Author: Dwight Zenzano

Due to Covid-19, today marks the first ever Fall Bar Exam which is being held in Virginia, and next month in October will be the first ever for DC. Both DC and Virginia are offering shortened bar exams (Two 1/2 days in DC and 1 day in VA) but each are quite different. Let’s start with today’s exam in Virginia…

Virginia is offering a 1 day essay only exam today, meaning no MBE score is required to pass this exam. The passing score for all applicants is 64 raw Virginia Essay points out of a possible 100. Virginia gives 9 essay questions (10 points each) and 10 multiple choice questions (1 point each). This is a great opportunity for those who struggle on the MBE as this has never been an option before and likely never will again. Good luck to everyone today and remember to check the VBBE (Virginia Board of Bar Examiners) Covid-19 FAQ as there are strict requirements on the amounts and types of PPE you may bring to the exam.

Now, onto the Washington DC bar exam which will be held next month on October 5th and 6th. DC is taking a different approach and is still testing the full exam (sort of), but only 1/2 the normal amount of questions. Additionally, DC will be having their first ever “virtual bar exam”! This means students will be taking the exam from home. Let’s break down each of these starting with the Remote bar exam. This means that all test takers will be taking the exam from home, using their laptops and webcams. There will be monitors observing and special precautions taken. DC is notorious for poor exam administration so please be prepared for long delays and numerous technical difficulties. The exam starts at noon each day so hopefully they will spend time in the morning proactively working to ensure a smooth exam administration but prepare for there to be issues.

The DC exam will still be held over two days but will only be half the normal time and number of questions. The exam will be 3 hours per day instead of 6 hours per day and will start at noon each day with a 30 minute break. Day one will start with 1 MPT (instead of the usual 2) and you will have 90 minutes and then a 30 minute break. This will be followed by 3 MEE questions (instead of the usual 6). Day 2 will also start at noon and there will be 100 MBE questions (instead of the usual 200) with a 30 minute break after 1.5 hours. So expect 50 questions in 1.5 hours, then a 30 minute break, then the remaining 50 questions. This is great for folks who have stamina issues getting through 100 MBE questions at a time and especially for most folks who struggle with back to back MPTs in 3 hours. Having only half the usual questions and a break after 1.5 hours decreases the difficulty in this regard quite a bit. Again, a great opportunity for a shortened bar exam that may never come again.

Good luck to everyone taking Virginia today! I will post more updates soon with some of the changes to California’s bar exam and additional tips for the DC bar exam as we get closer to exam time there.

Just a short post to wish everyone good luck on the July 2020 bar exam tomorrow (in those jurisdictions still administering a July exam). As most of you know, there are many options available and a lot of moving parts for the bar exam these days, the most common being a September 2020 option. I will have a series of posts soon about those options, specifically focusing on Virginia and the Rochmond, VA September 2020 option.

Good luck tomorrow!

The NCBE has decided that although 19 jurisdictions (as of May 5th) have decided to postpone/cancel the July 2020 bar exam, there will likely be a sufficient number of jurisdictions that will still administer a July 2020 bar exam for the NCBE to move forward with making test materials available. This means that a July 2020 MBE, MEE and MPT will be available for any jurisdiction that wishes to proceed. It is now entirely in the hands of the individual jurisdictions as to whether or not they hold a July 2020 bar exam.

DC has officially cancelled the July 2020 bar exam and will make a decision on a Fall 2020 administration of the exam by May 4th (Could they be star wars fans?). I will continue to post real-time updates as I get them on the DC fall exam as well as all other exams.

Virginia will announce their July 2020 decision in May.

UPDATE 29-APR-2020: There are now too many states that have canceled the July 2020 bar exam to list here as the number grows daily. You can check the NCBE link below for the latest states being added to the list.

As predicted, the number of states canceling the July 2020 bar exam is growing. As they start falling like dominoes, here is the current list of states that have canceled the July 2020 bar exam:

Connecticut (Postponed to Fall 2020)

Hawaii (Will be rescheduled for Fall 2020)

Massachusetts (Postponed to September 30-October 1)

New Jersey (Postponed to Fall 2020) – 2020 Law school graduates will be allowed to temporarily practice law under the supervision of experienced attorneys.

New York (Rescheduled to September 9-10)

Vermont (Postponed to a later date)

Guam (Rescheduled to September 9-10)

Alaska (Rescheduled to September 9-10)

Georgia (Rescheduled to September 9-10)

Maine (rescheduled for September 30-October 1)

Rhode Island has postponed the bar exam indefinitely.

Virgin Islands have postponed until the Fall.

I will continue to update this post as more states cancel, the ncbe maintains a list here

With many people eagerly anticipating the Feb 2020 bar exam results from the DC area, here are the dates they will be (or are anticipated to be) released:

Virginia will be posting their Feb 2020 results on April 17, 2020
Maryland will be posting their February 2020 results on May 1, 2020
DC should be posting on or around May 15th, 2020

There is a chance these dates could slip due to Coronavirus but at this time no jurisdictions have indicated that Feb 2020 exam results will be delayed. Much of the grading that takes place is remote, but the coordination of results and postings is another matter all together. I anticipate Virginia and Maryland will post on time, DC is a wild card as always.

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/

A sincere apology to everyone that has emailed me from a few months ago up until now. I had major web hosting issues and was not receiving emails consistently for a couple months. These emails never made it to me and are not recoverable. If you emailed me and did not get a response, please email me again as the issues are fixed and both this website and my email are working again as of today. I have switched hosting providers and everything is fully migrated. I am accepting a limited number of students for the February 2020 bar exam and will begin tutoring at the end of this month/early January. Happy holidays and happy new year to everyone!