The subjects covered in this exam are:
An answer based upon legal theories and principles of general applicability is sufficient; detailed knowledge of California law is not required. The following provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) should be used where pertinent:
The 100 multiple-choice questions measure the content areas of Contracts, Criminal Law, and Torts. Starting with the October 2024 exam, 25 of the 100 questions administered on the exam are new multiple-choice items being operationally pretested. The pretested items include items from each content area. With an operational pretest, all 100 items administered on the exam will be scored. Following administration, the new exam questions are analyzed to determine if they result in appropriate statistics to ensure fairness for applicants. Any new questions that do not meet evaluation criteria will be removed from scoring so that they do not harm an applicant’s score.
The remaining items will be equally weighted such that a perfect raw score will still be 100. Thus, an applicant’s raw multiple-choice score will equal the number of items answered correctly multiplied by their weighting. Through a process known as “equating,” the weighted multiple-choice raw scores will be converted to a scale with a theoretical maximum of 800 points. Because there are multiple forms of the exam, this process adjusts for the possible differences between forms and administrations of the exam in the average difficulty of the particular version of the exam that the applicant takes.
An applicant’s total score on the exam is the applicant’s scaled score on the multiple-choice questions. Applicants need a total scaled score of 560 or higher to pass the exam.
The Committee of Bar Examiners believes that its grading and administrative systems afford each applicant a full and fair opportunity to take the exam and fair and careful consideration of their answers on the exam and that no useful purpose would be served by further consideration by the Committee. All scores are automatically checked for mathematical errors before grades are released. For this reason, the Committee will consider requests for reconsideration only when an applicant establishes with documented evidence that a clerical error resulted in failure or prevented the exam from being properly graded.
The Committee will not extend reconsideration based on challenges to its grading system. Requests for reconsideration submitted by or on behalf of an unsuccessful applicant must be in writing and meet the criteria specified above. Requests not meeting those criteria may be summarily denied by the Office of Admissions on that basis, without further review by the Committee or explanation. All requests for reconsideration of grades must be received by the Office of Admissions no later than two weeks after the release of results.