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Bar Exam Basics

A guide to resources for law students preparing to take the bar exam. While much information is Illinois-specific, some materials will be generally useful to any state bar exam.

Multistate Bar Exam

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice examination developed by National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and administered by user jurisdictions as part of the bar examination on the last Wednesday in February and the last Wednesday in July of each year. 

The MBE is only one of a number of measures that a board of bar examiners may use in determining competence to practice. Each jurisdiction determines its own policy with regard to the relative weight given to the MBE and other scores. The MBE is a component of the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). Jurisdictions that administer the UBE weight the MBE component 50%.

From the website of the NCBE.

MBE Practice Questions

Of the 200 multiple-choice questions on the MBE, 175 are scored and are distributed evenly between the following subject areas: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. The other 25 are unscored pretest questions.

MBE Sample Test Questions

Civil Procedure Sample Test Questions