I have received a bunch of questions about the July 2020 bar exam, mostly around whether or not there will be one and for strategies in studying before we have an official answer either at the national or state levels. There are a few possible scenarios, the first is to see what the NCBE does. The NCBE has stated that around May 5, 2020 they will announce if there will be a July 2020 bar exam at all. The NCBE does not control whether or not individual states have a bar exam, that is up to the states, but the NCBE does decide if there will be an MBE, MPT or MEE, which means that if they don’t administer it for July 2020, there will be no July 2020 bar exam anywhere (except maybe Louisiana, which is the only state not to use the MBE).
Regardless of anything, the NCBE has stated that they will do an administration of the MBE, MEE and MPT in the Fall of 2020, even if the July 2020 bar exam still happens. If July does happen, the questions in the Fall will be different. Even if the NCBE decides to administer a July 2020 exam, I suspect many states will choose not to hold a bar exam. This leaves us with what to do.
I suspect that a majority of states will not have a July 2020 bar exam, and I also suspect that the NCBE will not administer the MBE, MEE and MPT in July, although that depends on how many states have committed to have an exam in the next month or so. The NCBE will likely not administer the exam if only a small number of states can commit to having a bar exam.
The good news is that we should have an official answer at the NCBE level by May 5, which means that most students don’t need to worry about it or start studying now. If you feel that you need to study sooner than May 5th, feel free to send me a note and we can chat about your specific situation. The NCBE website will always have the latest information at their website here: http://www.ncbex.org/ncbe-covid-19-updates/
