Illinois Bar Exam Information

2010 exam dates and location(s)

The February 2010 Illinois bar exam will take place on Tuesday, February 23 and Wednesday, February 24. The July 2010 Illinois bar exam will take place on Tuesday, July 27 and Wednesday, July 28. The Illinois bar exam is administered at various sites in Chicago within four to eight blocks of Water Tower.

Subject matter (MBE subjects are in bold)

Administrative Law, Agency, Commercial Paper, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, Contracts/Sales, Corporations, Criminal Law and Procedure, Equity, Evidence, Family Law, Federal Jurisdiction and Procedure, Federal Taxation, Illinois Civil Procedure, Partnerships, Personal Property, Real Property, Secured Transactions, Suretyship, Torts, Trusts and Future Interests, and Wills (Decedents’ Estates).

Structure

The Tuesday exam day consists of the written portion of the exam, divided into a morning and an afternoon session. The Tuesday morning session consists of three 30-minute Illinois essays, and one 90-minute MPT. The Tuesday afternoon session consists of six 30-minute MEE questions.

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 written portion of the exam is worth approximately 50% of the total score (approximately 43% essays, 7% MPT). The MBE is worth approximately 50% of the total score.

MPRE

A candidate for admission to the Illinois bar must achieve a minimum scaled score of 80 on the MPRE. Before sitting for the MPRE, the applicant must have earned the lesser of 60 credit hours or two-thirds of the total credits required for a Juris Doctorate. In other words, most applicants may not sit for the MPRE any sooner than the August preceding commencement of the examinee’s final year of law school. Applicants need not take the MPRE prior to sitting for the bar exam, but the Board must receive proof of the applicant’s passing score before the Board can recommend admission to the Illinois bar.

Pass rate

Illinois’ pass rate for the July 2008 exam was 92% for first time takers, and 88% for all takers.

Other exam information

A laptop program is available to a limited number interested examinees for a $100 fee.

Applicants will receive an email with detailed instructions and a link to seat voucher information approximately two weeks prior to the exam.

Each applicant is responsible for reviewing announcements and information posted to the website, updating current email contact information, regularly reading emails sent to that email address, and adding “ibaby.org” to that email account’s address book in order to keep emails from landing in his or her spam folder.

Bar examiner contact information

Paper applications must be sent to the above address. Once received, each application is assigned to a file processing team. Team assignments and contact information may be retrieved from the Board’s website. An applicant with questions regarding his or her individual application must contact his or her assigned team directly via email or phone.

Application deadlines

The Law Student Registration (LSR) deadline is March 1 for applicants who matriculate in the fall, and July 1 for applicants who matriculate in January.

Illinois has three filing deadlines for exam applications – regular, late, and really late. The following deadlines apply to the February Illinois bar exam: regular (September 1), late (September 1 through November 1), and really late (November 2 through December 31).

The following deadlines apply to the July Illinois bar exam: regular (February 1), late (February 2 through April 1), and really late (April 2 through May 31).

All deadlines are postmark deadlines. Use of “delivery confirmation” mailing method is encouraged by the Board, as it will not otherwise mail a verification of receipt of application materials. However, the Board will send an acknowledgement of receipt of application materials via email within two to four weeks.

Application fees

The LSR fee is $100 during an applicant’s first year of law school, and $450 during an applicant’s second year of law school.

The fee for an exam application filed within the regular filing deadline is $250 if the applicant previously filed a LSR, and $700 if the applicant did not previously file a LSR.

The fee for an exam application filed within the late filing deadline is $500 if the applicant previously filed a LSR, and $950 if the applicant did not previously file a LSR.

The fee for an exam application filed within the really late filing deadline is $1,000 if the applicant previously filed a LSR, and $1,450 if the applicant did not previously filed a LSR.

Application fees must be submitted via credit card (a $15 convenience fee per charge will be assessed), or via certified check, cashier’s check, or money order made payable to “Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar.”

Forms

All forms are available in August for the February exam, and in January for the July exam.

The following is a summary of forms that must be filed electronically if applicable: 1) long form character and fitness questionnaire for LSR or non-LSR exam applicants; 2) short form character and fitness questionnaire for LSR exam applicants; and 3) Illinois State Police and Criminal History form.

The following is a summary of forms that must be filed in paper form by all applicants: 1) authorization and release form (must be completed, signed, and dated before a notary public); and 2) Dean’s certificate (must be completed by the Dean).

Character and Fitness considerations

The Board strongly recommends that any applicant with matters of character and fitness concern register immediately following the commencement of law school. If an applicant does not register during the first year of law school and has no matters of character and fitness concern, there is no financial advantage to that applicant if he or she registers after his or her first year of law school. In other words, the applicant may bypass registration and postpone filing the character and fitness application until after filing the exam application.

Results

The Board releases results for the February exam during the first two weeks of April, and results for the July exam during the first two weeks of October. Exam results are mailed to examinees and posted on the Board’s website.

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