How is the Uniform Bar Exam Graded?

The Uniform Bar Exam is broken into three parts: The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) , the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) portion, and the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). The three parts of the bar exam are not graded equally. In this post, we answer the questions: How is the Uniform Bar Exam graded? Who is the Uniform Bar Exam graded by? And what is each portion of the Uniform Bar Exam like?

In short, the score breakdown of the Uniform Bar Exam is as follows:

The MBE is worth 50%
The MEE is worth 30%
The MPT is worth 20%

Each part of the Uniform Bar Exam is explored in more detail below.

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE):

Th MEE consists of six essays that test a variety of topics (Agency, Partnership, Corporations & LLCs, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Real Property, Torts, Trusts and Future Interests, Decedent’s Estates, and Secured Transactions.) To see the essay topics that are tested most frequently on the uniform bar exam, click here. To see a list of the highly-tested topics on the multistate essay exam generally, click here.

(Note: Negotiable Instruments is no longer tested on the Multistate Essay exam.)

You will have three hours to answer six essay — or approximately 30 minutes per essay. The essay portion is worth 30% of your overall bar exam score, with each essay being worth 5%. The essay portion is scored by the jurisdiction that administers it (basically, by your board of bar examiners, or whomever they delegate to score the essay portion).

The Multistate Performance Test (MPT)

This consists of two Multistate Performance Tests (MPTs). MPTs do not test your knowledge on any specific set of laws; rather they aim to see if you can complete lawyer tasks.

You will have two MPT’s to complete in three hours. The MPT’s are worth 20% of your overall bar exam score, with each MPT being worth approximately 10%. The MPTs are scored by the jurisdiction that administers it.

The Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)

The MBE is a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice exam, administered on a Wednesday. The MBE covers seven subjects (Civil Procedure, Contracts and Sales, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, Real Property, Evidence). There are 27 questions on each of the seven subjects except for Contracts and Sales, which has 28.

The MBE is scored by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

Who is the Uniform Bar Exam Graded By?

As mentioned above, the MEE and MPT portion are graded by the jurisdictions that adopt it. The MBE portion is graded by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

Users are given scores based on a 400-point scale. The MEE and MPT scores are scaled so that they are worth half of an examinee’s overall score. Each jurisdiction determines what a passing score is in their jurisdiction.

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