July 2013 California Bar Exam Information

July 2013 California Bar Exam

The next administration of the California Bar Exam is July 30, 31, and August 1, 2013. Applications became available March 1, 2013. The Final Filing Deadline is June 17, 2013. Applicants must file online to take the examination at http://www.calbarxap.com/.

February 2013 California Bar Examination Results Will Be Released Friday, May 17, 2013.

The results for the February 2013 California bar exam will be mailed to applicants on May 17, 2013, and available online at http://apps.calbar.ca.gov/exam/. The February 2013 California bar exam pass list will be publicly available on Sunday, May 19, 2013.

Format of the California Bar Examination

The California Bar Exam includes both the General Bar Examination and the Attorneys' Examination.

General Bar Examination

The General Bar Examination lasts 3 days and contains 3 parts: the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), 6 essay questions, and 2 performance tests. On the 1st and 3rd day of the General Bar Examination, 3 hours are allotted for 3 essays questions and 1 performance test (6 hours total per day). On the 2nd day of the General Bar Examination, the 200-question, 6 hour MBE is administered.

Attorneys' Examination

The Attorneys' Examination consists of the 6 essays questions and 2 performance tests from the General Bar Examination. The Attorneys' Examination does not include the MBE.

Scope and Subject Coverage of the California Bar Exam

The California Bar Exam covers the subjects of Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Community Property, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, Real Property, Remedies, Torts, Trusts, and Wills and Succession. Except for portions of Civil Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, and Wills and Succession, the California Bar Exam does not test California-specific law. Instead, the exam tests "legal theories and principles of general application."

Grading of the California Bar Exam

On the written portion of the California Bar Exam (essays and performance tests), there is 1,000 possible raw points, including 100 points for each essay (600 essay points total) and 200 points for each performance test (400 performance test points total). To obtain the raw written score, each essay and performance test is assigned a raw score in 5-point increments on a scale of 40 to 100. The raw written score is then translated to a 2,000 point scale. Likewise, the raw MBE score is scaled to a 2,000-point scale. An applicant's total score is the scaled MBE score (on the 2,000 point scale) multiplied by .35 plus the scaled written score (on the 2,000 point scale) multiplied by .65. This scaling process results in the written portion being weighted at 65% and the MBE weighted at 35%. A total of 1,440 points (72% scaled average) is necessary to pass the California Bar Examination.

Recent California Bar Exam Passing Rates

Recent "All Takers" pass rates on the California bar exam include the following: July 2012, 55.3%; February 2012, 42.5%; and, July 2011, 53.9%. Complete California Bar Examination statistics are available from the California Bar.

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