Without a doubt, the bar exam is hard, but just how hard is the bar exam? In my time, I took New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California bar exams. I must tell that the degree of difficulty significantly varied among the three.
The bar exam is one of the hardest exams in the United States. The bar exam is hard because bar takers must understand factual patterns, recall, interpret, and apply a large volume of law to presented facts. The difficulty of the bar exam varies from state to state.
In this blog post, I go over how hard is bar exam is, why and when it is so hard, which states have the hardest and easiest bar exams. Shall we?
How hard is taking the bar exam?
Since I took several bars exams, I can confidently say that the first bar exam is the hardest. Subsequent bar exams are easier because you are familiar with the process and approach.
Factors contributing to the hardness of taking the bar exam include the ones listed below.
Bar Exam Is Long and Complicated
The bar exam is usually a two-day brutal test-taking marathon. The first day includes 200 multiple choice questions covering many nuances across all major areas of law.
And note that some of the questions have several correct answers instead of one. Therefore, the test-taker’s task is to select the best answer among a couple of correct answers.
That is quite a subjective thing, in my opinion? That subjectivity makes multiple-choice even more difficult.
The next day consists of writing six 30-minute essays, answering the sometimes complicated legal, factual situation. Bar takers must read the question and facts, analyze and decipher them, and then interpret and correctly apply the legal concepts.
And each question almost always touches on many different principles of law within that area of law. Plus, each factual situation almost always presents multiple vague nuances so that there is no easy answer.
Each bar exam taker must recall and correctly apply as many legal principles as possible quickly. For each correct application of each legal principle, they receive points.
And you rack up points one by one while going through each multiple-choice question or essay—all that within a minimal time.
The length and format of the bar exam may vary from state to state. For example, the California bar exam is a three-day marathon instead of two.
Vast Amount of Law to Memorize Makes Bar Exam Difficult
Law is a vast area. Bar exam takers must memorize an enormous range of legal norms and concepts in many areas of law. And then each rule of law has exceptions.
Then each exception may have exceptions to those exceptions. Then there are myriad nuances that were never covered in law school at all.
You have codified law; you have court cases; you have legal doctrines to worry about, and so on.
And some states like California also have the third day of the exam. Some states test only federal general concepts of law.
Other states test both federal and state law, making bar exams more complicated because now bar taker has to figure out the application and interaction of federal and state law.
Quick analysis and interpretation are necessary on bar exam.
A significant element of difficulty of the bar exam is that usually, there is no easy yes or no answer to the poised question or fact pattern.
Test-takers are often presented with a short legal, factual situation, and within the minimal time, they must read and understand the factual underpinnings of the poised problem.
Then bar takers must dip into their memory to recall the subjects they studied in the first year of law school. And like computer processors, find and retrieve sound applicable principles of law and correctly apply them to facts presented.
This process requires plenty of subjective interpretation versus objective calculations.
This subjectivity and ambiguity of law is the primary element that makes the bar exam especially difficult, challenging, and mind-boggling. As I have said, there are almost no easy “yes” or “no” answers on the bar.
Essentially, bar takers often simply guess on the exam and mention as many possible theories on essays, for example. The wrongly applied legal rule is not counted towards the overall candidate’s score.
Bar Exam Is a Tedious Process
During the bar exam, takers are presented with literally more than 200 different factual patterns. And they must tediously and diligently but quickly work through each and single one of them, one by one, without losing their steam.
Each of the questions could be equally important and must be addressed equally well by the bar exam taker.
So, moving from factual to another factual pattern requires quickly switching the brain from one question to another.
That is not easy as the mind keeps wandering during bar exams about whether you adequately answered previous questions.
This constant change of fact patterns and applicable law requires incredible discipline, emotional and mental strength from bar test takers. To put it in short – the bar exam is quite a mentally stressful thing to experience.
Uncertainty of bar exam result
Most first-time bar examination takers have only a vague idea of what to expect. Sure, bar exam prep training helps, and training companies go over mock bar exams. But taking mock tests is not the same as experiencing real ones.
Each bar exam may contain some new types of questions, new legal niches, additional experimental questions, for which the bar taker simply is not prepared.
For the reasons above, mock bar exams do not offer utterly correct feedback on whether the bar taker will pass the bar or not.
Passing the bar exam is never guaranteed and always remains uncertain except for those few who simply ace all mock tests in training.
Especially it is hard to take a bar exam and estimate your results in states where the bar exam is traditionally difficult. So below, I will list the states with the most difficult bar exams.
Pressure, Stress, and Anxiety
For the reasons below, many candidates come to the bar exam stressed and anxious.
Think about it: they have spent three years in law school, then 6-12 months preparing for exam, hundred thousand dollars or more in student debt, and now their potential career as an attorney is hanging on just one 2-3 day bar exam.
The stress in law school with the stress of bar preparation on top of it is a heavy burden.
And, unfortunately, all bar exam takers carry that burden of stress and exhaustion with them into the test room.
Stress and anxiety make the process of taking a bar exam even harder.
Therefore, bar takers must relax and calm down before the exam to make things easier.
But the second or third bar exam taking can be as stressful and challenging because of the pressure of the previous failure.
Do not worry; many people fail the bar exam. Just focus on your preparation, eat, and sleep well before the exam.
Then, focus and do your best during the exam. Finally, entirely concentrate on answering questions and writing essays during the bar exam.
There may be additional anxiety resulting from the fact that you sometimes have 100-200 other test-takers in the bar exam room.
This may make you subconsciously start thinking they are all your competition. Relax, they are not.
You only need to score enough points to pass it. Then, once the exam starts, ignore hundred other test takers around you, ignore they’re fast clicking or typing on their laptops, and focus on your laptop screen only.
If other bar exam takers are typing something fast, it does not mean they are typing something clever or correct. OK?
Law Schools Do Not Prepare for Bar Exam
Another reason why the bar exam is hard is because law schools do not specifically prepare students for the bar exam.
Law school exams are kind of like what students must do on the bar exam. But law exams are not nearly as long and complicated.
In law school, students often take electives that will not be on the bar exam. And bar covers many sub-topics and nuances which law students never learned in law school for lack of classroom time.
As a result, in preparation for the bar exam, students must spend considerable time and money.
And during preparation for the bar exam, law school graduates are often surprised to realize that they did not cover even half of the stuff tested.
Thus, law students and graduates genuinely know the meaning of the word “unfairness.”
In my opinion, the law school must cater to training students for bar exams instead of pushing the Socratic method.
Because as of right now, preparation for the bar exam is so different from law school studies that it can be counted as a separate law training program on top of law school.
I firmly believe that at least the third year of law school must be solely dedicated to bar exam training.
Is the bar exam the hardest exam?
Bar exam justifiably has the reputation and notoriety for being a hard exam. But the bar exam is not the hardest one.
Some other professional exams which can be more challenging than the bar exam include the medical doctor (MD) licensing exam (USMLE), certified public accountant (CPA) exam, and chartered financial analyst (CFA) exam.
For example, the CPA exam has five parts, and the average CPA exam passage rate is 52% nationwide.
Interestingly, the sommelier (wine specialist) exam is one of the toughest in the world.
I will also mention other tough exams such as the NASA astronaut exam, military special forces exams (like the exam to become NAVY seal where only one recruit in 40 passes it), and so on.
Exam to be a fighter pilot also should be tough.
Therefore, the bar exam is not the hardest in the world unless it is the California bar exam. This is a semi-joke.
How common is it to fail the bar exam? Is the bar exam difficult to pass?
The simple answer is that the bar exam is difficult to pass. But the answer depends on multiple factors. The better you prepare, the higher is the probability of you passing.
American Bar Association’s data reveals that the USA’s national first-time bar exam passing rate USA is about 79%. That means that four out of 5 candidates pass the bar.
But, at the same time, it also means that about 20% of bar takers fail the bar exam on the first try.
This number is an aggregate average of bar passing rates across all U.S. states. Thus, some states have a higher bar passage rate, while others have a lower rate (see details by hardest and easiest bar states below).
Therefore, thousands of people fail the bar every single year. Often, they retake the bar and pass it on the second or third try.
I will not say that the bar exam was easy for me. Therefore, it is not uncommon and not shameful to fail to pass the bar exam on the first or even on the second try.
I know attorneys who took it 2-8(!) times, eventually passing it after multiple attempts. Talking about dedication, right?
Bar Exam is Designed to Screen Out Candidates
There are too many lawyers in the profession and few job openings. As a result, law schools produce too many J.D.s. Therefore, each state created a bar exam to screen out the “weakest” candidates. Then more capable bar takers pass the bar exam and become attorneys.
This way state is keeping a cap on how many attorneys are admitted to practice in the state. And legal profession overall protects its profits by restricting access to law practice by employing screening candidates using bar exam.
Which States Have the Hardest Bar Exams?
Statistically, some of the states having the hardest bar exams are D.C., California, Delaware, Arkansas, Washington, Nevada, Louisiana, Oregon, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, West Virginia, New York, and Alaska.
Therefore, if you plan to take a bar exam in those states, you need to seriously pump up your bar preparation efforts.
California, Delaware, Washington, Louisiana, Nevada, and Alaska bar exams are probably the hardest to pass from this list. For example, Alaska adopted Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) format and required the highest passing score of 280 among all states which adopted UBE.
Florida raised its passing score requirements in 2003. In addition, Florida does not allow reciprocity for experienced attorneys from another state.
Meaning, even experienced out-of-state attorneys must sit for the Florida bar exam if they want to practice in Florida. California is another challenging bar exam to take because of high score requirements (recently lowered).
How Hard is the Bar Exam in California?
California, at one point, had a 39% bar passage rate in 2020-2021 and 40% in 2018. This is the lowest in the country.
In addition, the California bar exam is very hard and includes a third extra day with its Performance Test. Many other states do not have this extra day of the exam.
I found the performance test to be most challenging because law school did not train us on that. As a result, the performance test is essentially a mock case to work on under time pressure.
Note that California’s low bar passing rate is also attributable to the fact that California allows candidates to sit for bar exams without going to law school.
And those unschooled bar takers contribute to a large percentage of bar failure, spoiling the whole statistics.
About 80% of bar takers who did not go to ABA-accredited law school do not pass the bar exam on the first try.
Note that in 2020 California lowered its bar exam requirement by 3.5% from 1440 to 1390. That has lead to about a 15% increase in bar passage rate for 2020. But this trend may or may not continue.
Other States With Challenging Bar Examinations
Louisiana bar exam is not in UBE format. Bar takers must know both common and civil law, some law codes of France and Europe. Only Louisiana law schools teach that law.
Delaware is hard because candidates must do plenty of work just to be allowed to sit for the D.E. bar exam even before the bar exam. Plus, Delaware has high score passing requirements.
Arkansas bar is also hard, according to statistics. Nevada bar exam is difficult, and at one point, only about 50% of takers passed it.
The Washington state bar exam is probably difficult because many bar candidates flock to the state due to the previously booming economy.
In addition, Washington makes it tough to pass the bar with hard grading and a 270 minimum UBE score threshold.
Finally, the Oregon bar exam is trailing Washington’s one with about 5th in difficulty in the country.
Arizona, Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Florida also have relatively low pass rates in the 60s%, and they are considered difficult exams too.
For example, Arizona’s minimum cut-off UBE score is 273, and Colorado’s 276 – the second-highest after Alaska.
How to Pass Bar Exam?
You will pass the bar if you put sufficient time and energy into bar preparation. I suggest taking reputable bar preparation courses because they train you specifically to pass the bar. Lots of practice is the crucial element of passing the bar exam.
It means that you can pass the bar exam because it is not the hardest. Even if you fail the bar exam on the first or second attempt, you may go to a state with an easier bar exam and pass it there.
Note that once you pass the bar exam in a particular state, you usually can obtain an attorney license and practice law only in that state.
But their federal law areas technically allowing practicing lawyers to serve clients all around the country. Immigration law is one example.
And now, with UBE, some bar scores are transferrable between states, depending on the existence of reciprocity agreements between them.
Also, once you keep your license and remain in good standing in the state, you may later waive into several other states as an attorney without retaking the bar exam.
How hard is studying for the bar
Passing the bar exam requires good preparation and plenty of work. Therefore, studying for the bar is as hard as studying for any other challenging exam.
There are two most essential components for bar preparation:
- Learning and memorizing the black letter law and
- practicing taking bar exam sections.
I prepared for the bar exam myself, using only bar prep textbooks. I did not take any bar preparation courses and do not recommend it. Preparing myself was a huge disadvantage in comparison to those who took bar preparation courses.
And after you graduate, you should take a bar review course just to make your life much easier. By taking a bar prep course, you reduce the chances of failing on bar exam.
Studying for the bar exam requires quite a bit of reading and reviewing black letter law across many different areas of law which will be tested. But, most importantly, everyone must put plenty of practice before even attempting to sit for a bar exam.
Because bar exam practice is a second necessary component of preparation after reading and learning black letter law. Taking a bar exam is a different skill, and only practice makes it perfect.
Additionally, if you practice and time yourself, you will be mentally and psychologically prepared for the real thing. Then you can hit the ground running as soon as proctors announce the beginning of the bar exam.
I suggest you start studying for the bar exam in your 2L or maximum in a 3L year. Because at that point, your law school grades are pretty much settled. And now you need to pass the bar exam to justify three years of law school.
And do not forget that you need to obtain your return on $100,000+ of additional student debt incurred as a law student.
The sooner you start preparing, the easier it will be to pass the bar exam. I again suggest taking a good bar review course after you graduate with a J.D. Bar review course allows covering all necessary ins and outs of taking the bar exam.
Bar exam covers so much law that you by yourself will have no time and discipline to prepare while you are in law school.
Which states have the easiest bar exams?
Many law school graduates investigate states with the easiest bar exams to find, well, easy way to pass.
Without any further due, states with the easy bar exams generally include Kansas, Montana, Utah, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Alabama, New Mexico.
Based on the minimum UBE passing score, the state’s bar passage rate, and other statistics, the following states may have the easiest bar exams in the USA: Minnesota, New Mexico, Missouri, Kansas, and possibly Montana.
Note that many states adopted UBE (Uniform Bar Examination) bar exam. Thus, UBE is identical between those states.
It is not the hardness of the bar exam that matters, but the required minimum score to pass UBE in a particular state (cut score). The UBE cut score requirement ranges between 260 and 280 among different states.
The good news is that even if your UBE bar exam score is less than the minimum required in your target state, you can transfer your UBE score to some other states where that score is accepted. And then you can get licensed as an attorney in that state.
Here is the list of states with the easiest bar exams in the USA. I excluded results for the February bar exams because those are the most difficult ones. In addition, states often include experimental questions in the February bar exam.
| State | UBE Passing Score | Bar Passage Rate 2020 (Exclude February) | State Law on Bar | Other considerations |
| Alabama | 260 | 71% | Yes | |
| Minnesota | 260 | 67%-90% | No | |
| Missouri | 260 | 84% | Yes | |
| New Mexico | 260 | 89% | Yes | |
| North Dakota | 260 | 76% | No | |
| Oklahoma | 264 | 80% (2020 non-UBE) | No | Unknown Weighting |
| Indiana | 264 | 74%-78% Non -UBE; UBE in 2021 | Yes | Unknown weighting |
| Wisconsin | No Bar Required | – | – | – |
| Kansas | 266 | July 2019 – 85% | No | |
| Montana | 266 | 80% | Yes | |
| South Dakota | Non-UBE but UBE tested | 70% | Yes. One extra essay on Indian law | |
| New York | 266 | 84% | No | But must pass separate New York Law Exam prior to MPRE and MBE |
| Iowa | 266 | 80% |
Note that the passage rate and hardness of exams may change from year to year between states.
Alabama, Minnesota, New Mexico, Missouri, North Dakota have the lowest UBE score requirement of 260.
That could mean that these states administer the easiest bar exams in the country, but this data requires more analysis. For example, Oklahoma is trailing with its 264 UBE requirement, but it has problems with the bar exam.
Specifics of Bar Exam By Easy States
Oklahoma – UBE will be first administered in July of 2021. Therefore there is no data yet. Plus, there is no exact data as to how the test will be weighted.
Previously Oklahoma had a specific Oklahoma type of bar exam and weighted UBE differently than other UBE states.
Kansas did not publish its 2020 UBE data yet. South Dakota is a non-UBE test but tests UBE plus has one essay on state Indian law subject. Indiana is switching to UBE starting 2021, so there is no data yet about the pass rate.
Iowa has a slightly higher UBE passing score requirement of 266, and its high pass rate is about 80%-85%. But I have heard that Iowa exam grading is not as easy as the other bunch above.
This information could be wrong. The UBE score requirement removes Iowa state from my shortlist of states with the easiest bar exams.
New York bar is not easiest as candidates must pass state-specific law exam before even sitting for UBE.
I think a higher passage rate is due to many qualified, competent candidates from good law schools taking the N.Y. bar exam. From all, I have heard N.Y. bar exam is not that easy. Therefore, NY also would not be on my easy list.
Easiest Bar Exams Analysis – Hardness of Grading Matters
Let us do some analysis to figure out which bar exam is the easiest. Generally, I would take the one administered in the summer to have a better chance of passing. February one often includes weird experimental questions.
Alabama and South Dakota have lower bar exam pass rates than other easy bar states, so they are out of my shortlist.
Why is the pass rate significant? Because individual bar graders grade all bar exams, and thus some subjectivity is involved. Therefore, different graders in different states may grade bar exams harder or easier.
That factor is hard to predict. But high state bar passage rate with a similar UBE score requirement and absence of state law component may indicate that bar exams are graded easier in those states.
For example, New Mexico has quite a high 89% bar passage rate despite testing some state law on the exam.
This may mean that their grading is somewhat easier than one in Alabama or South Dakota. New Mexico would be on my shortlist for that reason.
But it also means that the pool of bar takers may be stronger in New Mexico vs. Alabama for 2020. You know, sunny weather and cheap housing attract newcomers to New Mexico.
At the same time, I have heard that New Mexico suffers from a shortage of attorneys in rural areas and is possibly willing to grade bar exams easier to cover that shortage.
They even formally allowed paralegals to fully practice law in limited areas to cover that shortage.
Kansas and Montana, for example, do not have state law requirements and have decently high bar passage rates, depending on the date taken.
Montana has a 90% pass rate for the fall bar exam of 2020 despite having a slightly higher 266 minimum UBE score requirement. But it had a 67% pass rate for the earlier exam. Must be careful here and look at the big picture.
Which are The Easiest Bar Exams Then?
It is hard to calculate which of the state has THE easiest bar exam. But at the end of this section, I will list several states which I consider to have the easiest bar exams in the country based on overall statistics.
Another factor is the absence of state law testing on the bar exam. For example, Missouri tests only UBE and does not test any state-specific law on the bar exam. With a relatively high pass score, it would be on my shortlist also.
Kansas has a higher UBE requirement but tests no state law and has a relatively high bar passing rate of 85%. So let’s include it too.
You should notice that states with the easiest bar exams with lower score requirements often have the lowest population. I also should note that these states have fewer bar takers because of limited opportunities and strict local bar admission rules.
Inferior legal job markets result in fewer bar applicants. That is why they may have set lower bar requirements.
Of the shortlist above, Kansas is probably the winner for lack of state law requirement, high bar passage rate, and relatively low UBE score requirement.
My second pick would be New Mexico for the high pass rate and Missouri for the low UBE cut-off rate and high bar passage rate. And here is my ranking of the states with the easiest bar exams in the USA:
- Kansas
- New Mexico
- Missouri
- Montana
- Minnesota
I note that some other authors consider Montana, Kansas, and Missouri to have the easiest bar exams in the country. Note that Kansas has limited bar reciprocity with many other states.
When choosing a state with an easy bar exam, please inquire about recipropcity if you plan to transfer your UBE scores later to another state.
Other Bar Exam State Considerations
Wisconsin allows diploma privilege for graduates to get admitted to Wisconsin bar straight from the law school without taking the bar at all.
Surprisingly, among densely populated states, New York, New Jersey, District of Columbia, Maryland, Illinois, Connecticut all require UBE scores of about 266 to pass the bar.
The UBE 266 cut-off score is below the average nationwide requirement of 260-280.
But bar examiners possibly may grade harder in such saturated legal markets and thus have lower pass rates. Plus, the state law component may spoil the picture.
New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Utah talk about potentially lowering cut-off scores even further.
In addition, some states are floating the possibility of diploma privilege, like in Wisconsin. That means that graduates from in-state law schools will not need to take the bar exam at all.
Big cities and more densely populated states have a more robust economy, better job markets, and potentially higher income. That is why they attract more lawyers, and that it is why local bar associations set higher bar requirements to protect local attorneys from the competition.
If you pass the UBE bar exam in one of the easier states, you can later move to another state with a higher UBE exam cut-off score if your UBE is high enough for that second state.
Most of these states do not allow non-ABA accredited law graduates to take the bar exam, as California does. And these states do not allow people to sit for bar examination unless they went through ABA-accredited law school.
Therefore, most people who did not go to law school but want to take the bar examination go to California. And often, these people are less competent than law school graduates. So, take the easiest or hardest bar exam statistics with some grain of salt.
Conclusion.
The bar examination is difficult, but it is not the hardest one. And the difficulty varies between the states. If you prepare well, you have a high chance to pass the bar exam in most states unless it is the California bar exam.
Who wants to live in California, anyway? Just kidding.
Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6, Source 7, Source 8, Source 9