SO, this serves to help you understand how your performance translates to an actual score on the exam. Lots of us have read that the sections have different weightings, but few understand how that translates to an actual score. It's interesting to play around with the numbers and see how the score changes if you do better in certain areas.
Note: This post focuses directly on the UBE. More and more states are adopting the UBE, including mine, so I figured this guide might be helpful for anyone in one of these states. The math and logic, however, which I will try to display, applies to other states, provided you know some basic facts, being (1) total points possible per essay, (2) total points cumulative for the whole exam, and (3) the varying weighting applied to each section of the exam.
As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of this thread is to help us understand how our performance translates to exam points, which is the ultimate basis for our success or..unsuccess. I decided to do this dumb little exercise, partially because I'm a sadist, apparently, but also because, being a re-taker, I have some prior exam results, and thus had some hard numbers for how I did on the Essays and the MBE last time. (When you don't pass, my state sends you your written materials, including individual essay/mpt scores, for you to review.) Using those as a basis, I wanted to attempt to make some preliminary judgments, comparing the cumulative scores from the July exam to my feeling of how this exam went. For some reason, it seemed helpful to my mental state--especially given how long it takes to get the results >.<
The first question is, what is the weighting? On the UBE, there is a written portion worth half of the total grade, and the multiple choice MBE worth the other half. Broken down further, there is the MEE, which is comprised of 6 essays worth 30% of the overall grade, and 2 MPTs worth 20% total. Each Essay and MPT are graded at 5 points per Essay/MPT. And then the MBE, the final score being scaled due to factors unknown, is worth 50%, and is out of 200 total (not 190!)
That translates to the following formula:
Essay 1: e
Essay 2: e
Essay 3: e
Essay 4: e
Essay 5: e
Essay 6: e
--Combine all e and DIVIDE by the total points (30) to get a percentage we will call E
MPT 1: p
MPT 2: p
--Combine all p and DIVIDE by the total points (10) to get a percentage we will call P
AND finally, the true x-factor for many, the MBE: plug in an x, DIVIDE by the total points (200) to get a percentage we will call X
Next, you simply take the percentage figures we have for E, P, and X, multiply them by their respective weighting, to get wE, wP, and wX
E * .30 (the weighting) = the weighted MEE score, wE
P * .20 (the weighting)= the weighted MPT score, wP
X * .50 (the weighting) = the weighted MBE score, wX
Finally! Add wE + wP + wX together to get N. Simply multiply that by 400 (the total points for the UBE), and that amount is your overall score, which you can then compare to the passing score in your UBE state
EXAMPLE: On my unsuccessful July UBE, I got the following:
Essay 1: 4
Essay 2: 5
Essay 3: 2
Essay 4: 4
Essay 5: 2
Essay 6: 4
MEE TOTAL (e) = 21 DIVIDED BY 30 (the total points possible) to get the percentage figure, E, MULTIPLIED by the Weighted %, .30 = wE = .21
MPT 1: 2
MPT 2: 2
MPT TOTAL (p) = 4, DIVIDED BY 10 (the total points possible), to get the percentage figure, P, MULTIPLIED by the Weighted %, .20 = wP = .08
My MBE (x) was 134, DIVIDED BY 200 (the total points possible), to get the percentage figure, X, MULTIPLIED by the Weight %, .50 = wX = .335
So we have it: wE + wM + wX = .21 + .08 + .335 = .625
LAST STEP is to multiply that number by 400. That is the score, according to the numbers you've put in. The .625 I scored in July wound up being a measly 260, and I needed 270
Hope this is of some use to people! It was interesting plugging in some numbers for how I felt on various written portions (some good, some not so good) as well as some MBE numbers to see how the overall score shifted. Good luck to you all.
