What Is the MBE Bar Exam? Subjects, Scoring, and NextGen Changes

The MBE bar exam is a 200-question multiple-choice test, written by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, that forms the multiple-choice half of bar licensing in 53 of the 55 U.S. jurisdictions (Louisiana and Puerto Rico do not use it).¹ It covers seven core subjects, counts for 50 percent of the Uniform Bar Examination score, and is administered on the last Wednesday of February and the last Wednesday of July. A redesigned NextGen version begins rolling out in July 2026, and the two formats will run side by side through February 2028.

The Seven Subjects Tested

The MBE covers seven areas of law, with 25 scored questions in each.² Every question presents a fact pattern followed by four answer choices, and you’re expected to apply general legal principles rather than the law of any particular state.

Civil Procedure. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: jurisdiction, venue, pleading, motions to dismiss, summary judgment, and the progression of a lawsuit through final judgment.
Constitutional Law. Separation of powers, federalism, and individual rights under the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, including commerce power, due process, and equal protection.³
Contracts and Sales. Common-law contract doctrine alongside Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, from offer and acceptance through breach and remedies.⁴
Criminal Law and Procedure. Roughly half substantive crimes (homicide, theft, robbery, burglary) and half constitutional protections under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.
Evidence. The Federal Rules of Evidence, with heavy emphasis on hearsay and its exceptions, impeachment, character evidence, and relevance.⁵
Real Property. Ownership, transfers, and use of land, including adverse possession, easements, covenants, future interests, and landlord-tenant law.
Torts. Negligence (duty, breach, causation, damages), intentional torts such as battery and false imprisonment, and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities and product defects.

No subject carries more weight than any other. Weakness in one area can’t hide behind strength in another; you need working command of all seven.

How the Test Day Is Structured

The MBE runs 200 questions split into two sessions of 100, with three hours for each.² A lunch break separates the morning and afternoon blocks. That works out to roughly 1.8 minutes per question. Many test-takers find the pace harder to manage than the substance of the questions.

Only 175 of the 200 questions count toward your score. The remaining 25 are unscored pretest items the NCBE uses to evaluate questions for future exams.² You can’t tell which are which, so treat every question as live.

How the MBE Is Scored

Your raw score is the number of correct answers out of 175. Wrong answers aren’t penalized, so a blank is always worse than a guess. The NCBE then converts the raw score into a scaled score through a statistical process called equating, which adjusts for differences in difficulty between administrations.⁶ A harder-than-average exam produces upward adjustments so you aren’t penalized for the version you drew.

What counts as passing depends on where you’re seeking admission. In UBE jurisdictions, the scaled MBE score is combined with your essay and performance scores to produce a total UBE score, and the minimum passing score ranges from the low 260s to 280 depending on the jurisdiction. Non-UBE jurisdictions set their own thresholds. The NCBE sends your scaled score to the jurisdiction where you tested rather than directly to you.

Where the MBE Fits Into the Full Bar Exam

The MBE is one component of a two-day exam, not the whole thing. In the 41 jurisdictions that have adopted the Uniform Bar Examination, Tuesday is for the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and two Multistate Performance Test (MPT) tasks, and Wednesday is the MBE.⁷ The MBE contributes 50 percent of the UBE score, with the MEE at 30 percent and the MPT at 20 percent.⁸

Jurisdictions that use the MBE but haven’t adopted the full UBE pair it with their own state-specific essay and performance components. Either way, the MBE itself is identical everywhere: same questions, same day, same scoring by the NCBE.

Passing the UBE in one jurisdiction lets you transfer that score to another UBE jurisdiction without retaking the exam, provided the score meets the receiving jurisdiction’s minimum and hasn’t aged out of its transfer window.⁷ Some jurisdictions also require a local-law component before admission, even when a UBE score is transferred in.

When and Where You Take It

The MBE is administered twice a year, on the last Wednesday of February and the last Wednesday of July.⁸ The July 2026 administration is scheduled for July 29.²

You don’t register with the NCBE. You apply through the board of bar examiners in the jurisdiction where you plan to sit for the exam, and each board publishes its own application, deadline schedule, and fees. Filing deadlines often fall several months before the test date. Missing the regular deadline means a late fee; missing the final deadline means your application is rejected for that cycle, with no appeal.

Application fees for first-time examinees range from a few hundred dollars to over $1,000. Some jurisdictions charge separately for character and fitness review, laptop use (typically $90 to $135), and late filing.

What Changes With the NextGen Exam in 2026

The format described above is being phased out. Starting in July 2026, the NCBE will begin administering the NextGen bar exam, which replaces the current UBE structure of MBE plus MEE plus MPT with an integrated format.⁹ The current UBE will continue to be offered alongside the NextGen version through February 2028.¹⁰

Ten jurisdictions have committed to administering NextGen beginning in July 2026: Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington.¹⁰ Everywhere else continues with the current UBE during the overlap period. If your jurisdiction isn’t on that early-adopter list, you’ll be sitting for the traditional MBE through at least February 2028.

NextGen runs one and a half days: two three-hour sessions on day one and a third three-hour session on day two, taken on examinees’ own laptops at proctored testing locations.¹¹ Standalone multiple-choice questions no longer dominate. The exam blends three question types:

Standalone multiple-choice. Some ask you to pick one of four options; others ask you to pick two correct answers from six, with partial credit available.
Integrated question sets. Groups of questions built around a single fact scenario that may cross multiple subject areas, combining multiple-choice and short-answer items and testing skills like client counseling, legal research, negotiation, and legal writing.
Performance tasks. Longer exercises that provide legal resources and ask you to work through a realistic practice scenario. During the initial rollout, family law and trusts and estates concepts will appear in performance tasks on every NextGen exam.¹¹

If you’re preparing to sit in 2026 or 2027, confirm which exam your jurisdiction is giving before you choose study materials. The two tests reward different kinds of preparation.

1
National Conference of Bar Examiners. The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. MBE Bar Exam – NCBE
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. MBE Subject Matter Outline
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Legal Information Institute. UCC – Article 2 – Sales
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Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. The Testing Column – Raw Scores on the MBE Tell You Little and Probably Less Than You Think
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. UBE Exam – NCBE
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. About the UBE – NCBE
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NextGen Bar Exam. Home
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. NextGen Bar Exam – NCBE
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National Conference of Bar Examiners. About the NextGen Bar Exam – NCBE