Salinas Pens Book to Assist Graduates Taking the Multistate Bar Examination

For the Class of 2020, remote classes, no graduation and an uncertain future dominated their world. Amid this uncertainty, these graduates were asked to dig deep and study for the bar exam under the most difficult circumstances.

O.J. Salinas, director of the UNC School of Law’s Academic Excellence Program and clinical professor of law, recognized that students were trying to study remotely with their traditional bar vendor materials but wanted to find ways to help them better understand and remember the immense amount of black letter law they were studying. He created a series of video presentations he called “Bar Exam Bootcamps” that became the foundation for his new book “MBEs for the MBE: Mnemonics, Blueprints, and Examples for the Multistate Bar Examination.”

“In the video presentations, I summarized the substantive law, provided mnemonics for helping to remember the law, and walked through various practice MBE questions,” says Salinas. “Since students seemed to embrace the recordings, I wanted the information that I communicated in the recordings to translate beyond COVID, remote learning and Carolina Law. I wanted to create something that could help folks during their law school journey and on their licensing exams.”

In “MBEs for the MBE”, Salinas makes the daunting task of preparing for the bar more approachable. It instills confidence in students’ test preparation by providing tools to study more effectively and efficiently. It also serves as a useful supplement for law students, as the book summarizes the substantive law typically covered during the 1L curriculum and gives students multiple opportunities to assess their understanding of the substantive law.

The book is organized by “Blueprints” that include summaries of the seven substantive areas of law tested on the MBE: civil procedure, contracts, constitutional law, criminal law/criminal procedure, evidence, property and torts. Within the chapters are “Mnemonics” where Salinas provides memorization strategies and techniques to help students categorize and recall the immense amount of black letter law tested on the MBE.

Each chapter also contains “Examples” in the form of AdaptiBar® questions and answers where students can practice answering multiple choice questions and assess where they are in their test preparation. Students have access to the popular AdaptiBar® questions and answers in the text and in an accompanying online platform.

“With over 500 highlighted rules, numerous mnemonics and 150 AdaptiBar® practice questions, I hope this book can be a helpful resource for anyone reviewing the substantive law tested on the MBE,” says Salinas.

The book is scheduled to be released November 12 by West Academic Publishing.