The bar exam asks you three kinds of questions: multiple-choice questions with fact-pattern scenarios, written essays that make you spot and analyze legal issues, and performance tasks that hand you a file of documents and a library of legal authorities and ask you to produce real lawyer work product like a memo or a brief. That mix is what most U.S. jurisdictions give you today through the Uniform Bar Examination. Starting in July 2026, a redesigned NextGen Bar Exam began rolling out with some new question styles layered on top of that same basic approach, and it will replace the current format in participating jurisdictions by July 2028.
Multiple-Choice Questions
The multiple-choice portion of the current exam is the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). It runs a full day: six hours split into a three-hour morning and a three-hour afternoon. You answer 200 questions, but only 175 count toward your score. The other 25 are unscored pretest questions that the National Conference of Bar Examiners is trying out for future exams, and nothing on the page tells you which is which.1National Conference of Bar Examiners. Preparing for the MBE
These are not definition questions. Each one gives you a short hypothetical, usually a contract dispute, a police search, a property boundary problem, or something similar, followed by four answer choices. You pick the single best answer. The wrong choices are written to sound plausible, so vague familiarity with a rule will not get you there; you have to apply the rule to the facts.
The 175 scored questions split evenly across seven subjects, 25 questions each: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts.1National Conference of Bar Examiners. Preparing for the MBE The MBE alone counts for 50% of your total UBE score,2NCBE. Uniform Bar Examination Scores which is why half of most bar-prep schedules goes to multiple choice.
Essay Questions
The essay portion is the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE): six essays, 30 minutes each, three hours of writing in total.3National Conference of Bar Examiners. Multistate Essay Examination Each prompt is a fact pattern. Your job is to spot the issues inside those facts, state the applicable rule, apply it, and reach a conclusion. Graders reward organized analysis in that order; dumping everything you know about the topic scores poorly.
Essay subjects pull from a wider pool than the MBE. All seven MBE subjects can appear, plus five more: Business Associations, Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Secured Transactions, and Trusts and Estates.3National Conference of Bar Examiners. Multistate Essay Examination The combination shifts from one administration to the next, so you cannot predict which subjects will show up. Conflict of Laws, in particular, tends to appear tucked inside another essay rather than as its own question. The MEE accounts for 30% of your UBE score.2NCBE. Uniform Bar Examination Scores
Performance Tasks
The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) looks nothing like the first two. It is not a memorization test. You get two 90-minute tasks, and each one comes with a file of client-matter materials (letters, witness statements, emails, documents) and a library of the legal authorities you need to work with, including statutes and case excerpts.4NCBE. Preparing For The MPT – Multistate Performance Test
The assignment is to produce a piece of real legal work from that material: a memo to a supervising attorney, a letter to a client, a persuasive brief, a settlement proposal, or a discovery plan, among other formats.4NCBE. Preparing For The MPT – Multistate Performance Test The hard part is not legal knowledge. It is pulling relevant facts out of the file, making sense of unfamiliar authorities under time pressure, and writing something a supervising attorney would actually accept. Candidates who crush the MBE often struggle here because the skill is different. The MPT counts for 20% of the UBE score.2NCBE. Uniform Bar Examination Scores
Subjects the Questions Can Cover
Across the three question types, the current bar exam draws from twelve legal subjects. Seven of them can appear anywhere, on either the MBE or the MEE:
- Civil Procedure: the rules governing federal court lawsuits, including jurisdiction, pleading, and discovery.
- Constitutional Law: government powers and individual rights, with heavy emphasis on the First Amendment, due process, and equal protection.
- Contracts: how agreements are formed, performed, and enforced, including sales of goods under the Uniform Commercial Code.
- Criminal Law and Procedure: elements of crimes, defenses, and constitutional protections like rules on searches, interrogation, and double jeopardy.
- Evidence: what can be presented in court, including hearsay, relevance, privileges, and expert testimony.
- Real Property: ownership rights in land, mortgages, easements, landlord-tenant relationships, and future interests.
- Torts: civil wrongs including negligence, strict liability, intentional harm, and damages.
Five more subjects can show up only on the essays:3National Conference of Bar Examiners. Multistate Essay Examination
- Business Associations: partnerships, corporations, LLCs, and agency.
- Conflict of Laws: which jurisdiction’s law applies when a dispute crosses state lines.
- Family Law: marriage, divorce, custody, and support.
- Secured Transactions: how creditors take a security interest in personal property.
- Trusts and Estates: creating trusts, drafting wills, and distributing property after death.
What Changes on the NextGen Bar Exam
If you are sitting for the exam in July 2026 or later in an early-adopting jurisdiction, including Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, and Washington among others, you will see the NextGen format instead.5NCBE. NextGen UBE Decisions by Jurisdiction The three familiar question families (multiple choice, written analysis, performance tasks) are still there, but the question styles expand and the test is shorter overall: nine hours across three sections, administered over a day and a half.6NCBE. Official Examinees Guide to the NextGen UBE
Each of the three sections contains the same mix: 40 standalone multiple-choice questions, two integrated question sets, and one performance task. Over the full exam that works out to 120 standalone multiple-choice questions, six integrated sets, and three performance tasks.6NCBE. Official Examinees Guide to the NextGen UBE
A New Multiple-Choice Format
The standalone multiple-choice questions come in two shapes. One is the familiar four-option, pick-one question. The other is a new select-two format: six answer choices, and you choose the two correct ones. Partial credit is available on select-two questions.7NCBE. NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026-February 2027
Integrated Question Sets
Integrated sets are new as a format. Each set is built around a shared fact pattern that unfolds across several questions, sometimes with statute or case excerpts attached. There are two kinds. A counseling set drops you into a client scenario and tests advising or dispute-resolution skills through a mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. A drafting set gives you a scenario and asks you to draft or edit a legal document, with medium-length written responses.7NCBE. NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026-February 2027
Two Kinds of Performance Task
Performance tasks also split into two forms. The standard performance task resembles the current MPT: you get a file and a library and produce a longer written document. The legal research performance task is new. It wraps multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, and a medium-length written assignment around a research scenario.7NCBE. NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026-February 2027
How the Pieces Are Weighted
Standalone multiple-choice questions make up 49% of the NextGen score, integrated sets 21%, and performance tasks 30%.7NCBE. NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026-February 2027 Written analysis and practical skills carry more weight than they do on the current exam.
Subjects on the NextGen Exam
For the July 2026 through February 2028 administrations, the foundational subjects are Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Criminal Law, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. Family Law and Trusts and Estates still appear, but only in skills-focused questions, and you are not expected to memorize those areas because the necessary legal resources are provided with the question.8NCBE. NextGen UBE Content Scope
The NextGen exam also names and tests seven specific lawyering skills: legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship management.8NCBE. NextGen UBE Content Scope The current exam tests some of these implicitly; the NextGen version weights them directly.
Ethics Questions Are on a Separate Exam
One thing you will not see on the bar exam itself: professional responsibility questions. Nearly every jurisdiction tests ethics through a separate exam, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). It is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice test (50 scored, 10 unscored pretest items) covering conflicts of interest, confidentiality, fees, and duties to the court.9National Conference of Bar Examiners. Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination Wisconsin and Puerto Rico do not require it, and Connecticut and New Jersey accept a law school professional responsibility course instead.10National Conference of Bar Examiners. About the MPRE Most candidates take it during law school, often right after finishing the professional responsibility course.