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Hardest Subject on the MBE?
Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 3:00 pm
by jlyyap
Hi everyone! I saw a post somewhere on this forum that mentioned something about Property and Contracts being the hardest subjects. I'm scoring a little too close for comfort right now on my Themis MBE practice questions for Contracts only, and I'm wondering if it'll probably get better as I move on to other subjects?
Also, does anyone have a source/resource that somehow lists the subjects in order of difficulty? It doesn't seem like NCBE publishes score breakdowns by topic.
Re: Hardest Subject on the MBE?
Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:37 pm
by JoeSeperac
Based on national NCBE statistics from 1995-2004 (NCBE stopped releasing this data in 2005), on July exams, the MBE subjects from least to most difficult were as follows:
Constitutional Law - 71% correct on average
Torts - 67% correct on average
Contracts - 65% correct on average
Criminal Law and Procedure - 63% correct on average
Evidence - 61% correct on average
Real Property - 60% correct on average
Overall - 64% correct on average
One reason Real Property was the hardest subject between 1995-2004 was because they were the longest questions and examinees typically do worse on longer MBE questions. However, over the past few years, it appears NCBE is trying to make the MBE questions more uniform in regards to length and difficulty. For example, while the difference between the best and worst MBE subject between 1995-2004 was 11% (Con Law 71% vs Property 60%), I calculated the difference between the best and worst MBE subject in J19 to be 4% (Evidence 71% vs CivPro 67%). Please keep in mind that my estimate for J19 may or may not be reliable, so take it with a grain of salt.
Re: Hardest Subject on the MBE?
Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2020 2:42 pm
by SilvermanBarPrep
Less reliable for sure than Joe's statistics but interestingly I would have said the same for the most difficult and the same for the next-most difficult just from my observations working with students on the exam for many years. And I think people expect Property to be difficult but are a bit surprised by the difficulty of Evidence.
Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)