The MPT Walkthrough — SI Law School Tutorials

The setup

Each task gives you a packet with three parts: a task memo from a supervising attorney (read it first — it's the assignment), a file (facts: interviews, pleadings, documents), and a library (the law: cases, statutes, rules). Your job is a lawyerly work product — an objective memo, a persuasive brief, a client letter, a contract provision — built only from these materials.

Minutes 0–5: the task memo, twice

Read it once for the assignment, once for the constraints. Write at the top of your page: deliverable (what), audience (tone), questions (the exact issues to answer, in order). Everything you do for the next 85 minutes serves those three lines.

Minutes 5–20: the fast pass

Skim the file, then the library. You're mapping terrain, not briefing cases: what facts exist, what law exists. Note which library authorities seem to answer which of the task memo's questions. Don't slow down — depth comes next.

Minutes 20–45: extract and outline

Build a rule chart. For each question in the task memo: the governing rule, its elements/factors/test, the key authorities. One line per element.
Match facts to elements. Go through the file and attach facts to the chart. Mark facts that cut against you — you'll address them, not hide them.
Outline the deliverable. Headings mirror the task memo's questions, in the order asked. Under each: rule, application, conclusion.

Minutes 45–85: draft

Write to the outline. This is transcription, not composition — the thinking is done.
Format is scored. An objective memo reads objectively; a brief persuades; a client letter is plain-spoken. Match the genre.
Cite the library, apply the file. “Under Smith, courts consider X, Y, Z. Here, X is met because…” — that sentence, repeated per element, is the whole task.
Confront the bad facts. Distinguish them or concede-and-minimize. Graders reward the candor a real supervising attorney would demand.

Minutes 85–90: the finish check

Every question in the task memo answered? Tone right for the audience? If you're behind: write conclusion paragraphs for everything unfinished, now. A complete draft with thin middle beats a brilliant fragment.

Our read: strong MPT scores come from the reading plan, not writing talent. The classic failure is spending 40 minutes briefing library cases like a law-school assignment, then rushing the draft. The task memo's questions are a filter — read the library only for material that answers them.

Practice with Eli

Describe an MPT task type (objective memo, motion brief, client letter) and Eli will walk you through a practice packet Socratically — asking what the task memo requires before you read a word of the file. Paste a draft for rubric feedback: organization, format compliance, rule extraction, and candor about weak facts.

MPT format (2 tasks, 90 minutes each, ~20% of the UBE score; all needed law provided in the materials) per the NCBE as described at ncbex.org. The walkthrough method is our synthesis.