Areas Tested on the Illinois Bar Exam

Multi-State Multiple Choice Portion (MBE) tests the following topics:

• Contracts
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Evidence
• Property
• Torts

Beginning with the July 2007 examination, the Board will discontinue its
practice of regularly including 2 Illinois Civil Procedure and 1 equity
question on the Illinois Essay portion of the bar exam.

Illinois Essay Questions can cover the following topics:

• Administrative Law
• Agency and Partnership
• Business Organizations
• Agency and Business Organizations
  (including corporations and limited liability companies)
• Commercial Paper
• Conflict of Laws
• Contracts
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Equity (Remedies)
• Evidence
• Family Law
• Federal and State Constitutional Law
• Federal Jurisdiction & Procedure
• Federal taxation
• Illinois Civil Procedure
• Personal Property (including sales and bailments)
• Real Property
• Secured Transactions
• Suretyship
• Torts
• Trusts and Future Interests
• Wills and Decedents’ Estates

Some questions may include issues from more than one area of law.

Multi-State:

• Business Associations
  (agency, partnership, corporations, and limited liability companies)
• Conflict of Laws
• Contracts
• Criminal Law and Procedure
• Evidence
• Family Law
• Federal and State Constitutional Law
• Federal Civil Procedure
• Real Property
• Trusts & Estates (decedents’ estates, trusts and future interests)
• Uniform Commercial Code (commercial paper and negotiable instruments)
• Secured Transactions
  

Some questions may include issues from more than one area of law.

Illinois Bar Information

Illinois Bar Examination — Current information, deadlines and fees

Illinois Law Student Registration information — Click Here.

Additional Links and Resources

National Conference of Bar Examiner's information on the various multistate tests and bar passage statistics.

ABA's Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements, which contains information for foreign law school graduates, as well as information on grading and scoring for each state.

ABA's Bar Admissions Information includes the contact information for all state bars.