Hone

Lessons · Law foundations · The multiple-choice day

The multiple-choice day is a test of elimination

The multiple-choice paper covers foundational subjects with a large number of questions under tight time. Options are written so that more than one is defensible and one is best. The skill is disciplined elimination against the precise rule, not recognition of a familiar phrase.

Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by an attorney. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.

What it is for

Candidates who know the law well still score modestly here, because knowing the rule and applying it to a two-sentence fact pattern in under two minutes are different abilities. The second one is trained only by doing the questions.

How to think about it

Practise in timed blocks, and review the ones you got RIGHT for the wrong reason as carefully as the ones you got wrong -- those are the ones that will fail you on a different day. For each miss, write in one line which rule you misread. The pattern in that list is your study plan.

Worked example

Large question count, tight per-question time.
Pace is a skill of its own and is trained by the clock.
Two options are usually defensible; one is best.
Eliminate against the exact rule, not against the general feel.
Review right-for-the-wrong-reason answers too.
They are silent failures waiting for a different question.
Keep a one-line log of which rule each miss turned on.
The repeated entries are what to study.

Your turn

Which answers besides your wrong ones deserve review?

Review the ones you got right for the  reason

The trap

Measuring progress by questions completed. The number that moves a score is misses understood, and a hundred reviewed questions beat five hundred rushed ones.

Next in Law foundations

Every Law foundations lesson on one page

Practise The multiple-choice day on HoneA question on it now, a real problem where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.