The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) is a standardized bar examination, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). It consists solely of the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and offers portability of scores across state lines. As of November 2017, the Uniform Bar Exam had been adopted in 28 states, The US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia. In addition, the American Bar Association also endorsed the UBE at its 2016 Midyear Meeting.
Video Uniform Bar Examination
History
Starting in 2011, the first states to administer the UBE were Missouri and North Dakota. In 2016, New York and the District of Columbia began using the UBE. South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey began using the UBE in February 2017. Maine, West Virginia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands started using the UBE in July 2017. Massachusetts will begin using the UBE in July 2018, and North Carolina will begin using it in February 2019, bringing the total number of jurisdictions using the UBE to 30 (28 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
However, many of the largest legal markets - including California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas - have not adopted the UBE. Concerns include the lack of questions on state law, and that the test provides NCBE with control over the bar credentialing process.
Maps Uniform Bar Examination
Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a standardized, multiple-choice examination created and sold to participating state bar examiners.
Description
It is administered on a single day of the bar examination in 49 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 state that does not administer the MBE is Louisiana, which follows a civil law system slightly different from the law in other states. The MBE is given twice a year: on the last Wednesday of July in all jurisdictions that require that examination, and on the last Wednesday of February in the same jurisdictions, except for Delaware and North Dakota.
The 200 MBE questions test seven subjects based upon principles of common law and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (covering sales of goods) that apply throughout the United States. The questions are not broken down into sections and the seven topics are distributed more or less evenly throughout the course of the exam. Exam-takers 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.
Of the 200 MBE questions, only 175 are graded. The remaining 25 are pretest questions that are "indistinguishable" from the real questions. Test takers receive a scaled score ranging between 0 and 200.
In February 2015, the NCBE added the seventh topic, civil procedure, to the examination.
Transfer of MBE scores
Taking the MBE in one jurisdiction may allow an applicant to use their MBE score to waive into another jurisdiction or to use their MBE score with another state's bar examination.
Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) is a collection of essay questions largely concerning the common law administered as a part of the bar examination in 33 jurisdictions of the United States: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland (beginning 2018), Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina (beginning 2019), North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
The MEE can cover any of the following areas:
- Business associations - Agency and partnership, corporations, limited liability companies
- Conflict of laws
- Constitutional law
- Contracts
- Criminal law and procedure
- Evidence
- Family law
- Federal civil procedure
- Real property
- Torts
- Trusts and estates - decedents' estates; trusts and future interests
- Uniform Commercial Code - Article 9, Secured Transactions
MEE questions are actually drafted by the NCBE Drafting Committee, with the assistance of outside academics and practitioners who are experts in the fields being tested. After initial drafting, the questions are pretested, analyzed by outside experts and a separate NCBE committee, reviewed by boards of bar examiners in the jurisdictions that use the test, and then revised by the Drafting Committee in accordance with the results of this process. Each MEE question is accompanied by a grading guide, and the NCBE sponsors a grading workshop on the weekend following the bar exam whose results are provided to bar examiners.
The examination is always administered on a single day of the bar examination, specifically the day before the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). Through February 2007, the MEE consisted of seven questions, with most jurisdictions selecting six of the seven questions to administer. Unlike the MBE, which is graded and scored by the NCBE, the MEE is graded exclusively by the jurisdiction that administers the bar examination. Each jurisdiction has the choice of grading MEE questions according to general U.S. common law or the jurisdiction's own law.
Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
The MEE is partnered with the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), a written performance test developed by the NCBE and used in 33 U.S. jurisdictions.
UBE Jurisdictions
See also
- Admission to the bar in the United States
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia