Past Bar Exam Essays and Performance Tests (PTs)

Where do you find essays and performance tests from past exams to practice on?

Rather than have you go hunting for them or flip through your bar course materials, I’ve compiled past essays and PTs for California. I also link to past MEEs and MPTs from various UBE jurisdictions.

Scroll to past California essays and PTs
Scroll to past MEEs and MPTs for the UBE

California: Here are downloadable California bar exam essays and selected answers going back to 2001, and California performance tests (PTs) and selected answers.

👉 See also the essay answer bank for real graded answers.

👉 CA essays – frequency chart and issue chart (use this to find when topics were tested).

CA essays and selected answers90-minute CA PTs and selected answers
2022 July
2022 Feb
2021 July
2021 Feb
2020 Oct
2020 Feb
2019 July
2019 Feb
2018 July
2018 Feb
2017 July
2017 Feb
2016 July
2016 Feb
2015 July
2015 Feb
2014 July
2014 Feb
2013 July
2013 Feb
2012 July
2012 Feb
2011 July
2011 Feb
2010 July
2010 Feb
2009 July
2009 Feb
2008 July
2008 Feb
2007 July
2007 Feb
2006 July
2006 Feb
2005 July
2005 Feb
2004 July
2004 Feb
2003 July
2003 Feb
2002 July
2002 Feb
2001 July
2022 July
2022 Feb
2021 July
2021 Feb
2020 Oct
2020 Feb
2019 July
2019 Feb
2018 July
2018 Feb
2017 July
Sample PT (Haynes v. National Bank of Columbia)

For more PT practice, see below for MPTs similar to these.

UBE: Here are some places you can find past MEE questions and answers, past MPT questions and answers, and MEE and MPT analyses.

  1. Free MEE questions and analyses from NCBE (from 5-10 years ago)
  2. Free MPT questions and point sheets from NCBE (from 5-10 years ago)
  3. If you want the official analyses for more recent ones, you can find them in the MEE study aids (paid)
  4. Some state bar websites post plenty of essays, MPTs, and selected answers

Others: Check your state bar website or law school’s academics resources to see if it offers questions and selected answers

  1. Nevada offers sample passing answers for essays and PTs going back to 2007
  2. A Virginia law school offers past Virginia bar exams to review