All persons who wish to practice law in a particular jurisdiction must pass the bar examination of that particular jurisdiction. Although the length of the exam varies from state to state, the examination is either two to three days. Bar exams are divided into two sections: the written section, which consists of a number of essay questions and one or more performance exams, and the 200-question Multistate Bar Examination. The following article will describe when the examination is administered, the different sections of the bar examination, and how the examination is graded.
When the Bar Exam is Administered
The bar exam is administered one time in February and one time in July. Testing dates are generally the last week of those months. Each testing period begins at 8:30 a.m. and concludes in the mid-to-late afternoon depending on the state. Applicants who use laptops to take the exam are usually required to arrive at the testing center earlier than those who write the exam.
The Essay Questions
Every bar exam has a number of written essay questions. The exact number of written essays depends on the particular jurisdiction. All essay questions must be answered in a limited time period, although there is no required order that the questions must be answered. Applicants are free to dedicate more time on one particular essay than another. The essay questions present a factual situation followed by one or more questions regarding that situation. A successful applicant must be able to apply the law to the given set of facts to reach a logical conclusion to the posed question or questions.
The Performance Exam
The performance exam is a written exam in which an applicant is usually given two different materials: the "file" and the "library." This portion of the exam is designed to test an applicant's ability to perform under pressure in a "real world" situation. The file usually consists of a series of documents given to the applicant by a hypothetical supervising attorney or a judge regarding the facts of a fictional case. The library usually consists of a number of hypothetical legal cases and statutes. The test instructions direct the applicant to write a legal memorandum in response to a question or series of questions by applying the facts found in the "file" to the law found in the "library."
The 200-Question Multistate Bar Examination
The 200-question Multistate Bar Examination consists of 200 multiple-choice questions with 100 questions posed in a three-hour morning session and the remaining 100 questions posed in a three-hour afternoon session. Each question begins with a hypothetical situation and concludes with a specific question. There are five answer choices which follow each question. Each answer is assigned a letter, A-E. The applicant chooses the answer and fills in a bubble on a separate answer sheet that corresponds to the letter assigned to the chosen answer.
Grading Information
An applicant can score up to 100 raw points on each essay and up to 200 raw points on each performance exam. 200-question Multistate Bar Examination is scaled to a 2,000-point scale. The written questions are worth approximately two-thirds of the applicant's score, with the 200-question Multistate Bar Examination accounting for the remaining one-third. Therefore, a high 200-question Multistate Bar Examination score will usually not result in a passing grade if the applicant scored poorly on the written portions. Grades take several months to calculate and are accessible over the Internet with a secure password and by mail.
Tags: Multistate Examination, 200-question Multistate, 200-question Multistate Examination, essay questions, particular jurisdiction