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I have been told by a few people that no matter how good your essays and MPT are, if you do not score at least 140 on the MBE portion they will not pass you. Has anyone else heard this? Has anyone out there passed the bar with an MBE score <140?

kris4842 wrote:I have been told by a few people that no matter how good your essays and MPT are, if you do not score at least 140 on the MBE portion they will not pass you. Has anyone else heard this? Has anyone out there passed the bar with an MBE score <140?

This is blatantly untrue! I know more than a few who passed with MBE scores not anywhere close to 140. While scoring over a 140 on the MBE means there is less pressure on your essay, not reaching that threshold in itself, isn't fatal by any means so long you perform reasonably well on your essay.

Certainly can. You'll just need to pull the points from somewhere else.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

140 is a good goal for the MBE since your essay score is a lot harder to predict in advance because of random fluctuations in grading as well as the luck of the draw in topics tested. It's definitely not necessary, though.

Can personally attest to scoring under 140 on the MBE and passing ny.

Definitely not true. I scored a 131.6 on the MBE, bombed the MPT, crushed the MEE and still passed.

Thank you everyone. Fingers crossed...

kris4842 wrote:I have been told by a few people that no matter how good your essays and MPT are, if you do not score at least 140 on the MBE portion they will not pass you. Has anyone else heard this? Has anyone out there passed the bar with an MBE score <140?

The problem with that theory is that the MEE/MPT graders (done by BOLE) don't get access to your MBE score (done by NCBE) until after everything's already done. As for passing feasibility, it is definitely doable with a sub-140 MBE - ver supra.

Now sub-130, and definitely sub-125, that's the real danger zone.

My $.02

j_syrinate wrote:Definitely not true. I scored a 131.6 on the MBE, bombed the MPT, crushed the MEE and still passed.

How do you know whether you bombed/crushed the MPT/MEE if they don’t release individual scores for the written sections when you pass?

They do in NY

maroon175 wrote:

j_syrinate wrote:Definitely not true. I scored a 131.6 on the MBE, bombed the MPT, crushed the MEE and still passed.

How do you know whether you bombed/crushed the MPT/MEE if they don’t release individual scores for the written sections when you pass?

kris4842 wrote:They do in NY

No they don't release any info on your written portion if you pass the NY bar. They simply give you your MBE score and overall UBE score, from which you can work out your overall written score (but not by individual topic - that you only get when you fail).

(Personally I couldn't work out my written using the overall and MBE scores, but some on this forum can do that for you).

maroon175 wrote:

j_syrinate wrote:Definitely not true. I scored a 131.6 on the MBE, bombed the MPT, crushed the MEE and still passed.

How do you know whether you bombed/crushed the MPT/MEE if they don’t release individual scores for the written sections when you pass?

It’s an assumption since you don’t receive your written portion breakdown, but I did not bother to practice the MPT except read an outline of how to execute it and on test day my answer was all over the place and I didn’t finish either one. Also, I did not include an introduction on either MPT and the second one was a Persuasive Brief and I structured it like an Memo. With that said, I’m 99% sure my MPT score was poor.

kris4842 wrote:I have been told by a few people that no matter how good your essays and MPT are, if you do not score at least 140 on the MBE portion they will not pass you. Has anyone else heard this? Has anyone out there passed the bar with an MBE score <140?

I passed with a 137.5