North Carolina Bar Exam Information

2010 exam dates and location(s)

The February 2010 North Carolina bar exam will take place on Tuesday, February 23 and Wednesday, February 24. The July 2010 North Carolina bar exam will take place on Tuesday, July 27 and Wednesday, July 28. Exams are given in Raleigh at the North Carolina State Fair Grounds.

Subject matter (MBE subjects are in bold)

Agency, Civil Procedure, Commercial Paper, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Legal Ethics, Mortgages, Partnerships, Real Property, Secured Transactions, Suretyship and Liens, Torts, Trusts, Wills, Decedents’ Estates, and Equity.

Structure

The Tuesday exam day consists of 12 essays. 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 essays are worth 60% of the total score. The MBE is worth 40%. The results of each section are combined to determine if an applicant has achieved a passing score.

MPRE

An examinee must achieve a minimum scaled score of 80 on the MPRE within 24 months before or 12 months after taking the North Carolina bar exam.

Pass rate

North Carolina’s pass rate for the July 2008 exam was 86% for first time takers, and 78% for all takers.

Other exam information

An applicant may take the North Carolina bar prior to graduation from law school provided that he or she graduates within 30 days of sitting for the exam.

A laptop program is available to all interested candidates for a $100 fee. The Board encourages all candidates to use the laptop program.

Bar examiner contact information

Application deadlines and fees

For the February 2010 exam, the timely deadline is October 5, 2009; the fee associated with that deadline is $600. The late deadline for the February 2010 exam is November 2, 2009; the fee associated with that deadline is $250 (late fee) plus $600 (exam fee), for a total fee of $850.

All fees must be submitted via check, money order, or certified check made payable to “Board of Law Examiners.”

Forms

The following is a summary of requirements that must be met when applying for the North Carolina bar exam: 1) application answers can be typed or printed in BLACK ink, however, the Board prefers typed answers; 2) the original application must be submitted in DOUBLE-SIDED format; 3) the original application must be signed and notarized and filed in duplicate (duplicate filing does not apply to attachments); and 4) the Certificate of Moral Character forms must be filed in duplicate by FOUR individuals and mailed directly to the Board’s office within 30 days (each form must be notarized individually).

Character and Fitness considerations

The Board interviews all applicants for a determination of character and fitness. The Board will obtain a copy of each applicant’s credit report from Experian.

Results

The Board releases the results of the February exam in late March, and the results of the July exam in late August. Individual results are mailed to each examinee. All results are posted to the Board’s website.

An unsuccessful examinee may review his or her exam in the Board’s office by contacting the Board and setting up a time to do so. The Board will not assist unsuccessful examinees in such review. An unsuccessful examinee may also request a copy of his or her scores by emailing the request to info@ncble.org. Scores will be mailed directly to examinee.

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