The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) announced today that the national mean scaled score for the February 2023 Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) was 131.1, a decrease of 1.5 points compared to the February 2022 mean of 132.6. …
NCBE Director of Assessment and Research Rosemary Reshetar, EdD, commented: “[W]e believe that an increase in the number of likely repeat examinees compared to February 2022 is a partial reason for the decrease in the average score this year.”
However, the higher number of repeat test takers does not in itself fully account for the drop in the mean this February. “We saw a decrease in performance across all groups of examinees, and the decrease was the greatest (about two scaled score points) for likely first-time test takers. Research in K-12 and undergraduate settings clearly shows that the global COVID-19 pandemic had a negative effect on learning, and surveys of law students similarly suggest that those students who began law school in 2019–2020 would have been significantly impacted by pandemic-related educational disruptions,” said Reshetar.