Bar Exam & MPRE Resource Guide

The bar examination is administered twice a year, the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July. The examination is administered in two locations in February and July (Eastern and Western areas of the state).

The February bar examination results are released in mid- April, and July bar examination results are released in mid- October.

Old Exam Questions

The prior three year's bar exam questions with sample answers are available from the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners website at:

Subjects Tested

Essay Exam - six essay questions that consist of one or more of the following topics:

Business Organizations (including corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and professional corporations)
Contracts
Evidence (Pennsylvania and federal)
Federal Income Taxes (personal only and limited to taxable and non-taxable income, deductions, proprietorships and capital transactions)
Torts
Civil Procedure (Pennsylvania and federal)
Criminal Law (including related Pennsylvania and federal constitutional issues and DUI)
Family Law
Professional Responsibility
U.C.C., Art. II - Sales
Conflict of Laws
Employment Discrimination (limited to Title VII, ADA and ADEA)
Federal Constitutional Law
Real Property
Wills, Trusts and Decedents' Estates (including related fiduciary responsibilities)

Multi-State Bar Exam

Civil Procedure
Constitutional Law
Contracts
Criminal Law and Procedure
Evidence
Real Property
Torts

Performance Test - "By Order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania,one Performance Test (PT) question, developed by the Board, may be used in lieu of a Multistate Performance Test question as a component of the essay portion of the bar examination."

"Examples of tasks that might be required to be performed include preparing: letters to opposing counsel, opinion letters to clients, contract or will provisions, briefs, memorandum to a partner, legal memoranda, petitions, motions, and other tasks that a lawyer might be expected to perform."