When the MBE Rises, the Whole Bar Exam Rises With It
- Tommy Sangchompuphen
- Aug 29
- 3 min read
Yesterday, the National Conference of Bar Examiners announced that the median score on the July 2025 Multistate Bar Examination rose to 142.4. That’s the highest summer average in more than a decade and the third straight July where national mean MBE scores have climbed.
At first, this might sound like just another test statistic. But if you’re preparing for the bar—or helping students prepare—it’s more than that. The MBE isn’t just one part of the exam. It’s the backbone of the entire Uniform Bar Examination.
Why the MBE Matters So Much
The UBE has three parts: The multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination (MBE, worth 50% of your score), the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE, 30%), and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT, 20%).
Here’s the key point: The written section (the MEE and MPT sections, collectively) are scaled to the MBE. In plain English, that means your essay and performance test scores don’t just stand alone—they are adjusted in line with how examinees during that exam administration perform on the MBE.
Think of it like this: Imagine two different July exams. On the first one, the scaled mean MBE score is lower. That pulls the written portion down with it, even if your essay answers were strong. On the second exam, the scaled mean MBE score rises. That doesn’t just boost multiple-choice scores—it also lifts the written portion when scaled. In other words, a student who writes the same essay in both years could end up with a slightly higher scaled score simply because the MBE mean increased.
Or picture the MBE as the thermostat in your house. The thermostat sets the temperature, and the rest of the system adjusts to it. The essays and performance tasks (i.e., the MEE and MPT sections) are like the rooms of the house: whatever the thermostat says, the rooms will follow. If the thermostat (MBE mean) goes up, the rooms (the written section scores) warm up with it. If it goes down, the rooms cool off. Either way, the written portion doesn’t exist in its own climate. It's tied to the MBE.
That’s why yesterday’s announcement matters so much. When the national MBE mean climbs, the entire house—the whole UBE—gets warmer.
What This Means for Pass Rates
Every jurisdiction sets its own minimum passing score for the UBE. Some states require as little as 260, others 266 or 268. Many—including Ohio, Texas, Ohio, and Massachusetts—set it at 270, the highest cut score in the country.
To put this in perspective, a hypothetical examinee who is right at the national average on both sections of the Uniform Bar Exam—so, 142.4 scaled on the MBE and 142.4 scaled on the written portion—would theoretically earn a combined scaled score of 284.8. That’s well above the passing score in every jurisdiction. And that makes sense. More than half of examinees usually pass the bar exam, so the national mean will naturally fall above the minimum passing threshold.
This means that when the overall UBE mean rises (as the result of higher scaled MBE scores and higher scaled written scores), more examinees will fall above those jurisdictional cut scores.
In short, a higher MBE average usually (though not always) translates into more students passing the bar exam. We'll see if that's the case when jurisdictions begin releasing their July 2025 results in the coming week.
