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Multistate Bar Examination score drops full point for February exam

By Julianne Hill

March 28, 2025, 11:17 am CDT

The national mean scale score for the February Multistate Bar Examination has decreased a full point, from 131.8 in February 2024 to 130.8 in February 2025, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

In a March 27 press release, the NCBE blamed California’s examinees not taking the traditional bar exam and an overall downward shift in performance.

Last month, 15,350 candidates nationwide took the MBE, consisting of 200 multiple-choice questions, one of three sections of the NCBE-created bar exam. That’s a 4,146 candidate decrease from a year earlier—a decrease explained by the decision by California, which tests the second-largest number of candidates each year, to conduct a proprietary exam.

“In four of the past five years, the MBE mean for California has been higher than the mean for the combined non-California jurisdictions, so it makes sense that removing California from the national pool might bring the national mean down slightly,” said Bob Schwartz, the NCBE’s managing director of psychometrics, in the press release.

But California’s move to conduct an independent exam doesn’t entirely explain the decrease. The mean scaled score for non-California examinees in February 2024 was 131.5 and in February 2023 was 130.9, with first-time test-takers’ mean score down by about a point and repeaters’ down by about 0.7 points, Schwartz said.

This year’s decline in first-time examinee scores is “most likely part of a pattern of fluctuating performance by first-time takers over the past several years,” the press release said.

Historically, February bar exam administrations attract more repeat test-takers, who are more likely to score lower, according to the NCBE.

This year, 71% of examinees were likely repeat test-takers, and 29% were likely first-time examinees, according to the press release. When California is excluded from past administrations, these numbers “have been stable for three years,” according to the press release.

Each jurisdiction grades the written components of the NCBE-created exam, with some passing decisions expected as soon as next week, according to the press release.

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