Multistate Bar Examination

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The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a six-hour, two-hundred multiple-choice question examination administered as a part of the bar examination in almost all jurisdictions of the United States. The MBE covers contracts, torts, American constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, and real property. The contracts questions also include questions on the sale of goods, governed by Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, while the criminal law section also covers criminal procedure.

It is administered on a single day of the bar examination in 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Republic of Palau. The only states that do not administer the MBE are Louisiana and Washington; the MBE is also not used in Puerto Rico. The MBE is given on the last Wednesday of July in all jurisdictions that require that examination. It is also given on the last Wednesday of February in the same jurisdictions, with the exceptions of Delaware and North Dakota, which only have one bar exam each year in July.

The 200 MBE questions are not broken down into sections, with the six topics distributed more or less evenly throughout the course of the exam. Exam-takers generally receive three hours during the morning session to complete the first 100 questions, and another three hours during the afternoon session to complete the second 100 questions. This means that each question can receive, on average, one minute and 48 seconds of the exam-taker's attention, which can make the exam challenging as some questions involve intricate fact patterns.

Many bar examinations in the United States also include state-specific essay questions on separate days either preceding or following the MBE.

The MBE is developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.