MBE Subjects: Multiple-Choice Doctrine Under Pressure
What the MBE tests
The Multistate Bar Examination is the multiple-choice component of the UBE. NCBE publishes a subject matter outline covering seven areas: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. The exam rewards element-level recall and fact-to-rule matching, not policy commentary.
Core doctrine hooks
- Civil Procedure: personal and subject-matter jurisdiction, venue, Erie, pleading, joinder, discovery, summary judgment.
- Constitutional Law: standing, state action, due process, equal protection tiers, Commerce Clause, preemption.
- Contracts: formation, UCC 2-207, statute of frauds, anticipatory repudiation, remedies.
- Criminal Law and Procedure: mens rea, accomplice liability, felony murder, searches, Miranda, counsel.
- Evidence: relevance, hearsay and exceptions, confrontation, character, impeachment.
- Real Property: estates, future interests, recording, easements, covenants, landlord-tenant.
- Torts: duty, breach, proximate cause, strict liability, products liability, defamation.
Worked example
A plaintiff sues after a car crash. Defendant offers a police report in which a bystander said, ‘The plaintiff ran the red light.’ Under FRE 803(8), the report may be a public record, but the bystander’s statement is an out-of-court statement offered for its truth. A public-record exception does not automatically admit hearsay embedded in the report. Unless the statement qualifies independently-for example, as an excited utterance-it is inadmissible. The best answer excludes the statement, not the whole report.
Traps
The test asks for the best answer, not a true statement. Watch for common law versus UCC, ‘not’ and ‘except,’ and choices that assume facts. A choice stating a correct rule but not resolving the call is wrong.