT so I can meet the guarantee, I’d be much better off doing 3 or 4 practice essays in preparation for the Essay/Practice Performance portion of the Bar which is worth almost twice as much as the MBE. I will continue to do practice questions using their software, of course, and I still feel glad I didn’t take Bar/Bri or PMBR, but I don’t think I am going to strive to meet the MicroMash guarantee - well, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway because I didn’t turn my essay in on time, so I’m out already! I’m not saying that MicroMash isn’t a good program to use, it definitely has its benefits, but the time you’d put into trying to satisfy their guarantee could potentially eat up valuable time that might be better off spent doing other things. I think it’s a stronger incentive/program in those states that require a certain passing score for the MBE or those states that won’t even look at your essays unless you pass the MBE. But, for a state like CA that puts greater emphasis on the essay/performance tests, your writing and organization skills and your knowledge of the STATE subjects have to be completely solid, and I think it’s wise to spend more time working on that. So, the possibility of the MicroMash guarantee was nice while it lasted, but it looks like I have to pass the Bar this time around or fork over more money to Thompson one way or another.