Bar Exam
Passing the bar exam is typically only one of several steps for being licensed to practice law.
Bar examinations in the USare administered by agencies of individual states.
In almost all jurisdictions, the MPRE, an ethics exam, is also administered by the NCBE, which creates it and grades it.
The bar examination in most U.S. states and territories is at least two days long (a few states have three-day exams) and consists of:
- Essay questions:
- Essentially all jurisdictions administer several such questions that test knowledge of general legal principles, and may also test knowledge of the state’s own law (usually subjects such as wills, trusts and community property, which always vary from one state to another). Some jurisdictions choose to use the MEE, drafted by the NCBE since 1988, for this purpose. Others may draft their own questions with this goal in mind, while some states both draft their own questions and use the MEE.
- Some jurisdictions administer complicated questions that specifically test knowledge of that state’s law.
- The Multistate Bar Examination, a standardized, multiple-choice examination created and sold to participating state bar examiners by the National Conference of Bar Examiners since 1972.
