Legal Education

National mean scaled score for August MBE slightly decreases compared to 2019

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For the July 2021 Multistate Bar Examination, which had 45,872 test-takers, the national mean scaled score was 140.4, according to a Wednesday news release from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

That’s a decrease of 0.7 points compared to the July 2019 MBE, which had 45,334 examinees and a national mean scaled score of 141.1. According to the news release, that comparability with 2020 is of limited value because the COVID-19 pandemic led to more test administrations and fewer candidates.

The MBE was given in July, September and October 2020, and there was a total of 7,906 test-takers. According to the NCBE website, the MBE mean was 146.1 for July, 142.7 for September and 137.2 for October.

A total of 30,000 people took the NCBE’s October remote exam, according to the website. That was not an MBE, and jurisdictions did their own scoring.

According to the news release, the national mean scaled score for the August 2021 Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination was 96 compared to 93.4 in August 2019. According to the news release, 18,614 people took the August 2021 MPRE compared to 17,066 people in August 2019.

For 2020, 12,688 people took the August MPRE, and the national mean was 98.6.

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