Besides the advanced degree employment statistics and the tuition fee, the bar exam pass rate is an essential statistic to review before committing to law school. Even if the pass rate does not prove the quality of practicing lawyers, it shows how well a school has trained and prepared its students to pass the bar exam.
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What Is the Bar Exam Pass Rate?
The bar exam pass rate is the percentage of graduating law students who passed the bar exam. The pass rate is recorded according to different states and schools to help identify which states and specific schools passed the exams well.
The pass rates are classified into two groups;
- The first-time test-takers exam rates
- Repeat test-takers exam rates
Mainly, the bar exam repeat takers’ pass rate is lower than the bar exam pass rate of first-time takers and the general pass rate.
What Are the Types of Bar Exams?
The bar exam is categorized into two types:
- The Uniform Bar Exam(UBE)
- The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
The Uniform Bar Exam(UBE)
The UBE is a test designed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to test every lawyer’s skills and knowledge before being licensed to practice law. The UBE is equally administered and ranked, and you can use the results to apply in various jurisdictions.
However, some jurisdictions that have taken on the UBE may require the aspirant to attempt and achieve more educational components, which include jurisdiction-specific law components. The passing score is set differently in each jurisdiction.
The UBE contains three parts which are graded as follows:
- The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) graded at 50%
- The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) graded at 30%
- The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) graded at 20%
The UBE exam is conducted over two days twice a year. The MBE is administered on the last Wednesday of February and July. The MEE and MPT are taken on the Tuesday before that Wednesday. The jurisdiction with the highest UBE pass rate requires a 280 score which is a 70% score, while the lowest exam bar pass rate is 260.
The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is an exam developed by NCBE and conducted by specific states as part of the bar examination. It consists of 200 multiple-choice questions which rate the extent an examinee can administer basic legal principles and reasoning to evaluate specific fact patterns. It is conducted on the last Wednesday of February and July each year.
The MBE is part of different assessments used by NCBE to determine a lawyer’s competence to practice. Each jurisdiction has a policy based on relative ranking rates and related scores. The MBE is a constituent of the UBE that is weighted at 50% in states administering the UBE. Most states give the same exam portion of the bar exam but add their state essays.
History of the Bar Exam Pass Rates During and Post-Covid-19 (2019-2022)
The COVID-19 pandemic led to most jurisdictions modifying their July 2020 bar exam execution. However, the overall score of students who took the exam for the first time recorded a 3% point rise compared to the 2019 pass rate, despite the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Apart from the July exam, the NCBE offered additional exams in September and October 2020.
In 2021 the pass rate for overall bar exam takers was 60%, recording a one-percentage point decline from 2020. Full-year statistics for 2022 haven’t been published yet, but the below snapshot illustrates that the average bar exam score was only 0.1 points lower in July 2022 than the July 2021 mean of 140.4.
Check the exam pass rate during and post COVID-19 from July 2020 to July 2022 here.
What Topics are Tested on the Uniform Bar Exam?
- Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) Topics
- Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) Topics
- Multistate Performance Test (MPT) Topics
- The File
- The Library
The UBE is divided into three categories that test basic legal skills and principles, not state-specific law. It comprises the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and a written section containing the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). The MPT tests lawyering skills.
Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) Topics
The MBE aims to test students on the expertise to use basic legal principles to evaluate different fact sequences. The MBE has 200 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 6 hours.
The time is divided into two sessions: 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. It has seven sections testing different areas. All have 25 questions, while the remaining 25 are “pretest” questions.
These are the topics tested under MBE.’
- Contracts and Sales
- Constitutional Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence
- Real Property
- Torts
Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) Topics
The MEE has six essay questions you must cover in 3 hours; each easy question is allocated 30 minutes. The questions cover the following law subjects:
- Business Associations which includes corporations and limited liability companies, agency, and partnerships
- Civil Procedure
- Conflicts of Law
- Constitutional Law
- Contracts
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence
- Family Law
- Real Property
- Secured Transactions
- Torts
- Trusts and Estates (descendants’ estate)
- Uniform Commercial Code
Multistate Performance Test (MPT) Topics
In MPT, you are tested on your lawyering skills and how your ability to conduct and evaluate specific tasks in various areas of law. The American Bar Association requires students to split their time through a file and a library to guide them in answering the questions.
On both grounds, you will be expected to integrate a settlement proposal, a persuasive brief or memo, a letter to a client, a discovery plan, a brief to a supervising attorney, a closing argument, a counseling plan, and a contract provision.
The file and library consist of the following:
The File
- Task memo: The memo guides students on the type of document they are expected to write, their intended audience, the resonance of the document, and other distinct issues supposed to be acknowledged.
- Factual documents: These contain documents you will likely encounter in actual life practice, such as interviews, transcripts of impeachment, discovery documents, and court pleadings, among others.
The Library
The library covers statutes, rules and regulations, cases, and many more; it is imperative to read it through before you answer the question requirements.
How to Pass the Bar Exam the First Time
Before taking the bar exam, you should determine the bar exam you want to take and the level of law you want to practice. Here are a few points to help you pass your bar exam on your first-time trial:
- Gather relevant resources and use a logical technique to study
- Adapt a study routine
- Use actual life practice bar exams
- Use your memorization skills
- Test yourself on different areas of law
- Use all resources at your disposal to study
- During the exam, be calm and confident
How To Pass the Bar Exam on the Second Attempt
If you fail to get the first-time bar exam pass rate, do not give up, you still own the skill and knowledge. Reviewing your exam report will help you assess your weak points and develop a study technique.
- Change your former study techniques, e.g., if you watched lectures online, try and take an actual course.
- Take retake courses that are solely made for retake students
- Focus on something other than the failed areas, and review all the tested topics of the MBE, MEE, and MPT evenly.
- Test yourself by answering real-time NCBE questions and practice on essays as well
- Create an interactive and defined plan for your study progress.
It is crucial to research bar exam pass rates of different jurisdictions depending on the exam you want to take and the state you prefer to practice law. Other jurisdictions rate their exams differently; thus, you should use state-specific law study materials.
FAQs
California is highly regarded as the state with the most challenging bar exam, and it has constantly recorded the lowest pass rate, which at times has gone as low as 40%. Other states with difficult bar exams include Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Delaware, and Virginia.
Rating with the score requirements Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, and North Dakota has the highest UBE exam pass rate with a score of 260 out of 400.
The NCBE has reported an overall 60% pass rate in all jurisdictions, with 64,833 persons taking the exam in 2021. This proves most first-time takers are likely to pass their exams compared to repeat takers.
