NY Bar study guide
NY Bar · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The New York State Bar Examination is the licensing examination administered by the New York State Board of Law Examiners, a body created by the Legislature in 1894 and overseen by a five-member Board of attorneys appointed by the New York Court of Appeals, with a business office in Albany. It is for candidates seeking admission to practice law in New York. New York administers the Uniform Bar Examination, delivered twice per year on the last consecutive Tuesday and Wednesday each February and July; the announced February 2027 dates are February 23–24. The UBE combines the Multistate Bar Examination, Multistate Essay Examination and Multistate Performance Test, and New York separately requires the New York Law Course and New York Law Exam plus the MPRE. Topics on this exam: Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) subjects, Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) subjects, and Multistate Performance Test (MPT) skills. The NY Bar study guide has 3 sections and about 1,150 words.
01Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
The MBE is a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice test (175 scored, 25 pretest) in two three-hour sessions. It covers Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts/Sales, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. Each item supplies facts, a call, and four choices; the exam rewards rule precision and disciplined application over policy talk. Civil Procedure: personal jurisdiction (minimum contacts plus fair play), complete diversity and $75,000 amount in controversy, Erie, venue, plausibility pleading, discovery scope, summary judgment, claim and issue preclusion.
402 words, about 2 min02Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
The MEE is a three-hour exam of six essays, thirty minutes each. It tests the seven MBE subjects plus Business Associations (agency, partnership, corporations, LLCs), Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and UCC Article 9. Graders look for issue identification, accurate rule statements, application to the given facts, and a clear conclusion for every subpart. Each essay typically has three to six subparts, and each subpart must be answered separately.
411 words, about 2 min03Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
The MPT is a skills test, not a knowledge test: three hours for two 90-minute tasks. Each task gives a File (facts, correspondence, transcripts, documents) and a Library (cases, statutes, regulations). You may not use outside law; the answer must rest on the File and Library. The exam tests legal analysis and reasoning, factual analysis, communication, organization and drafting, and problem solving.
337 words, about 2 min