Bar Examination FAQs

The July 2024 exam will be held at the Roberts Centre located at 123 Gano Road in Wilmington, Ohio.

The Holiday Inn Roberts Centre room block opens on May 14, 2024, at 11 a.m.  To make a reservation, please call 937.283.3200 and select Option 3 or 4.

Approximately 3 weeks prior to the exam, examinees who received final approval to sit for the examination will receive notice on the Bar Admissions Portal. This will include your admission ticket containing your exam identification number (Exam ID), assigned arrival time, assigned entrance, and exam day instructions. It is imperative that examinees regularly check the email address that they have on file for notifications.

Assigned entrance times will be included with your admission ticket. The one page ticket must be printed and brought with you on Tuesday, the first day of testing, to authorize you to enter the exam hall.

The exam is administered in a large convention hall with rows of tables.  Two examinees will be seated on opposite sides of each 8-foot table.  There are several sets of proctored restrooms, which are available for use throughout the exam.

There will be no talking in the exam hall between examinees nor may they gather in groups while in line to enter or when leaving the exam.  Examinees will be told what time to arrive for check-in and which entrance they are assigned.  Arrival and departure times will be staggered.

Those who wish to wear a mask may do so.

Yes. The Roberts Centre will be offering the option to purchase lunches for the exam. There will be four different choices available to purchase on each exam day. More information will be communicated at a later date.

Below is a list of permitted items:

• Pens (Tuesday only)
• Water (clear plastic water bottle and clear water (no tint or color))
• Money/Credit Cards
• Keys
• Prescription medication
• Eyeglasses, case, and cloth
• Handheld manual pencil sharpeners (Wednesday only)- electric and/or battery powered sharpeners are not
• Menstrual products, including tampons, maxi pads, and liners
• Face mask
• Personal size hand sanitizer
• Disinfectant wipes

Each examinee is permitted to bring one clear plastic gallon bag containing their permitted items. Staff will visually inspect the clear plastic bag upon entering the exam hall. Purses, other bags, and non-permitted items must remain in the designated area in the lobby. Examinees will not have access to their non-permitted items until they are dismissed by the exam administrator for lunch and the end of the day.

Exam day instructions, which will be provided to examinees on the Bar Admissions Portal, will provide detailed information regarding permitted and non-permitted items.

Exam day instructions, which will be emailed to examinees, will provide detailed information regarding the items that will be available for examinee use. This includes:

• Tissues
• Hand sanitizer stations
• Earplugs
• #2 pencils (Wednesday only)
• Scrap paper

• Firearms or weapons of any kind
• Purses, wallets, hats, book bags, or backpacks
• Highlighters, rulers, headphones, or earplugs (each examinee will be provided a set of earplugs)
• Paper (including, but not limited to, exam day instructions and cover sheet, books, notes, documents, newspapers, magazines, or any study materials)
• Food or liquids except bottled water as described above
• Cellular telephones, pagers, or any wireless communication device
• Watches or clocks
• Mouse pads
• Ergonomic items (including, but not limited to, keyboard or laptop stands)
• Wireless mouse/keyboard
• Gaiters and bandanas
• Calculators, handheld computers, or any other electronic devices

Yes. Menstrual products including tampons, maxi pads, and liners may be brought into the exam hall in the examinee’s clear plastic bag of permitted items. To protect the sterility of menstrual products, examinees will not be required to open an original product for inspection unless the menstrual products are not visible in the clear plastic bag. An assortment of menstrual products will also be available in each restroom.

Examinees will have access to restrooms during testing and are permitted to take menstrual products back and forth to the restroom as needed (an assortment of menstrual products will also be available in each restroom). Each restroom is proctored for exam security.

The exam administrator will dismiss examinees by area. Examinees are not permitted to leave the exam hall until instructed to do so by the exam administrator.

If an examinee has a medical condition or other circumstance that is not covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires them to have items that are not normally permitted, such as diabetic supplies, lumbar support, or a lactation pump, or requires special seating arrangements such as a wheelchair-accessible table or access to a lactation room, they must submit a Special Arrangement Form. The deadline to submit the Special Arrangement Form is July 8, 2024. If the request is approved, the examinee will receive an email providing them with information regarding their specific request. Please note that a new Special Arrangement Form is required for each administration of the examination for which one applies.

Examination fees are not refundable or deferrable except when extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the applicant occur.

Examinees that wish to use their laptop for the MPT and MEE portions of the exam must register their laptop with ExamSoft. Registration opens on June 4, 2024, at 10 a.m. and closes on July 8, 2024, at 4 p.m. More information about laptop use can be found on the Ohio ExamSoft Registration website.

The deadline for uploading MEE and MPT answers is 10 p.m., Tuesday, July 30, 2024.

A list of successful examinees will be posted to the Supreme Court of Ohio’s website on Oct. 25, 2024, at 8 a.m.  Examinees’ individual scores will be available on the Bar Admissions Portal starting at that same time.

When exam results are released, the individual result letter and score report will be posted in the examinee’s Bar Admissions Portal account. The letter will indicate the result and eligibility for admission.

• Log into the Bar Admissions Portal.
• On the right side of the screen, under Application Submitted, select “View Status” for the July 2024 application.
• A new window will open, and examinees can find the letter and score report.

The result letter in the examinee’s Bar Admissions Portal account will provide details on eligibility. Those who are successful on the exam must also have a Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) score of 85 or higher and Ohio Law Component (OLC) of 80% or higher.

The OLC is not available until after the administration of the July bar exam. If you wish to be included in the bar admissions ceremony, you then must complete the OLC by the deadline set by the Office of Bar Admissions.

Examinees will receive an email about taking the OLC and registering with ExamSoft. after completing the July bar exam. An examinee is only required to take and pass the OLC once. With that, an examinee who has already received a passing score of 80% or higher on the OLC following a prior, failed bar exam need not re-take the OLC; likewise, an examinee who does not receive a passing score on the July bar exam but who passes the OLC following the July exam will not be required to re-take the OLC again if re-taking the bar exam in the future. For more information regarding the OLC, please visit: Ohio Law Component.

You can verify this information in your Bar Admissions Portal account.  If you find that the Office of Bar Admissions does not have your MPRE score, you can have your score sent to Ohio by completing the following steps:

1. Log in to your NCBE Account (https://auth.ncbex.org/login) and click on “Score Services.”  
2. Select “MPRE – Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination” from the drop-down menu and click “Next.”
3. Follow the steps to complete your request, which will be processed the next business day. You will receive a confirmation email when you make the request and again when your request has been processed.

Note that, failure to submit your MPRE score to Ohio by the deadline provided by the Office of Bar Admissions may preclude you from participating in the bar admissions ceremony.

You are not permitted to practice law until you have taken and passed the bar examination, MPRE and OLC, taken the oath of office and have properly registered with the Office of Attorney Services. Further, you cannot be sworn in prior to the scheduled bar admissions ceremony.

The admissions ceremonies for those eligible for admission to the practice of law will be held on Nov. 12, 2024. The are two ceremonies held on this day, one at 10:30 a.m. and one at 2 p.m. The time of the ceremony is based upon the law school attended by the examinee.

AM Ceremony: Capital University, Northern Kentucky University, Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton

PM Ceremony: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Ohio Northern University, University of Akron, University of Toledo, out of state law schools

Tickets are not required. Seating for guests is first come, first served. The only assigned seats are for the admittees.

The session will be recorded by Ohio Government Telecommunications. Viewers may watch the ceremony live at: Supreme Court of Ohio LIVE | The Ohio Channel. Video of the session will also be permanently archived on the Supreme Court of Ohio’s website at: Supreme Court of Ohio | The Ohio Channel.