by Professor Jim Gray

Each July on the last Wednesday of the month, thousands of law school graduates in 48 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas take the 200-item Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). Each February, again on the last Wednesday of the month, most of those same jurisdictions administer the winter MBE. Thus, with the exceptions of Washington State and Louisiana, there is a national test which forms a major component of the bar--the MBE-- although the "passing" scores and the weight assigned to it differ from state to state.

The essay portions of the bar take place either the Tuesday before the MBE or the Thursday afterwards. Each state has its own rules about what combination of scores constitutes a passing grade and what subjects are tested. The MBE is put together by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBEX) which provides four tests for possible use by the State bar examiners. These are Multistate examinations of six fundamental bar subjects (the MBE), of ten essay subjects (the MEE), and of professional responsibility (MPRE) and, finally, a test of the examinee’s ability to perform like a lawyer and respond successfully to a legal writing assignment under pressure (the MPT).

The District of Columbia bar has become a pure "Multistate" jurisdiction. In addition to the MBE and the separately administered MPRE ("Professional Responsibility"), D.C. bar examinees must successfully respond to the Multistate Performance Test (two 90 minute exercises) and six half-hour questions from the Multistate Essay Exam.

West Virginia, South Dakota, and Hawaii are among the other jurisdictions that rely on the MEE and MPT as well as the MBE. The actual test may differ slightly among jurisdictions since they have some selectivity as to which questions are used. More importantly, they may also differ as to the use of local law and, most importantly, as to the determination of what constitutes a passing score.

The following is meant to give some idea of the subjects tested on the essay sections of the six bars most frequently taken by UDC-DCSL students.

D.C. and West Virginia are two of the states that rely on the MEE and the MPT for their essay portions. Both jurisdictions divide the essay into two half-day sessions: one devoted to two MPT performance questions and the other devoted to six half-hour long questions from the following 10 areas: Agency & Partnership, Conflict of Laws, Corporations, Family Law, Federal Civil Procedure, Commercial Paper (UCC § 3), Sales (UCC § 2 ) and Secured Transactions (UCC § 9 ), Trusts and Future Interests, and Decedents’ Estates.

(Unlike some jurisdictions that use a modified MEE, neither D.C. nor West Virginia tests separately on the six MBE subjects in the essay portion.)

Maryland’s essay day is composed of twelve 25-minute questions. These may be drawn from the six MBE subjects (including Sales as part of Contracts) as well as the following other areas: Agency, Partnership, Corporations, Family Law, Commercial Transactions (UCC § 3), and Secured Transactions (UCC § 9 ), Maryland Civil Procedure, and Professional Responsibility.