Entering 1L students have the option of attending a voluntary one-day workshop titled, Setting Yourself Up for Success. The workshop will introduce new students to the essential academic skills they need to succeed and provide strategies for managing the difficult 1L curriculum. The workshop is held prior to the start of classes. More information on the date and time of the workshop will be sent to each student.

The Foundational Skills Workshop series provides law students an opportunity to learn about the skills required for law school success beyond the critical reasoning skills developed in the classroom. Workshops are held throughout the academic year and cover topics such as case briefing, outlining, study habits, preparing for exams, and more. All 1L students are encouraged to attend the workshops in order to develop and master these essential law school skills.

Study groups meet each week to review substantive concepts and develop the study skills needed to be successful in law school. Each study group is led by an Academic Fellow, an upper-class student who has excelled in law school. Study Groups give students the ability to assess their progress, refine their skills, and receive supplemental instruction and feedback throughout their first semester.

Registering for the Oklahoma Bar Exam

Oklahoma has a two-step process to apply for the Oklahoma Bar Examination:

1. Register as a law student with the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners;
2. File an application to take a specific administration of the bar examination.

Registering as a law student can save you money. Registering in Oklahoma also fulfills one requirement for participation in the Licensed Legal Intern program. For information and an application, contact: Board of Bar Examiners, 1901 N. Lincoln Blvd, P.O. Box 53036, Oklahoma City, OK 73152-3036, (405) 416-7075 or view the applications page.

Scoring Information

The Oklahoma Bar Exam contains an essay and MBE section. The Board of Bar Examiners combine your scores on both portions of the bar exam, to determine whether you pass. The MBE cutoff score for Oklahoma is 135 (scaled), which is considered passing. On the essay portion of the exam, 75% is considered passing. You are not required to have a certain score on either portion to pass. A higher score on one part of the exam will compensate for a lower score on the other portion.

A MPRE scaled score of 75 is required.

OBA Information

The Oklahoma Bar Association is the governing body of Oklahoma’s lawyers.

Reciprocity

Oklahoma has reciprocity with 26 other jurisdictions, some of which require the MPRE and some of which do not. Colorado and Texas, for example, require the MPRE. The District of Columbia, Missouri, and Virginia are among the 15 that do not require the MPRE. More information is available at the Oklahoma Bar Association.

Bar Registration as a Law Student

Entering first-year students are strongly advised to communicate with bar admission agencies in all jurisdictions in which they may wish to practice law to determine the requirements for admission to the bar of those jurisdictions. Some state bar licensing authorities require or permit law students to register as part of their licensing procedures. The Oklahoma deadline for early registration is October 15th of the 2L year.

Students are advised that most states require applicants to have graduated from an ABA-accredited law school, to pass a written bar examination, and to demonstrate that they possess the requisite “moral character and fitness” to practice law. Any information that reflects adversely upon the character or fitness of an applicant, such as criminal proceedings, may be treated as cause for further investigation. Bar examiners in some jurisdictions also address mental health and chemical or psychological dependency matters.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners produces a Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements that contains tables for quick reference on the components of each jurisdiction’s bar exam. The National Conference of Bar Examiners also aggregates links to state bar examining agencies and provides information on all multistate tests used in various jurisdictions. For students planning to apply to the Oklahoma Bar, visit the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners for necessary information.

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) is required by most jurisdictions. It consists of 60 multiple-choice questions testing an applicant’s knowledge of the professional standards contained within the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Model Rules of Judicial Conduct, and the relevant case law.

The MPRE is administered three times per year and can be taken before a student graduates from law school. Full details regarding this exam can be found at the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

Oklahoma City University School of Law requires all students to take Legal Profession as part of their lockstep course work. Additionally, several review opportunities are hosted on campus in the month preceding the Spring and Fall administration of the MPRE exam. Further details about those review opportunities will be emailed to the student body.

Every state bar exam includes essay questions similar to law school final exams. However, most states only allow 30 minutes to answer questions students answered in 45 minutes to an hour in law school. Bar exam essay questions require modifications to writing skills learned in law school, so the Department of Academic Achievement created a specialized program for writing bar exam essays.

The first component of our essay training begins the last year of law school. During a student’s final semester, we highly encourage enrolling in Advanced Bar Studies, a 2 credit-hour course designed to improve essay writing skills. The course is NOT a substitute for commercial bar review courses or the voluntary Conquer the Bar MBE program. Advanced Bar Studies mainly focuses on essay writing by utilizing multiple techniques for learning. Students will hear lectures, practice numerous essay questions, evaluate exam answers, and continually re-write their own responses. The multiple teaching strategies help solidify the skills needed to Conquer the Bar!

The second component of essay preparation is practice exams. After the first four weeks of bar review, the Department holds approximately five Oklahoma practice essay exams at the law school, and we email practice exams to all the out-of-state examinees. All of the Oklahoma exams and the majority of the out-of-state exams are actual bar exam questions from that jurisdiction. Each student who completes an exam receives individualized feedback through either face-to-face meetings or an email with comments on the answer. The focus is to both continually learn the law required and practice the special essay writing techniques. Continued practice generally helps students reach their maximum potential on the exam.

The last way to prepare for the essay portion of the exam is individual practice. We encourage students to write out at least one exam answer each time a subject is studied. We also provide feedback on those answers. The following is a list of places to find bar exam questions to practice for different jurisdictions:

Oklahoma Bar Examination Questions

The questions below have been posted with the kind permission of the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners.

Oklahoma essay questions from 1987 to the present are available in the OCU Law Library at #KFO1276 .O52 (Oklahoma Collection, SE 2nd Floor).

• July 2000 Afternoon Session
• February 2001 Morning Session
• February 2001 Afternoon Session
• July 2001 Morning Session
• July 2001 Afternoon Session
• July 2002 Morning Session
• July 2002 Afternoon Session
• February 2003 Morning Session
• February 2003 Afternoon Session
• July 2003 Morning Session
• July 2003 Afternoon Session
• February 2004 Morning Session
• February 2004 Afternoon Session
• July 2004 Morning Session
• July 2004 Afternoon Session
• February 2005 Morning Session
• February 2005 Afternoon Session
• July 2005 Morning Session
• July 2005 Afternoon Session
• February 2006
• July 2006
• February 2007
• July 2007
• February 2008
• July 2008
• February 2009
• July 2009
• February 2010
• July 2010
• February 2011
• July 2011
• February 2012
• July 2012
• February 2013
• July 2013
• February 2014
• July 2014
• February 2015
• July 2015
• February 2016
• July 2016

Links for essay questions provided by other jurisdictions can be found in the “Other States’ Bar Exams” section below.

Forty-nine of fifty states administer the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). Louisiana is the only state to exclude the MBE from their bar exams. The MBE is a 200-question multiple-choice exam covering seven subjects: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Property, and Torts. The test is administered the same way on the same day nationwide. You receive three hours to complete 100 questions in the morning and three hours to complete 100 questions in the afternoon.

Although the answer is always on the page in a multiple-choice exam, most students believe the MBE is the most difficult portion of the bar exam. The subjects tested are taught during the first three semesters of law school, and the fact patterns test legal principles in depth. OCU Law’s Conquer the Bar program focuses on the MBE. During the last semester of law school, students receive lectures covering the majority of the MBE topics. The substantive lectures provide great groundwork for bar preparation during the summer.

The essential component to successfully completing the MBE is practice questions. The Department of Academic Achievement recommends doing MBE practice questions daily during the summer, and multiple practice exams with analysis are administered at the law school. Supplemental lectures are also provided for MBE topics. The combination of pre-bar review lectures, numerous practice questions, and review lectures during the summer teach the necessary skills to pass the MBE.

If you are not taking the Oklahoma Bar Exam, out-of-state graduates are not left out of the process either. The study recommendations are created for each jurisdiction in which a student is taking the bar exam.

For more information regarding the MBE, please visit the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

If you are considering practicing in a jurisdiction other than Oklahoma, it is extremely important to find out the particular requirements for bar admission in that jurisdiction as soon as you can. The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) provides a Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements that serves as a good starting place in comparing the requirements of different jurisdictions. Additionally, the American Bar Association provides links to the various state bar admission offices and offers information about each state bar exam.

Sample essay questions and information from the various states can be found at the following two locations:

• FindLaw for Students: The Bar
• Bar Results and Exam Information