chevron-down Created with Sketch Beta.
June 26, 2018 Overview of Bar Examinations

National Conference of Bar Examiners: MBE, MEE, MPRE, MPT Multistate Tests

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is a not-for-profit organization that works with other institutions to develop, maintain, and apply reasonable and uniform standards of education and character for eligibility for admission to the practice of law. NCBE assists bar admission authorities by providing standardized examinations of uniform high quality to nearly every jurisdiction in the United States. Current tests that NCBE provides are:

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a six-hour, 200 question multiple-choice examination covering contracts, torts, constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, and real property.

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) is a collection of 30-minute essay questions and is administered by participating jurisdictions on the Tuesday before the last Wednesday in February and July of each year. The MEE offers six questions per examination.

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) is a 60-question, two-hour-and-five-minute, multiple-choice examination administered three times each year.

The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) consists of two 90-minute skills questions covering legal analysis, fact analysis, problem solving, resolution of ethical dilemmas, organization and management of a lawyering task, and communication.

The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) is prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners to test knowledge and skills that every lawyer should be able to demonstrate prior to becoming licensed to practice law. It is comprised of the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), two Multistate Performance Test (MPT) tasks, and the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). It is uniformly administered, graded, and scored in accordance with best practices by jurisdictions that adopt it.

Bar Admissions Overview