The Multistate Essay Examination tests eight MEE subjects as of the July 2026 administration: Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. Only six of the eight appear on any given exam, and you cannot predict which two will be left off, so you need to prepare across all eight.1National Conference of Bar Examiners. MEE Bar Exam
What Each Subject Covers
Seven of the eight subjects also appear on the multiple-choice portion of the bar. Business Associations is the only one tested exclusively on the essay exam.
- Business Associations. Agency, partnership, corporations, and limited liability companies. Questions focus on how entities are formed and on the duties officers, directors, and partners owe to each other and to the organization.
- Civil Procedure. Federal rules governing how lawsuits move through court: personal jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, venue, pretrial motions, and joinder of parties and claims.
- Constitutional Law. Structure of the federal government, separation of powers, individual rights under the Bill of Rights, and Fourteenth Amendment due process and equal protection.
- Contracts. Formation, performance, breach, and remedies under common-law principles and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code for the sale of goods.1National Conference of Bar Examiners. MEE Bar Exam
- Criminal Law and Procedure. Elements of crimes together with constitutional protections during investigation and trial, including Fourth Amendment search-and-seizure rules and Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination.
- Evidence. Admissibility of testimony and documents, with heavy emphasis on hearsay exceptions, relevance, character evidence, and privileges.
- Real Property. Ownership interests, landlord-tenant relationships, land-use controls, and transfer of title through deeds and recording statutes.
- Torts. Negligence, strict liability, intentional torts, and damages. Fact patterns typically require sorting through duty, breach, causation, and defenses.
Subjects Removed Starting July 2026
Four subjects that had appeared on the MEE for decades were dropped beginning with the July 2026 administration: Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions.2National Conference of Bar Examiners. Some Subjects to Be Removed from MEE in 2026 The February 2026 exam was the last to include them.
This matters for your study materials. Outlines, flashcards, and practice questions published before 2026 still cover all twelve of the older subjects. If you are preparing for July 2026 or any later administration of the current MEE, confirm your materials reflect the eight-subject scope before you spend hours on topics that will not be tested. Older released questions are still useful for practicing legal writing technique on the subjects that remain, but you do not need to master Secured Transactions or Conflict of Laws for the current exam.
Crossover Questions
Some MEE prompts are crossover questions that blend two or more subjects into a single fact pattern. A question might pair Evidence with Criminal Procedure, or Contracts with Civil Procedure. Spotting the secondary subject requires recognizing legal issues the facts do not flag for you, and the ability to move between different areas of law within one answer is a large part of what the MEE is designed to measure. When you work released questions, pay attention to how issues from a second subject surface inside a scenario that looks, on first read, like it belongs to one subject only.
Format of the Exam
The MEE consists of six questions, each with a 30-minute time limit, for a total testing session of three hours.1National Conference of Bar Examiners. MEE Bar Exam Every question presents a fact pattern followed by specific tasks that usually ask you to analyze the legal issues and reach a conclusion. There is no word limit, but 30 minutes functionally caps how much you can write. Across those six questions, the exam will draw from six of the eight subjects listed above.
What Changes Under the NextGen Bar Exam
The current MEE will not continue indefinitely. The NextGen Uniform Bar Examination is being administered in a limited number of jurisdictions starting July 2026, and the current MEE, MBE, and MPT components will be administered for the last time in February 2028. After February 2028, the standalone essay exam goes away. NextGen replaces the MEE’s essay format with integrated question sets that combine short-answer and multiple-choice questions built around a common fact scenario, along with performance tasks and standalone multiple-choice questions.3National Conference of Bar Examiners. First Jurisdictions Announce Plans to Adopt NextGen Bar Exam
During the transition from July 2026 through February 2028, which exam you sit depends on the jurisdiction where you apply. Some jurisdictions will already have adopted NextGen; others will continue administering the legacy UBE with the MEE. Confirm your jurisdiction’s status before you commit to a study plan, because the subject lists above apply only if you are taking the current MEE.