Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) Subjects
Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) subjects
The MBE is the six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice component of the Uniform Bar Examination. It contains 175 scored questions and 25 unscored pretest questions, divided into two three-hour sessions; each question has four choices. The exam tests seven subjects: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. The MBE is not a memory test alone: most questions require you to select the rule that resolves the precise call after eliminating choices that are true but irrelevant.
Core rules to have automatic
- Civil Procedure: personal jurisdiction, subject-matter jurisdiction, venue, Erie, pleadings, discovery, and preclusion. Claim preclusion requires a final judgment on the merits, the same claim, and the same parties or privies.
- Constitutional Law: standing, state action, equal protection tiers, due process, First Amendment, and Commerce Clause.
- Contracts: UCC Article 2 for goods, common law for services; formation, Statute of Frauds, parol evidence, and remedies.
- Criminal law and procedure: mens rea, actus reus, homicide, theft, defenses, and Fourth/Fifth/Sixth Amendment rules.
- Evidence: relevance, hearsay and exceptions, character, impeachment, and authentication.
- Real Property: estates, landlord-tenant, conveyancing, recording, mortgages, easements, and covenants.
- Torts: intentional torts, negligence, strict liability, products liability, defamation, and privacy.
Worked example
At a battery trial, a bystander who saw the defendant strike the plaintiff shouts, “He just hit her!” within seconds. Plaintiff offers the statement; defendant objects hearsay. The statement is an out-of-court assertion offered to prove the defendant hit the plaintiff, so it is hearsay. It falls within the excited utterance exception because the declarant was under the stress of a startling event and spoke before reflection. Under FRE 803, the declarant’s availability is immaterial. The statement is admissible.
Traps
Do not choose a true statement that does not answer the call. Distinguish burdens of production and persuasion. In evidence, ask whether the statement is offered for its truth before applying an exception. In contracts, check whether goods are involved before using the UCC. In property, identify the recording act type before ranking interests. In criminal procedure, keep Fourth Amendment reasonableness separate from Fifth Amendment compulsion.