Exactly How Many Essays Are On The Bar Exam?

Exactly How Many Essays Are On The Bar Exam?

The written component of the bar exam makes up a significant portion of your score.  In fact, in the vast majority of Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions, the written portion makes up 50% of your final score.  But what does that mean in terms of what kind of writing you are expected to produce on the bar exam?  It’s not quite as simple as writing essay after essay for a full testing day.  In this post, we discuss how many essays are on the bar exam, as well as where the rest of your written score comes from.

Exactly How Many Essays Are On The Bar Exam?

How Many Essays are on the Bar Exam?

First, it is important to make sure you know exactly what kind of bar exam your jurisdiction administers.  Although nearly 40 states administer the Uniform Bar Exam now, and many more use the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) as their essay component, there are still states that use their own format.  When wondering how many essays are on the bar exam, make sure you find the answer to this question for your specific bar exam.

For those in Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions:

• MEEs

You will be taking the MEE as your essay component.  In these states, there are six essays on the bar exam.  Each state administers the same six essays.  These essays do not test state-specific law, just majority and minority approaches.  However, your state might also require a state-specific component in addition to the MEE, so keep that in mind.

In the vast majority of UBE jurisdictions, the MEE is worth 30% of your overall final score.  You will be expected to complete the six MEE essays in three hours, which means you should average about 30 minutes per essay.  You can learn more about how to approach the MEE, including formatting and studying tips, in this excellent free guide!

• MPTs

But that’s not all!  There are more than just essays on the bar exam, and on the written portion in particular.  UBE jurisdictions also administer the Multistate Performance Test, or the MPT.  This is worth 20% of your final score.  The MPT asks you to write two lawyerly tasks, such as a persuasive brief or objective memo, in three hours.  MPTs are different than essays because you are not expected to apply law that you call up from memory.  The MPT is a closed universe where you are given a set of facts and the law that this fake jurisdiction applies.  It is then up to you to draft a legal document that interprets the law and applies it to the facts to solve a problem or accomplish a goal.

Be sure to put in the time preparing for the MPT portion as well!  Each writing component is very important to your final score and requires different preparation.  With the MPT, practice makes perfect!  Try to practice at least one MPT for each of the different kinds of tasks you might encounter. Practice is important for the MEE essays on the bar exam as well, but you also need to make sure you have the law memorized!  When writing an essay on the bar exam, you will want to pick up as many points as possible by providing an accurate rule, a precise analysis, and a conclusion that follows naturally from that analysis.

By practicing your writing skills for both MEE essays and MPTs, as well as efficiently memorizing the law, you will set yourself up to do well on the written portion of the bar exam!

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