How to work through this MPRE deck
The MPRE is a computer-based, multiple-choice exam with 60 questions: 50 scored and 10 unscored pretest questions, in a timed session. It tests applying the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Model Code of Judicial Conduct and related standards, rather than writing a policy essay or relying on a jurisdiction-specific variation. Check the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ official website for current exam information.
This deck focuses on frequently tested Model Rules. For each card, pause at the question, state the rule and its key condition in your own words, then compare your answer. Grade yourself on whether you recalled the rule precisely—not whether your conclusion felt fair. Use Again if you missed the rule or its trigger, Hard if you needed a prompt, Good if you recalled it correctly, and Easy only if you could also apply it to a changed fact pattern.
A 16-card MySummaries deck on this topic looks like this:
When may a lawyer reveal confidential information to prevent harm?
Under Model Rule 1.6(b)(1), the lawyer may reveal information to the extent reasonably necessary to prevent reasonably certain death or substantial bodily harm.
All 16 cards
That is a MySummaries deck, filled with MPRE material. Yours is written from your own notes. Start free
The facts that change the answer
Treat the first two confidentiality cards as separate permission tests. Rule 1.6 generally prohibits revealing information relating to a representation unless the client gives informed consent, disclosure is impliedly authorised to carry out the representation, or a stated exception applies. The serious-harm exception is not limited to harm caused by a client crime. By contrast, the financial-harm exceptions in Rule 1.6(b)(2) and (3) have conditions tied to client crime or fraud and the lawyer’s services. On a question, identify those conditions before deciding whether disclosure is permitted. The rule generally allows disclosure only to the extent reasonably necessary.
Conflicts questions reward precise elements. A relationship that feels awkward is not automatically a conflict under Rule 1.7; identify direct adversity or a significant risk of material limitation. Even where the conflict can be consented to, the lawyer must satisfy the rule’s consentability conditions and obtain the required informed consent from each affected client. For former-client questions, distinguish the Rule 1.9 test—same or substantially related matter and materially adverse interests—from the question of using or revealing information relating to the former representation.
For the fee and business-transaction cards, learn the form requirements as well as the outcome. A vague recollection that “the client agreed” misses conditions the exam may test: a signed writing for a contingent-fee agreement, or written disclosure, written independent-counsel advice and a signed consent for a lawyer-client business transaction. Read the call of the question carefully: it may ask whether conduct is permitted, what must happen next, or which fact is decisive.
Grade the rule, not the instinct
When you turn a card, award yourself credit only if you recalled the rule and its important qualification. If you knew a lawyer may reveal information to prevent serious harm but omitted “reasonably certain” or “to the extent reasonably necessary,” mark it Hard or Again. MPRE distractors often state a familiar rule but quietly remove a condition, broaden an exception, or switch the person who holds the decision-making authority.
After the first pass, repeat the missed cards and explain the trigger in a short sentence. For example: “The client decides whether to settle; the lawyer advises and then abides by that choice.” That sentence is more useful than memorising “settlements belong to the client” without knowing what the lawyer must do. For a conflict, name both clients and state exactly which Rule 1.7 condition is present. For a prosecutor disclosure question, identify the prosecutor’s duty and what information tends to negate guilt or mitigate the offence.
Do not treat every permission as an obligation. Rule 1.6(b) exceptions generally say a lawyer may reveal information. Rule 3.3’s remedial duties and Rule 3.8(d)’s disclosure duty use mandatory language. Likewise, distinguish what the client decides from what the lawyer must explain or advise. Those small words often separate the best answer from a plausible distractor.
Must not miss core
Before moving on, check that you can state these four anchors without looking: confidentiality is the general rule, with specific exceptions and limits; conflicts require the rule’s actual trigger and, where permitted, valid informed consent; the client—not the lawyer—decides whether to settle; and candour duties to a tribunal and a prosecutor’s disclosure duties can require action, not merely permit it.
A compact MySummaries core checklist for this deck looks like this:
Turn repeated misses into the next review
If the same question catches you twice, do not just reread the answer. State the missing condition and compare it with a nearby rule: for example, compare preventing a client’s future financial fraud with addressing financial injury from a completed client fraud. Then test whether changing one fact—such as whether the client used the lawyer’s services—changes the permission to disclose.
A MySummaries remediation card created from a repeated miss could look like this:
You lost this mark twice: under Rule 1.6(b)(2), what two client-related conditions must be present before a lawyer may disclose information to prevent financial injury from a crime or fraud?
Keep the cards that still require thought in your next review. Once you can give the rule, its trigger and its limit without prompting, spend study time applying it to short scenarios and close answer choices. That is the move from recalling Professional Responsibility rules to using them under timed multiple-choice conditions.
How MySummaries helps
Build a revision board from your Professional Responsibility notes, then use it to generate a deck, a core checklist and new review cards from repeated misses. Start at portal.mysummaries.app.