UBE Grading Question Forum

Discussions related to the bar exam are found in this forum
Forum rules
Anonymous Posting

Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are sharing sensitive information about bar exam prep. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.

Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned."
Yankees1313

New
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2016 6:24 pm

UBE Grading Question

Post by Yankees1313 » Thu Aug 09, 2018 6:18 am

I am curious how everyone says as long as you finish above the 33th percentile for each section that is enough to pass the UBE (Heard this numerous times through barbri). According to this chart, that would certainly not be the case. https://www.excellenceinlawschool.com/m ... -for-2018/

Can someone explain where I am misunderstanding? Thank you!

fa1493

New
Posts: 95
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 9:52 pm

Re: UBE Grading Question

Post by fa1493 » Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:43 am

Not exactly certain why, but pretty sure it has something to do with it being the february exam. Im assuming that its because feb is mostly retakers who would have done poorly on a july exam. Therefore less people get higher scores, making the percentiles higher.

JoeSeperac

Moderator
Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: UBE Grading Question

Post by JoeSeperac » Thu Aug 09, 2018 10:28 am

Those stats are for Illinois only. NCBE releases national stats but you have to figure them out by adding the score distributions. Below are the average national stats from J11 to F18 broken down by Feb vs July:

Image

For example, a 130 MBE in Feb would have placed you in the 34th percentile (meaning 66% of Feb examinees were better than you on the MBE based on Feb exams between 2011-2018). Meanwhile, a 130 MBE in July would have placed you in the 24th percentile (meaning 76% of July examinees were better than you on the MBE based on July exams between 2011-2017).

NCBE doesn't release written percentiles, but it is presumed they are close to the MBE percentiles (as the Illinois percentiles demonstrate).

I think what BARBRI means is that you generally have to be better than 33% of examinees to pass. From 1996 to 2016, a total of 1,631,040 examinees took the bar exam and 1,074,686 passed, for an overall pass rate of 66%. Keep in mind this is a generalization and each state is different. For example, in examining the average pass rates in New York over the past 20 years of reported information, the July Overall Pass Rate is 68.8% (152,327 Overall Passers/221,312 Overall Takers from 1995-2016) while the February Overall Pass Rate is 46.5% (35,157 Overall Passers/75,560 Overall Takers from 1995-2016). The pass rate for examinees who went to Law School outside the United States is 36.1% (75,377 taking and 27,210 passing). In contrast, the overall pass rate in New York over the same period was 63.2%. Overall, in New York over the past 20 years, the February ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 73.8% while the July ABA First-Timers Pass Rate is 85.6%. The February ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 44.3% while the July ABA Repeaters Pass Rate is 31.5%.

Post Reply Post Anonymous Reply  

Return to “Bar Exam Prep and Discussion Forum”