Georgia Bar Exam Information

2010 exam dates and location(s)

The February 2010 Georgia bar exam will take place on Tuesday, February 23 and Wednesday, February 24. The July 2010 Georgia bar exam will take place on Tuesday, July 27 and Wednesday, July 28. Exams are given at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park.

Subject matter (MBE subjects are in bold)

Business Organizations, Commercial Paper, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Federal and Georgia Practice and Procedure, Non-Monetary Remedies, Professional Ethics, Real Property, Secured Transactions, Torts, Trusts, and Wills and Estates.

Structure

The Tuesday exam day consists of the written portion of the exam – four essays (45 minutes each) and two MPTs (90 minutes each). The Wednesday exam day consists of the MBE. The MBE is a 200 question multiple choice exam. 100 questions are asked in the morning over a three hour period, and 100 questions are asked in the afternoon over a three hour period. The MBE has 33 questions each for Contracts and Torts, and 31 questions each for Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, and Real Property. 190 of the 200 questions are graded, the other 10 are experimental. 200 questions over six hours averages out to 1.8 minutes per question.

Scoring

The raw scores on the MPTs are multiplied by 1.5 and added to the raw scores on the essays. The raw MBE score is converted to a 200 point MBE scale. The final score is a combination of the raw scores on the written portion of the exam added to the scaled MBE score. An examinee must achieve a minimum score of 270 (out of 400) in order to pass. Essays and MPTs will not be graded unless the examinee achieves a minimum scaled score of 115 on the MBE.

MPRE

An applicant must achieve a minimum score of 75 on the MPRE.

Pass rate

Georgia’s pass rate for the July 2008 exam was 91% for first time takers, and 84% for all takers.

Other exam information

A laptop program is available to all interested applicants for a $100 fee.

Bar examiner contact information

Application deadlines

The fitness application must be received before 4:30 PM on or before the submission deadline. Postmarking by the deadline is not acceptable. The deadline for submission of the fitness application for the February 2010 bar exam has passed.

The timely application deadline for the July 2010 exam is June 5, 2010. Transcripts must be received by June 15, 2010.

Application fees

The fitness application fee for timely submission is $500; an additional $400 late fee will be assessed for a fitness application submitted after the deadline.

The bar exam application fee is $90, which may be paid via money order or cashier’s check payable to “Office of Bar Admissions.”

The MBE fee is $74, which may be paid via money order or cashier’s check payable to “National Conference of Bar Examiners.”

Forms

In order to sit for the Georgia bar exam, candidates must complete a two-step process – step one being the Certification of Fitness, and step two being the application. The following is a summary of the process:

1. Step One – The Certification of Fitness:
   1. The Certification of Fitness must be filed at least eight months prior to the date of the exam for which the applicant intends to sit, and is good for five years from the date of filing;
   2. Two fingerprint cards must be submitted (fingerprint cards must be obtained from the Office by downloading a request form from the web site and sending the completed form to the Office); and
   3. The Certification of Fitness must be typed; no handwritten responses will be accepted.
2. Step Two – Application:
   1. The Georgia bar exam application is only available to those who hold a valid Certification of Fitness (in the form of a letter mailed to the applicant); and
   2. The Georgia bar exam application is not available online.

Undergraduate and law school transcripts must be submitted to the Office prior to sitting for the exam.

Character and Fitness considerations

The Certification of Fitness is available as a downloadable program or in PDF format; however, the PDF version results in slower processing of the application. The following must be included with an application for Certification of Fitness: 1) two fingerprint cards, 2) the filing fee, and 3) the application – a printed version of the application that is signed and notarized, or a downloaded version of the application submitted on a floppy disk, CD, or USB.

Student loan default and/or a failure to make child support payments may lead to a denial of admission if these issues have not been resolved by the time the application is submitted.

Applicants are required to file narratives for all criminal and DUI offenses. Narratives must include the arresting officers’ reports and any certified court documents relating to the offense(s).

An applicant must submit his or her driving records for every jurisdiction (including Georgia) in which he or she holds a current drivers license, and for every jurisdiction (including Georgia) in which he or she has held a license during the 12 months prior to submitting the application. Driving record reports cannot be dated more than six months prior to application submission.

Each applicant is responsible for amending his or her application within 30 days of any occurrence that changes the answer to any question.

Results

The Board releases the results of the February exam in late May, and the results of the July exam in late October. The Board mails results and posts them to its web site at 4:00 PM on the scheduled release date.

*All state bar exam information is subject to change without notice; please verify this information with the bar examiner’s office.*