How to Dissect your New York Bar Exam Score Report: If you took the New York Bar Exam, whether you passed or failed, you may be curious about how to dissect your New York Bar Exam score report. In this post, we tell you how to dissect your score report so you can figure out exactly how you performed on each section of the exam.
Note: this post was updated in October 2021 with additional information on what a passing New York Bar Exam Score Report looks like!
How to Dissect your New York Bar Exam Score Report
(If you did NOT pass)
Knowing exactly how to read your New York Bar Exam score report can be invaluable, especially if you did not pass the exam. New York gives you a lot of information about what you need to work on to pass the exam. Please refer to the New York Bar Exam score report above as we go through each section.
Section I: Basic Background information
The beginning of your score report will give you basic background information — e.g., the bar exam date, your name, identification number, and seat number. Verify this information to make sure it is correct.
Section II: Scaled Essay Score
Next, you will see your scaled essay score. You will see all six MEE scores and your two MPT scores. The range for these scores is 20 – 80. A score of 50 is considered to be the average (or mean) score. So, a 50 is considered a “passing” score. The MEE portion is worth 30% of your total score. (So each essay is worth 5% of your total score.)
The MPT scores are the same. The range for the scores is 20 – 80 and a score of 50 is passing. However, the MPTs are worth more than the essay portion. Together, they make up 20% of your score. Thus, each MPT makes up 10% of your overall score.
Your total essay score will be a number in or close to the hundreds. The total essay score is made up of the 6 MEE scores (worth 60% of your total essay score) and the 2 MPT scores (worth 40% of your total essay score). A 133 on this section is considered passing. If you were far below a score of 133, you have work to do on the written portion. (Note: You do not have to get a 133 on this portion to pass. You can make up with a lower essay score with a higher MBE score. So if you received a 130 on the written portion and a 140 on the MBE portion, you would still pass the exam with a 270. But, you want to aim for at least a score of 133 when you study.)
Section III: MBE Score
Next, you will see your MBE score. First, you will see your overall MBE score (“MBE Score” right under “Written score”). A 133 is considered passing. So, if you scored below that, you have work to do. If you scored a 133 or above, you are in good shape. To see what your overall MBE score means, see this post. The percentiles will be slightly different each administration, but these are about what you can expect to see.
On the bottom of your New York Bar Exam score report, you will see “percentiles” for each MBE subject. This provides helpful information about how you scored in comparison to other bar exam takers.
For example, if “CIVIL PROCEDURE” has the number 5.5 next to it. It means that you scored higher than only 5.5% of bar exam takers (and lower than 94.5% of bar exam takers). That means you have work to do on Civil Procedure. If REAL PROPERTY has the number 80.3 next to it, that means you scored higher than 80.3% of takers, which is good news. This is very helpful information as it can give you a general idea of which subjects you may want to pay closer attention to while you begin to study for the next bar exam.
Total Score
Next, look at your total score. A 266 is passing. It does not matter what your written score or MBE score was, so long as together they add up to a score at or higher than 266!
We hope you found this article on how to dissect your New York Bar Exam score report helpful!
If you failed the New York Bar Exam and are wondering what the next steps are, check out this article. We also list several resources below.
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Will my score report look like this if I passed the New York Bar Exam?
No! If you passed the New York Bar Exam, you will get a letter. Your letter will state:
- your overall UBE score
- your converted MBE score
You will not see a breakdown of how you performed on the MEE and MPT. (You can figure out your overall MEE score by subtracting your MBE score from your UBE score. So, for example, if you scored a 300 on the UBE and a 140 on the MBE, you can deduce that you scored a 160 on the written portion of the bar exam (300 – 140 = 160). But you will not be able to see how you performed on the individual MEEs and MPTs.
Helpful Bar Exam Articles:
If you are looking for helpful articles, check out these:
- How to pass the bar exam the second time around: 5 things to do differently.
- I failed the New York Bar Exam. What should I do? Here is a step by step guide.
- I failed the bar exam twice (or three times, or four or more times): Here is a step-by-step guide to getting out of this vicious cycle!
- Should I rewatch lectures if I fail the bar exam? Generally, the answer is no.
- How to tell your boss you failed the bar exam: What to say and what not to say.
- Lastly, check out our very popular note to those who failed the bar exam, quotes for those who failed the bar exam, and a list of famous people that failed the bar exam — you are not alone!
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