The Oklahoma Bar Exam
Starting in July 2021, the Oklahoma Bar Examination has adopted the National Conference of Bar Examiners' (NCBE®) Uniform Bar Examination (UBE®) format, which consists of three sections: the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE®), the Multistate Performance Test (MPT®), and the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE®).
Applicants planning to practice law in multiple states can take advantage of the increased score portability among the 40 other jurisdictions that have adopted the UBE. Read on for further information regarding Oklahoma Bar Exam results, dates, deadlines, fees, applications, and more.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Structure
The Oklahoma Bar Exam follows the structure of the UBE. The writing portion (MPT/MEE) is administered on the first day (Tuesday), and the MBE is administered on the second day (Wednesday) during the last week of February and July every year.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Dates, Requirements, and Scheduling
You can't pass an exam that you don't take. Check out what's required to sit for the OK Bar Exam below, along with important dates that you need to mark on your calendar.
Exam Dates
The Oklahoma Bar Exam is administered on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July. First-time test takers must file before the final filing deadline, or they will not be allowed to sit for the exam. Filing past the timely or late filing date will cost you an extra $50 or $150, respectively. See the schedule below for details.
| Filing Periods | February 27-28, 2024 Exam | July 30-31, 2023 Exam | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timely Filing | September 1 | February 1 | $650 |
| Late Filing | October 2 | March 1 | +$50 |
| Final Filing | November 1 | April 3 | +$150 |
Requirements
Eligibility to sit for the OK Bar Exam is based on the following requirements:
- Education — Have a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree or its equivalent from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) or the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners (OBBE).
- Character and Fitness — Demonstrate good moral character and fitness to practice law. The Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners will evaluate your background, including your employment history, financial responsibility, criminal record, and disciplinary actions taken against you by educational institutions or professional organizations.
- Application — Submit a completed application, including all required documentation and fees, to the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners by the specified deadline. This may include official transcripts, employment history, and character and fitness information.
Scheduling
To schedule your Oklahoma Bar Exam appointment, you must visit the OKBBE website and fill out the form that applies to your situation (i.e., attorney, registered law student, etc.). You'll most likely need a 2" x 2" photograph, an official certified transcript showing your final semester grades and your JD degree, your Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE®) score report, your filing fee, and a notarized Affidavit, Authorization, and Release form.
All deadlines for submitting applications are based on the arrival of the application at the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners' office, not the date they are postmarked. In cases where a deadline lands on a non-working day, such as a weekend or legal holiday, applications will be accepted until the end of business hours on the following day.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Cost and Fees
It's important to register as a law student ($125) on or before October 15 of your 2nd year of law school. This is not an application to take the OK Bar Exam but is necessary if you intend to take it. If you fail to register, you can file for Nunc Pro Tunc Registration ($500) after October 15 of your 2nd year of law school.
Do whatever you can to register on time. It will save you a substantial amount of money. The Oklahoma Bar Exam application for a registered law student is $650. For a student who registered late or Nunc Pro Tunc Registration, the fee is $1,150. See the fee schedule below for details.
| Application Fees | |||
| Registered Law Student | $650 | ||
| Nunc Pro Tunc Registered* | $1,150 | ||
| For Attorneys | $1,250 | ||
| Repeaters | $650 | ||
| Other Application Fees | |||
| Admission on Motion | $2,000 | ||
| UBE Score Transfer | $1,250 | ||
| Law Student Registration | $125 | ||
| Nunc Pro Tunc Registration | $500 | ||
| Misc. Fees | |||
| Laptop Usage Fee | $50 | ||
Payment Policies
Application fees are not eligible for a refund. Accepted credit cards for payment include Mastercard, Visa, and American Express.
Cost-Saving Options
Getting an undergraduate degree, a law degree, and applying for the Oklahoma Bar Exam is expensive. Fortunately, there are some cost-saving options that may allow you to save some money. The most obvious and simple way to save money is to register in your second year of law school and apply for the exam by the timely filing deadline.
You can also look into the Oklahoma Bar Foundation Fellows Scholarship. This foundation awards $5,000 each to three law students every year. You must have been a documented continuous legal resident of the state of Oklahoma for the past five years, be able to demonstrate that you are in need of financial assistance and that you intend to practice law in Oklahoma.
If you don't meet the criteria for that scholarship, try browsing the AccessLex Institute Law School Scholarship Databank for options better suited to you. You can also check out the ABA, which offers 100+ opportunities and programs for young lawyers and law students. Even if you can't obtain a scholarship, there are some basic things you can do to save money while preparing for the bar exam:
- Join a study group and split the cost of bar exam preparation materials among group members.
- Research free or low-cost study online study materials like past bar exam questions and answers to supplement commercial study aids.
- Some bar exam prep companies offer discounts or promotions to students who register early or refer friends to their program.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Subjects and Topics
The OK Bar Exam measures a candidate's competency to practice law, legal knowledge, and analytical abilities. It covers a wide range of topics, including criminal law and evidence, as well as contracts and constitutional law. To guarantee that candidates can successfully represent clients and carry out entry-level legal responsibilities, candidates will be evaluated based on their capacity to apply legal concepts, create legal documents, and effectively solve problems.
MBE Subjects
The MBE is intended to assess a candidate's ability to apply fundamental legal principles and analyze complex fact patterns. Each question presents a hypothetical legal scenario, and test-takers must choose the best answer from four possible options.
MEE Subjects
Candidates must be able to recognize legal concerns, apply pertinent legal principles, assess factual patterns, and write clear, organized, and brief written solutions in order to pass the MEE. topics include:
Some subjects could show up together. Others might not show up at all. Up until exam day, the subjects the NCBE selects for any administration are kept secret. But historically, some have been tested more frequently than others. For instance, for the past ten years, Civil Procedure has been tested on practically every MEE, whereas Criminal Law has only been tested sporadically. Less common topics, however, might still be matched with others.
Check out our MEE Study Guide and Prep Tips for details on planning your studies and determining what's essential so you use your time wisely. Also, check out our MEE Subject Matter Outline for in-depth explanations of MEE subjects and sub-topics.
MPT Tasks
The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) is a component of the bar exam administered in many US jurisdictions. It is designed to assess a candidate's ability to perform real-world lawyering tasks that are typically encountered in the practice of law. The MPT is a simulation of a client file or files that a practicing attorney might encounter, such as a client interview, deposition, or other legal document. The MPT presents a hypothetical client or client and a specific legal problem or problems to solve and asks test-takers to complete a task related to the problem or problems.
The task might include drafting a legal memorandum, a letter to a client, or a contract. Test-takers are given two to three hours to complete the task and are evaluated based on their ability to analyze the problem, apply relevant legal principles, and communicate effectively in writing.
Oklahoma MPRE Requirements
The MPRE is significant because it emphasizes professional responsibility and legal ethics. In their interactions with clients, opposing counsel, the courts, and the general public, attorneys must uphold the highest ethical standards and behave professionally. By fostering trust in the legal profession and defending the interests of clients and the judicial system, the MPRE contributes to ensuring that those aspiring to the practice of law have a solid basis in these principles.
60 multiple-choice questions make up the MPRE. 50 of them are scored, and the remaining 10 are pretest questions for future exams. The exam covers a variety of professional conduct issues, including the regulation of the legal profession, the client-lawyer interaction, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, obligations to the court and the legal system, and many other areas. Each jurisdiction sets its own minimum passing score for the two-hour exam, which is graded on a range of 50 to 150.
Oklahoma MPRE Minimum Passing Score
Oklahoma, along with 5 other jurisdictions, requires a minimum MPRE passing score of 75. The minimum passing score for all jurisdictions ranges from 75-86, meaning that Oklahoma’s minimum passing score rests neatly in the middle. Your MPRE score is valid for an unlimited period of time.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Results and Pass Rates
The Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) uses a scaled scoring system to ensure consistent, comparable results across different administrations of the exam and between various jurisdictions. Each component has its own raw score, which is converted into a scaled score to account for variations in difficulty levels across different test administrations. Here's a brief explanation of how scaled scoring works on the UBE, with a minimum passing score of 264:
- MBE — only 175 of 200 questions are scored. The remaining 25 are pilot questions for future exams. Your raw score is the number of correctly answered questions out of the 175 scored questions. This raw score is then converted to a scaled score, which ranges from 0 to 200.
- MEE — Each of the six essays is graded on a scale of 1 to 6, with 6 being the highest possible score. The total raw score for the MEE is the sum of the scores for each essay, which ranges from 6 to 36. This raw score is then converted to a scaled score, which also ranges from 0 to 200 (combined with the MPT).
- MPT — Each task is graded on a scale of 1 to 6, similar to the MEE. The total raw score for the MPT ranges from 2 to 12, which is then converted to a scaled score ranging from 0 to 200 (combined with the MEE).
The MBE scaled score is weighted 50%, the MEE scaled score is weighted 30%, and the MPT scaled score is weighted 20%. The weighted scores are added together to obtain your final UBE-scaled score, which ranges from 0 to 400. Scaled scoring is a method used to adjust test scores to make sure they are fair and consistent, no matter when the test is taken or how hard the questions are. Think of it like this: if you and your friend take a test on different days, and your friend's test is harder, it would be unfair to compare your raw scores directly. Scaled scoring helps balance things out.
To pass the Oklahoma Bar Exam, you need a minimum passing scaled score of 264, meaning that your combined scaled score from the MBE, MEE, and MPT must be equal to or greater than 264.
Oklahoma Bar Exam Results and Pass Rates
Repeater pass rates on the Oklahoma Bar Exam are significantly lower than first-time pass rates. This is typical in all jurisdictions and is probably caused by the fact that many people who fail their first bar exam continue to study in the same manner.
| Exam | Overall Pass Rate |
First-Timer Pass Rate |
Repeater Pass Rate |
Results Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2023 | 68% | 72% | 48% | September 8 |
| Feb. 2023 | 37% | 55% | 26% | April 14 |
Here are the annual pass rates for the Oklahoma Bar Exam since 2017 divided into first-time examinees and repeaters:
| Exam | First Timers | Repeaters | Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | No Of Candidates | Pass Rate | No. Of Candidates | Pass Rate | No. Of Candidates | Pass Rate |
| 2022 | 388 | 68% | 129 | 36% | 517 | 60% |
| 2021 | 357 | 78% | 73 | 51% | 430 | 74% |
| 2020 | 292 | 87% | 86 | 44% | 378 | 77% |
| 2019 | 341 | 84% | 90 | 43% | 431 | 76% |
| 2018 | 306 | 80% | 57 | 30% | 363 | 72% |
| 2017 | 313 | 87% | 108 | 64% | 421 | 81% |
Oklahoma Bar Exam results are typically released 5 weeks following an exam administration. Results were released on September 8, 2023, and April 14, 2023, for the July and February 2023 exams, respectively.
Reciprocity
A reciprocal state refers to a state that allows lawyers and judges from Oklahoma to be admitted to practice law without taking an exam, as long as they meet certain standards that are similar to the standards for admission in Oklahoma. This term also includes the District of Columbia, territories, and commonwealths or possessions of the United States.
To be eligible, the lawyer must have graduated from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association and must have been lawfully admitted to practice law in another state where they are in good standing on active status. Additionally, the lawyer must have practiced law for at least three out of the past five years under the supervision and disciplinary requirements of a reciprocal state bar association or supreme court. If the lawyer has practiced law in multiple states, those years of practice can be combined.
Learn common question types and essay writing skills with Themis’s Performance Test Workshop.
What Makes the Oklahoma Bar Exam Unique?
Once you are admitted to practice law in the state of Oklahoma, you must take continuing legal education (CLE) for 12 hours per year. You can find out more about eligible courses and more at the Oklahoma Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Commission website.
Oklahoma Bar Exam for Foreigners
If you have a law degree from a foreign country, you may be eligible to take the Oklahoma Bar Exam if you meet the following requirements:
- Education — Have a degree from a law school that is recognized by the legal education authority in the country where the school is located.
- English Language Proficiency — Demonstrate proficiency in the English language by obtaining a score of at least 90 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or a score of at least 7.0 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).
- Evaluation of Educational Credentials — Have your foreign educational credentials evaluated by a credential evaluation agency approved by the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners. The evaluation must show that your legal education is equivalent to a JD degree from an ABA-accredited law school.
- Character and Fitness — Meet the character and fitness requirements established by the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners.
- Additional Requirements — You may be required to complete additional requirements, such as completing a bar review course or passing an ethics exam.
Final Takeaways
The best study strategy makes the difference between passing and failing the Oklahoma Bar Examination. Whether you are taking the OK Bar Exam for the first, second, or even third time, a good full bar review course will help you increase your score.
Exam-like practice provided by Themis + UWorld, with content and questions chosen by an internal team of subject matter experts, will get you prepared for the test. The challenging material is made simple to understand by our in-depth explanations for each answer choice and our descriptive visuals.
Contact Details of the Oklahoma State Bar
If you wish to contact the Oklahoma State Board of Law Examiners office with inquiries regarding the OK Bar Exam, please see the details below.
| Medium | Info |
|---|---|
| Phone Number | 405-416-7075 |
| [email protected] | |
| Mailing Address |
1901 N. Lincoln Blvd. P.O. Box 53036 Oklahoma City, OK 73152 |
Oklahoma Bar Exam FAQs
How long Is the Bar Exam in Oklahoma?
Can anyone take the Bar Exam in Oklahoma?
How hard Is the Oklahoma Bar Exam?
What are Oklahoma Bar Exam application deadlines and fees?
How many times can I take the Oklahoma Bar Exam?
How much does it cost to retake the Oklahoma Bar Exam?
What is the minimum passing UBE score for Oklahoma?
Does Oklahoma offer reciprocity with any jurisdiction?
Can I transfer my MBE score from another jurisdiction to Oklahoma?
Can I transfer my Oklahoma UBE score to another jurisdiction?
What is the time limit for accepting a transferred UBE score in Oklahoma (i.e., maximum age of the UBE score)?
What is the Admission Without Examination process like?
You may be admitted without examination to the Oklahoma Bar if you’ve been actively engaged in the practice of law, meet these requirements, and submit an Admission on Motion application ($2,000).