The Rules Governing Admission to the Bar set forth the rules and procedures regarding admission to the Bar of Arkansas. Please refer to these Rules for any additional questions you may have regarding admission by examination to the Bar of Arkansas.
No candidate shall be allowed to take the bar examination
unless the applicant has graduated, or completed the requisites for graduation, from a Law School approved by the American Bar Association. (Rule XII)
A money order or cashiers check payable to the Clerk of the Supreme Court in the amount of $1,000.00 must accompany the application to take the bar examination.(Rule XI)
Applications are available on-line only.
All applications for leave to take the examination shall be filed with the Executive Secretary on or before November 15 of the year which precedes the February examination and April 1 which precedes the July examination. Applicants who fail the February Arkansas examination shall have until the following May 15 to file an application for the immediately subsequent July examination. If such date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the application deadline shall be on the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. (Rule X)
All examinations given by the Arkansas Board of Law Examiners shall be prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and shall consist of six Multistate Essay Examination questions, two Multistate Performance Test questions and the Multistate Bar Examination, which is made up of 200 multiple choice questions. (Rule IX.A)
The exam lasts two days. The first day will be composed of the Multi-State Performance Test (MPT) and the Multi-State Essay Examination (MEE). The second day will be the Multi-State Bar Examination (MBE).
As a prerequisite for admission to the Bar of Arkansas by examination each applicant shall be required to attain a scaled score of 85 or more on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). (Rule IX.B)
It is the applicant's responsibility to arrange transfer of MPRE scores to this jurisdiction.
Previous MPT and MEE exam questions and answers are available for review at the Arkansas Supreme Court Library, the Law School Library at Fayetteville, and the Law School Library at Little Rock.
These items can also be found on this page: https://arcourts.gov/administration/professional-programs/bar-exam.
The administration of the bar exam will take place simultaneously in Little Rock, Arkansas and Fayetteville, Arkansas. Applicants will note their preference on the application and will then be notified of the exact location preceding each exam.