I Messed up an MPT on the Bar Exam. Does that mean I failed the bar exam?

“I Messed up an MPT on the Bar Exam. Does that mean I failed the bar exam?”

Believe it or not, but this is one of the most common questions we hear after the bar exam. On the multistate performance test (MPT) portion of the bar exam, many students:

• run out of time and do not wholly answer an MPT
• feel overwhelmed and miss the point of the MPT
• spend too long reading the MPT and do not have much time to write their answers
• brief cases rather than answering the question asked
• are not sure how to approach the MPT due to lack of practice

The multistate performance test is one of the most overlooked and under-practiced portion of the bar exam. While we always tell students to take the MPT seriously, we know that the vast majority of bar exam takers focus on the other portions of the bar exam significantly more than the MPT. In this post we tell you why, even if you messed up the MPT on the bar exam, you can still pass!

“I Messed up an MPT on the Bar Exam. Does that mean I failed the bar exam?”

No. Here are a few reasons why:

(1) The MPT is worth the least of all portions of the bar exam in most states, including Uniform Bar Exam states.

Uniform bar exam states have two MPTs (worth 20% total – so each MPT is worth 10%). Non-UBE states tend to only have one MPT and usually it is worth about 10% of your score.

Let’s say you messed up an MPT. Even if you received half the points allocated to an MPT worth 10% of your score, you are only missing out on 5% of your overall score.  If you missed more than half the MPT, you may be missing out on 6 or 7% of your overall score. But remember, you do not need an “A” to pass the bar exam. This brings us to our next point…

(2) You need the equivalent of a grade of “C-” or “D” to pass the bar exam.

As we mentioned in our post yesterday on missing an MEE question, you do not need an A to pass the bar exam. In a Uniform Bar Exam state, you will likely need somewhere between a 260 out of 400 potential points to a 280 out of 400 potential points to pass. That is between a 65% and a 70% total that you need to pass the bar exam. (And this is similar to most state scoring systems.) Further, because that score is scaled, you actually can get by with a lower percentage and still pass the exam! This is not a class in school where you want an A. You actually just want a D or a low C-!

(3) You are not the only one who messed up an MPT.

Very few students leave the MPT portion saying, “That was easy. I addressed every issue in the time allocated and feel great about it.” On the contrary, most students run out of time, miss issues, or draw a blank on how to format the MPT.  So keep in mind that graders will naturally compare your answers to others and may not grade as strictly as you think.

While they do have a grading rubric, oftentimes we find that students are not graded against the “perfect” answer but are naturally compared to one another.

If you are feeling down after the bar exam, you are certainly not alone. Just know that students that often feel the worst end up passing with flying colors. Feelings are truly not a good indicator of how well you performed on the bar exam!

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