Taking the Bar Exam

As you might expect, anyone that's going to provide certain services to the public must prove that they have a minimum level of skill and knowledge.  Accountants, doctors, and nurses are only a few of the different types of professionals that must take special exams once they've received their college degrees.  In the case of lawyers, they must take – and pass – the bar exam before entering private practice or in order to be admitted into service with the judicial branch of the United States government.

Information Covered on the Bar Exams

The bar exam you'll take will be slightly different, depending on the state in which you want to be qualified to practice law.  Typically, each state's exam will contain a number of questions related to their own specific laws – for the most part, these questions deal with a set of basic laws that are adapted to each state's needs.  For example, corporate structuring laws are fairly similar from state to state, but each state may have different laws about who may form a corporation, the number of board members that must be included and so on. 

Best Time to Take the Bar Exam

Anyone who wants to practice law in a specific state must take the bar exam for that state.  It's in your best interest to take the bar exam as soon as you have enough educational background to do so – typically immediately after you've completed a law school graduate program, or a month or so later to give you extra time to prepare.  Scheduling the exam for this time period will help keep the information you've learned fresh in your mind.

Components of the Bar Exam

The exam itself has five separate components.  The first component is the MPRE, or Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination.  This section focuses on ethics, and is only administered three times a year.  

The next three parts of the bar exam are administered by each individual state.  Even though administration dates may vary, each bar exam has the same three basic components.  First, prospective lawyers must answer a series of essay questions related to basic and state-specific legal guidelines.  The next two sections of the bar exam are composed of multiple choice questions that cover uniform legal codes and commerce-based laws. 

In addition, many states also require a fifth component.  In this section, test takers are presented with the kinds of documents that might be found in a particular legal situation.  In order to pass the Multistate Performance Test, the prospective lawyer must provide a sound legal opinion and draft any legal documentation necessary to the problem at hand.

Even though the bar exam is difficult to pass, you'll need to do so in order to practice law.  Given the number of steps involved in taking the exam, you'll want to spend a good bit of time preparing for the test.  Because you'll need to schedule two different test dates, it's crucial to make sure that you allow enough time in your schedule to sit for and prepare appropriately for both sections.