The Two-day Bar Exam in Georgia
For all applicants except those who are eligible for admission on motion without examination, admission to the practice of law in Georgia is a two-step process that requires the submission of two applications with separate deadlines and fees. You must first file an Application for Certification of Fitness (or, for foreign lawyers, a Petition for Admission of Foreign-Educated Applicants), and after you are notified that the Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants (“Fitness Board”) has certified you as fit to practice law, you must timely file a Bar Exam Application to become eligible to sit for a particular bar exam. You can view upcoming deadlines here. If you have already registered for the next bar exam and would like to review the rules, procedures, and instructions for that exam, click here.
Eligibility
The eligibility requirements to sit for the bar exam in Georgia are provided in Part B of our Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law in Georgia (“Rules”). A summary of the requirements is below, and additional requirements must be met by applicants who want to sit for the one-day Attorneys’ Exam.
- ABA-Approved Law School Requirement. Except for applicants who meet the requirements for foreign lawyers with an approved LL.M., applicants seeking admission in Georgia must have been awarded their JD from a law school approved by the American Bar Association. (For information about jurisdictions that do not require an ABA-approved legal education click here.)
- Valid Certification of Fitness. All applicants must receive a Certification of Fitness from the Fitness Board. If your Certification of Fitness is pending, suspended, or expired, you are not eligible to apply to sit for the bar exam. Certifications of Fitness expire after five years. If your Certification of Fitness will expire before the release of exam results, you must apply for (and receive)recertification of fitness.
- Filing Deadlines and Fees. The filing deadlines and fees for both the Fitness Application and the Bar Exam Application are established by our Rules, and the deadlines must be met and the fees must be timely paid in order for applicants to sit for the bar exam. For more information about upcoming deadlines and fees, click here.
- Transcript Requirement. In order to sit for the bar exam, your law school must provide your official transcript to the Office of Bar Admissions prior to the transcript deadline below. The transcript must indicate the degree awarded and the date conferred. If you have not yet graduated from law school, do not cause your law school to send a transcript before your transcript shows that you have received your degree. If your law school is unable to provide a degree-conferred transcript prior to the transcript deadline because your graduation date is not sufficiently in advance of the deadline, ask your law school to submit a letter (to transcripts@gasupreme.us) certifying that you graduated within the six months prior to the bar exam you wish to take. This certification letter will enable you to sit for the bar exam, but your official law school transcript will be required for you to receive your score. Official transcripts must be submitted directly by the degree-granting institution via email or regular mail. For information about transcript submission procedures, click here. To confirm receipt of your transcript, refer to the top, right side of your homepage under “Transcripts and MPRE.”
Deadline for Receipt of Transcripts February Exam January 31 (4 p.m.) July Exam June 30 (4 p.m.) - Timely Application for Applicants Requiring Non-Standard Testing Accommodations. It is the policy of the Board of Bar Examiners to provide non-standard testing accommodations to applicants with disabilities to the extent such accommodations are timely requested, reasonable, not unduly burdensome, consistent with the nature and purpose of the exam, and necessitated by the applicant’s disability. For information on how to apply for Nonstandard Testing Accommodations, click here.
- Timely Application for Applicants Requiring Administrative Accommodations. Applicants who require administrative accommodations, such as the ability to bring into the exam room diabetic supplies or food, a lactation pump, or lumbar support cushion, or applicants who need special seating arrangements (such as being seated near a restroom) due to a medical condition, must submit an Administrative Accommodation Request Form to the Office of Bar Admissions. For more information on Administrative Accommodations, click here.
In addition to the above, applicants must receive a passing score on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (“MPRE”) in order to be admitted to the practice of law in Georgia. The MPRE is administered three times a year (April, August, and November) by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. An MPRE score of 75 or higher is required to receive a Certificate of Eligibility to Practice Law, and Georgia does not impose an expiration date on MPRE scores. You may take the bar exam even if you have not yet satisfied the MPRE requirement, but you will not receive your Certificate of Eligibility until your passing MPRE score is received. For information about how to have your MPRE Score forwarded to the Office of Bar Admissions, click here.
Composition of the Two-Day Bar Exam
The exam consists of three parts: (1) the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), which is prepared by the NCBE and graded by the Board of Bar Examiners (and administered on the morning of the first day of the exam); (2) Four essay questions prepared and graded by the Board of Bar Examiners (and administered on the afternoon of the first day of the exam); and (3) The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), which is prepared and graded by the NCBE (and administered on the second day of the exam). The essay questions will be drawn from the following list of subjects: Business Organizations; Constitutional Law; Contracts; Criminal Law and Procedure; Evidence; Family Law; Federal Practice and Procedure; Georgia Practice and Procedure; Non-Monetary Remedies; Professional Ethics; Property; Torts; Trusts, Wills and Estates; and the Uniform Commercial Code (Articles 2, 3 & 9). More information about the MPT is available here and information about the MBE is available here. For tips on taking the bar exam, click here.
Scoring of the Two-Day Bar Exam
MBE raw scores (i.e., the number of items answered correctly out of a possible 200) are scaled by the NCBE, and the scaled MBE score comprises 50% of each applicant’s total score. Grades for each of the two MPT items are assigned a weight of 1.5 (i.e., 50% more than each of the four Essay questions). All MPT and Essay answers are graded; there is no minimum MBE score that is required in order for MPT and Essay answers to be graded. An applicant’s total raw written score is calculated by adding the grades on the four Essay questions with the two weighted MPT scores. The total raw written scores are then scaled to a score distribution that has the same mean and standard deviation as the applicant’s MBE scaled scores to calculate a written scaled score. That written scaled score comprises the other 50% of each applicant’s total score on the bar exam. For all applicants receiving a total score between 265 and 269 during the initial (pre-score-release) grading process, all of their MPT and Essay answers are regraded to ensure that the maximum number of points has been awarded. If any MPT or Essay answers receive a higher grade during regrade, the applicant’s scores are recalculated using the higher grade(s). The Bar Examiners are prohibited from considering additional regrades after score release.