Ala. R. Bar Admis. VI(B)

A. Bar Examination Subjects.

(1) Academic Bar Examination. The Academic Bar

Examination shall consist of the Uniform Bar Examination ("the

UBE"). The UBE is prepared by the National Conference of Bar

Examiners and includes the Multistate Essay Examination ("the

MEE"), the Multistate Performance Test ("the MPT"), and the

Multistate Bar Examination ("the MBE").

(2) Legal Ethics Examination. The Multistate Professional

Responsibility Examination ("the MPRE," see Rule VI(B)E) prepared

by the National Conference of Bar Examiners shall be used as the

examination on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

An applicant must pass both the Academic Bar Examination and the

Legal Ethics Examination to be certified as a successful candidate.

(3) Course on Alabama Law. Before being admitted to the

practice of law in Alabama, all applicants shall complete a course on

Alabama law, the content and delivery of which shall be determined

by the Board of Bar Examiners. The Online Curriculum Committee of

the Board of Bar Examiners shall be responsible for regular reviews

of the course on Alabama law and shall report any substantive

changes to the Board of Bar Examiners. The course on Alabama law

shall be completed within 60 days of the last day of the most recent

bar examination taken by the applicant or the applicant shall incur a

late penalty equivalent to the current year's annual dues required for

those lawyers with an occupational license. The late fee shall be

assessed only one time and, once assessed, shall not be assessed

again if the applicant is required to take additional bar examinations.

B. Preparing, Conducting, and Grading Examinations.

(1) Preparing Examinations. The MBE, the MEE, and the MPT will

be prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which shall

determine the contents of those examinations and test.

(2) Conducting Examinations. The Board of Bar Examiners shall

have the right, power, and authority to adopt rules consistent with the laws

of the State of Alabama or orders of the Supreme Court or the Board of Bar

Commissioners governing the control, methods, and details of conducting

examinations

The Secretary of the Alabama State Bar, at the time an applicant is

certified to the Board of Bar Examiners under these Rules, shall issue to the

applicant a card containing a personal-identification number, the purpose

and use of which shall be carefully explained to the applicant. The Secretary

shall preserve a duplicate of that number in the Secretary's office. When

taking the MEE and the MPT, the applicant may not sign his or her name to

or upon any paper or documents, or identify his or her examination answers

other than by that number or by such method as is required by the National

Conference of Bar Examiners to identify UBE scores, and is forbidden to

disclose that number to any member of the Board or to any other person. If

any applicant violates this requirement in any particular, the Board of Bar

Examiners shall not consider the applicant's examination papers, and if it be

discovered that disclosure of the number was made, the applicant shall be

subject to disciplinary action for deceit and misrepresentation. This

requirement shall again be called to the attention of the applicant by the

Board of Bar Examiners before the applicant is permitted to begin the

examination.

The express purpose of the immediately preceding paragraph is to

provide a method by which the Board of Bar Examiners, in passing upon the

sufficiency of answers to questions propounded by it, shall be unacquainted

with the identity of the person whose answers it is passing upon.

(3) Grading Examinations. MEE and MPT questions will test the

applicant's ability to reason logically, to analyze legal problems accurately,

to demonstrate a knowledge of the fundamental principles of law, to be able

to apply those principles, and to perform basic legal tasks. The grade of the

paper shall be measured by the reasoning power shown as well as by the

correctness or incorrectness of the answers. Answers to MEE questions

shall be analyzed and graded using the model answers provided by the

National Conference of Bar Examiners and according to general principles

of law. MEE and MPT questions will be scored by the Board of Bar

Examiners.

Using the personal-identification numbers assigned to identify the

respective applicants, the Board of Bar Examiners shall certify final grades

to the Secretary of the Alabama State Bar no later than April 15 following a

February examination and September 15 following a July examination.

The Secretary shall make a permanent record in the Secretary's

office of the grades attained by each examinee in each subject and shall

inform each examinee whether he or she has passed or failed the

examination.

Each examinee will be furnished the following information at the time

examination results are released: his or her MBE scaled score, total scaled

score on written examinations (MEE and MPT), total UBE scaled score, and

the raw score on each question on the MEE and the MPT.

Within 60 days after the announcement of the results, a failing

examinee shall be entitled to examine his or her own papers in the State

Bar headquarters for the purpose of ascertaining that grades were

transcribed correctly, and, upon payment of $5.00 per section of the MEE or

the MPT, the examinee shall be entitled to receive a copy of his or her

answer or answers. The UBE questions and model answers are protected

by copyright owned by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, and

examinees should contact the National Conference of Bar Examiners to

obtain copies of those.

C. Results of Examinations.

(1) Basic Rule. Raw scores on the MEE and the MPT portions of

the UBE shall be weighted so that the MEE is worth 30% and the MPT is

worth 20%. The total weighted raw score on the MEE and the MPT

combined shall be scaled to the MBE. The applicant's scaled score on the

MEE and the MPT portions of the UBE shall be expressed on the MBE range

of scores (0-200) and shall be combined and weighted equally with the

applicant's scaled MBE score to determine the examinee's total UBE scaled

score. An examinee who achieves a total UBE score of 260 or above passes

the Academic Bar Examination.

(2) Transfer of MBE Score. An applicant who has taken and

passed a bar examination in another jurisdiction, who has been admitted to

practice in that jurisdiction, and who made an MBE scaled score of 140 or

above in that jurisdiction may be excused from taking the MBE. The

transferred MBE score will be valid for a period of 36 months after taking the

MBE on which the transferred score was received. The applicant's

transferred MBE score will be combined with the applicant's scaled scores

on the MEE and the MPT portions of the UBE according to the basic rule.

Applicants who transfer an MBE score to seek admission in Alabama will

not earn a transferable UBE score that can be used to seek admission in

other jurisdictions.

The applicant shall have the option to take all sections of the

Academic Bar Examination; if the applicant chooses this option, the scores

of all sections will be combined under the basic rule.

(3) Carryover of MBE Scores. An applicant who has taken and

failed the bar examination in Alabama but who made an MBE scaled score

of 140 or above may be excused from taking the MBE. The MBE scaled

score may be carried over to any future examination for which the examinee

is eligible, provided that the examination is administered within 36 months

after the earlier bar examination in which the applicant scored 140 or above

on the MBE was administered, and the MBE scaled score will be combined

with the applicant's scaled score on the MEE and the MPT portions of the

UBE according to the basic rule. Applicants who carry over an MBE score

from an earlier bar examination to seek admission in Alabama will not earn

a transferable UBE score that can be used to seek admission in other

jurisdictions.

The applicant shall have the option to take all sections of the

Academic Bar Examination; if the applicant chooses this option, the scores

of all sections will be combined under the basic rule.

(4) Carryover of Written Test Score. An applicant who has taken

and failed the bar examination in Alabama, but who made a scaled score of

140 or above on the MEE and the MPT portions of the UBE, as determined

in accordance with the basic rule, may be excused from taking those

portions of the bar examination that contribute to the scaled written score

on the MEE and the MPT. The scaled written score may be carried over for

any future bar examination for which the examinee is eligible, provided that

the examination is administered within 36 months after the earlier bar

examination in which the carry-over score was received, and the scaled

written score will be combined with the applicant's MBE score according to

the basic rule. Applicants who carry over a scaled score on the MEE and

the MPT to seek admission in Alabama will not earn a transferable UBE

score that can be used to seek admission in other jurisdictions.

The applicant shall have the option to take all sections of the

Academic Bar Examination; if the applicant chooses this option, the scores

of all sections will be combined under the basic rule.

(5) Time of Election to Transfer or Carry Over Scores. Elections

regarding the transfer from another jurisdiction of an MBE score or the

carryover of an MBE score or the carryover of a scaled written score on the

MEE and the MPT from a previous examination taken in Alabama must be

made at the time an application to sit for an examination is filed.

(6) Transfer of UBE Score. An applicant who has taken the entire

UBE in a single administration in another jurisdiction and earned a total UBE

scaled score of 260 or above may transfer his or her UBE score and be

excused from taking the UBE in Alabama, provided that the applicant

otherwise satisfies the requirements of these Rules applicable to applicants

seeking admission by examination. The transferred UBE score will be valid

for a period of no longer than 36 months after the date of administration of

the UBE that resulted in the transferred score.

Applicants seeking admission on the basis of a transferred UBE

score may file an application for admission to the Alabama State Bar at any

time after their UBE score has been released by the transferring jurisdiction.

At the time of filing such application, the applicant must pay the fee

prescribed in item (5) of the Fee Schedule (see Appendix). No later than the

date the application is filed, such applicants shall request an official UBE

score transcript be sent to the Board of Bar Examiners by the National

Conference of Bar Examiners.

The transferred UBE score must be valid in accordance with the

provisions of this subsection on the date the applicant may otherwise be

certified for admission to the Alabama State Bar. If the transferred UBE

score becomes invalid on or before said date, then the application for

admission shall be withdrawn, and the applicant shall not be entitled for

admission on such application.

D. Access to Information Regarding the UBE. The Board of Bar

Examiners shall make available to applicants sample and informational

materials that will acquaint applicants with the general content and format of

the MBE, the MEE, and the MPT. This requirement may be met by routinely

distributing to all applicants the information booklets on these examinations

published by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and by advising

applicants of the availability, through the National Conference of Bar

Examiners, of sample questions and analyses. A reasonable fee, to be

determined by the Board of Bar Examiners with the concurrence of the Board

of Bar Commissioners, may be charged to parties outside the routine

distribution who request copies of the materials.

E. The MPRE. Before admission to the Bar, each applicant must

have successfully passed the MPRE. To successfully complete the MPRE, the

applicant must achieve a scaled score of at least 75, as that score is determined

by the testing authority. Successful completion of the MPRE by an applicant for

admission by examination at any time within the 36 months preceding the

Academic Bar Examination will be accepted. If an applicant has passed the

Academic Bar Examination but has not successfully completed the MPRE, he

or she shall have a period of 36 months from the date of the Academic Bar

Examination in which to successfully complete the MPRE. Applicants who

transfer a UBE score from another jurisdiction must successfully complete the

MPRE no earlier than 36 months before the date of administration of the UBE

in which the transferrable UBE score was earned.

Completed application materials for testing, as well as all other

correspondence, inquiries, and requests concerning application materials

and the administration and processing of the MPRE should be directed to

the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

F. Time of Bar Examination. The examination will be given on

Tuesday and Wednesday of that week in February and in July on which the

UBE is administered. The MPT and the MEE will be on Tuesday, and the MBE

on Wednesday.