Understanding your Examination Score
******************************************************************************
To: Applicants on the North Carolina Bar Examination
From: The North Carolina Board of Law Examiners
Re: Understanding your Examination Score
******************************************************************************
Understanding Your Score
Total UBE scaled score. The passing score for the North Carolina bar examination is 270 out of a possible 400 total points.
Uniform Bar Examination. Beginning February 2019, North Carolina will be administering the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). The UBE consists of three components: 1) the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE); 2) the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE); and, 3) the Multistate Performance Test (MPT).
MBE. The MBE consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. Of the total, there are 175 scored questions that are used to determine your performance and 25 unscored questions that are being evaluated for use on future MBE examinations. Each scored MBE question you answer correctly receives one raw score point.
MEE. The MEE consists of six essay questions. Each essay answer receives a raw score on a 0-6 point scale. The answers are scored on a relative basis with there being no passing or failing score. Your raw score for a particular answer reflects your performance relative to that of the other examinees on that particular question.
MPT. The MPT consists of two performance test items. Each performance test item response receives a raw score on a 0-6 point scale. The answers are scored on a relative basis with there being no passing or failing score. Your raw score for a particular answer reflects your performance relative to that of the other examinees on that particular question.
Total MBE scaled score. The number of MBE scored questions you answered correctly is your raw score. The MBE raw scores of test-takers across jurisdictions are transformed through the statistical process of equating which is used to adjust for differences in difficulty across MBE test administrations. The resulting total MBE scaled scores are on a 200-point scale.
Total written scaled score. Your total written raw score is not simply the sum of the scores from the six MEE answers and the two MPT items. Rather, that calculation is based on the UBE prescribed weighting. The MEE answers collectively are 60% of the total written raw score and the MPT item responses collectively are 40% of the total written raw score. The total written raw score is then scaled to the MBE, which is a statistically reliable equated test (see above). This scaling process uses a statistical formula to transform the North Carolina total written raw scores to have the same standard deviation and mean as the North Carolina set of MBE scaled scores. This scaling process results in your total written scaled score which is on a 200-point scale that reflects adjustments for differences in the components’ difficulty across examination administrations.
Total UBE scaled score. Your total written scaled score is added to your MBE scaled score (to reflect equal weighting) and then rounded to the nearest whole number to determine your total UBE scaled score.