California Bar Exam subjects and scoring: 13 subjects, essay frequency and the 1390 pass score

The California Bar Exam tests 13 subjects. Seven are on both the 200-question Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and the essays: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property and Torts. Six are essay-only: Business Associations, Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Remedies, Trusts, and Wills and Succession (Scope of the California Bar Examination). You pass with a total of 1390 out of 2000 scaled points. The written day and the MBE count 50 percent each (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin). The most-tested essay subject is Professional Responsibility.

Applies to: the February 23 to 24, 2027 sitting, the July 27 to 28, 2027 sitting (expected, not yet posted) and the February 2028 sitting. These are the last three exams in the current format. From July 2028 California gives the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, covered in the last section.

This guide covers each subject, which subjects test California law, how often each subject has appeared in the essays, and exactly how the 1390 is computed. Official numbers come from State Bar, Supreme Court and NCBE pages; essay-frequency and PT-type counts are third-party (SmartBarPrep, JD Advising) and are labeled as such. Every source is linked where it appears. For dates, fees and the application steps see the exam overview and how to apply.

The 13 subjects at a glance

The State Bar publishes a content map (an official outline) for every subject. The table below lists each subject, whether it is on the MBE, and how much California law the essays expect. The frequency column counts how many of the last 50 exams included an essay on the subject, including crossover essays, in SmartBarPrep's July 2026 analysis (SmartBarPrep frequency analysis).

Two points matter for planning. First, the seven MBE subjects are tested twice: on Day 1 in the essays and on Day 2 in the MBE. Every hour spent on them earns points in both halves of the score. Second, the six essay-only subjects are not all "California-only" subjects. Community Property and Wills are always California law. Business Associations, Remedies and Trusts are tested on general law unless the question asks for California law.

MBE subjects vs essay-only subjects

The seven MBE subjects

The MBE is a 200-question multiple-choice exam written by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). California gives it on Day 2 in two 3-hour sessions of 100 questions each. Of the 200 questions, 175 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest questions. Each of the seven subjects has 25 scored questions. In California you answer on a paper Scantron sheet with a No. 2 pencil, not on your laptop (July 2026 exam page; NCBE, preparing for the MBE).

The arithmetic is strict: 100 questions in 180 minutes is 1.8 minutes per question. For a non-native reader this is the single hardest constraint on the exam. The MBE is a national exam. It tests general U.S. law and the federal rules, never California law.

No State Bar page yet names the multiple-choice test for February 2027. The NCBE keeps the MBE available through February 2028, and the Committee of Bar Examiners says the MBE "will be phased out as a standalone option after the February 2028 administration" (Committee of Bar Examiners, April 17, 2026). Plan on the MBE for all three remaining sittings.

The "about" figures come from the NCBE's MBE Subject Matter Outline.

The six essay-only subjects

Business Associations, Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Remedies, Trusts, and Wills and Succession never appear on the MBE. They appear only in the five one-hour essays on Day 1, alone or as part of a crossover essay (one fact pattern that raises issues from two subjects). Professional Responsibility is also tested on the separate Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). California requires an MPRE scaled score of at least 86 (State Bar MPRE page). Passing the MPRE does not remove Professional Responsibility from the essays.

These six subjects earn points only on Day 1. A candidate who is strong on multiple choice but weak on writing loses the most points here. Community Property and Wills and Succession have no close equivalent in most civil-law systems. Professional Responsibility follows rules specific to California and the ABA. Foreign-trained lawyers usually need to learn all three from zero.

Which subjects test California law

The State Bar's default instruction is short: "Unless a question expressly asks you to use California law, you should answer according to legal theories and principles of general application" (Scope page). The content maps then set the California expectation for each subject.

Sources: the State Bar's content maps for Professional Responsibility, Evidence, Civil Procedure, Community Property, Wills and Succession and Trusts. The "Rarely" and "Only if called" rows follow JD Advising's survey of California distinctions, a third-party count.

The practical rule for an essay: if the call says "California law", apply California law and say so. If the call is silent, apply the general rule, and add one sentence on the California rule only when it changes the result. AntCABar chapters put each tested California distinction in a separate "General rule | California" box, so you can see at once which rule to write. See the subjects.

How the two days are organized

The current format is two days, in person, at State Bar test sites in California only. There is no remote option and no out-of-state sitting (July 2026 exam page).

Source: July 2026 exam page. Three sittings remain in this format. February 23 to 24, 2027 is posted on the Dates and Deadlines page. July 27 to 28, 2027 is expected under the last-Tuesday rule in the Supreme Court's order of July 15, 2026 but is not yet posted. February 29 to March 1, 2028 follows from the same rule and is not yet posted either.

The table shows the July 2026 arrangements. The State Bar is choosing a new exam-administration vendor for 2027 and has not announced one (Board and Committee of Bar Examiners, January 23, 2026). Check the written-day software on the page for your own sitting when it is posted.

Essay frequency chart: which subjects appear most

Five essays cannot cover 13 subjects, so the State Bar chooses. The choice is not random. The table below ranks the subjects by how many of the last 50 exams (282 essays) included them (SmartBarPrep frequency analysis, July 2026 edition). A crossover essay counts for each subject it raises. The official record of every released question is the State Bar's Past Exams page.

The shares add up to far more than 100 percent because each exam has five essays, and a crossover essay counts once for every subject it raises. SmartBarPrep is a third-party count; treat it as a guide to weight, not a prediction.

What the last six exams tested

The State Bar releases the questions and two selected answers for each exam. The subject-by-exam record since 2024 is below. July 2026 is classified from the released questions. The official table is expected around December 2026 (Past Exams; July 2025 questions and answers; February 2026 questions and answers; July 2026 questions).

The essays are listed in the order the State Bar released them; there is no fixed subject order. A dash means our sources do not classify that Performance Test. Across the 12 most recent exams, Professional Responsibility appeared on 12 of 12, Remedies on 7, and Business Associations, Community Property and Contracts on 6 each.

What this means for your study order

1. Professional Responsibility first. It has appeared on 49 of the last 50 exams and on all 12 of the most recent exams. It is rule-based, and the essay must use both the California and the ABA rules. One essay in five is close to certain.
2. Remedies second. It often arrives inside a Contracts, Torts or Real Property question, and it was a standalone essay in July 2024 and July 2026. Together that puts it on 76% of the last 50 exams.
3. Community Property and Wills third. Both are 100% California law. Community Property appeared on 56% of the last 50 exams and Wills on 46%. Most civil-law systems have no equivalent in the same form.
4. Then the seven MBE subjects, in this order of essay frequency: Contracts (64%), Evidence (58%), Torts (56%), Constitutional Law (54%), Real Property (52%), Criminal Law and Procedure (Criminal Procedure 44%, Criminal Law 34%), Civil Procedure (42%). Every hour here pays on both days.
5. Trusts and Business Associations last, but not never. Trusts appeared on 2 of the last 6 exams even though its 50-exam rate is 30%.

Each AntCABar chapter shows how often its topics have been tested, and chapter 1 of every subject starts with "How this subject is tested". See the subjects and the plans.

The Performance Test: one task, double weight

The Performance Test (PT) is a 90-minute lawyering task given on Day 1 afternoon. It is set in the fictional "State of Columbia". You receive a File (a task memo and the facts, some of them irrelevant) and a Library (cases and statutes, some of them extraneous), and you write the document the task memo asks for (Exam Content Instructions). It tests skills, not memorized law: reading fast, finding the rule in the Library, applying it to the File and writing in the requested format. The official instructions say the answer is graded on its responsiveness to and compliance with directions, as well as on its content, thoroughness and organization (July 2026 questions).

The PT is graded on the same 40-to-100 scale as an essay, and the score is then doubled. One PT is therefore worth 200 of the 700 raw written points, about 29 percent of the written day and about 14 percent of the total score (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin).

The three most recent tasks show the range. July 2025 asked for an advice letter to a client on a real property problem (July 2025 Performance Test and selected answers). February 2026 was a criminal case, State of Columbia v. Davis, built on police testimony and a text-message transcript (February 2026 Performance Test and selected answers); third-party summaries describe the task as a brief in support of a motion on an evidence issue. July 2026 asked for an advice letter to a client on defamation (July 2026 questions). Over the longer run, objective memos have been roughly half of all tasks, in JD Advising's approximate count of PTs from February 2013 to July 2024 (JD Advising PT frequency chart). Persuasive briefs, persuasive memos, persuasive letters, responses to demand letters and opinion letters share the rest. Practice the memo format until it is automatic, then the letter and the brief.

How the 1390 scaled score works

The passing score is 1390 out of 2000. The number is a total scaled score, not a percentage and not a count of correct answers. Here is how the State Bar builds it (Grading; July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin).

Step 1: the raw written score (maximum 700)

Each of the five essays and the Performance Test is graded on a scale from 40 to 100, in steps of 5. The Performance Test score is doubled. So the maximum raw written score is 5 x 100 + 2 x 100 = 700 points (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin).

A 40 is not automatic. It requires at least identifying the subject and trying to apply the law to the facts; an answer that does not do that can receive 0 (Grading). Under the July 2026 rules, an answer file uploaded after the deadline cost 10 scaled points, and a file still missing two weeks after the deadline received a grade of zero for each missing answer (July 2026 Admittance Ticket Bulletin).

The instructions printed with every essay say: "State fully the reasons that support your conclusions and discuss all points thoroughly." They also warn: "If your answer contains only a statement of your conclusions, you will receive little or no credit" (Exam Content Instructions; July 2026 questions). So write every step: the issue, the rule, the application to the facts, and the conclusion.

Step 2: converting raw written points to a scaled score

Your MBE result is reported as a scaled score on California's 2000-point scale. For comparison, the average California MBE scaled score in February 2026 was 1313 (February 2026 results). The State Bar converts your raw written score onto the same scale with a linear formula. The formula adjusts for how hard that exam's written questions were and how strictly they were graded, measured against the same group's MBE results, so its constants change each administration. The State Bar publishes them in its bulletin for unsuccessful applicants. Each applicant's essay scores, Performance Test score and MBE percentile ranks by subject (California and national) appear in the Applicant Portal. For July 2025 the formula was:

Written scaled score = raw written score x 3.9900 minus 328.79 (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin).

The constants for February 2027 and later sittings will be different. The shape of the formula does not change.

Worked backwards with the July 2025 constants, a written scaled score of 1390 needed about 431 raw points out of 700: (1390 + 328.79) ÷ 3.99 = 430.8. That is an average of about 61.5 on each of the seven essay-equivalents (five essays plus the Performance Test counted twice).

Step 3: the 50/50 total on the 2000-point scale

The total scaled score is the average of the two halves:

Total = (MBE scaled score x 0.50) + (written scaled score x 0.50) (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin)

Both halves are on the same scale, so one point on the written side is worth exactly one point on the MBE side. A candidate who is 20 points below the line on the MBE can make it up with 20 points above the line on the written day. The reverse is also true.

A worked example (July 2025 constants)

Read the example carefully. Five essays at 65 and a Performance Test at 55, combined with an MBE scaled score just under the pass line, produce a pass. The exam rewards steady, complete answers on every question more than one brilliant answer.

The second read: 1350 to 1389

If your first-read total is below 1350, you fail, and there is no second read. If your first-read total is between 1350 and 1389, all of your written answers are read again in full by a second set of graders. The State Bar averages the two reads. If the average total reaches 1390, you pass (Grading). This is why a 1360 on the first read is not a fail: it is a second chance for the written half.

Where the 1390 came from

Until 2020 the pass score was 1440. In July 2020 the California Supreme Court lowered it to 1390, first applied to the October 2020 exam (Grading; Impact Fund summary, July 23, 2020, third-party). A prep-course page that still says 1440 is out of date. The Supreme Court's order of July 15, 2026 requires a NextGen passing score "equivalent to the current total scaled passing score of 1390 or better out of 2000 points" (Supreme Court order S296951). The full reform timeline is in our guide to the 2027 to 2029 changes.

What 1390 means in practice

The 1390 is a fixed standard, not a quota, so the pass rate moves with the candidates. In February 2026, 3,931 people completed the General Bar Exam and 30.8% passed. First-time takers passed at 43.9% (February 2026 results), or 44.0% in the revised February 2026 statistics. Foreign-admitted attorneys passed at 22.2% in that sitting and 18.2% in July 2025 (July 2025 statistics). Rates by sitting and applicant group are in our pass-rate guide.

July 2026 results are due on November 6, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific in the Applicant Portal (California Bar Examination page; Board of Trustees, July 16, 2026). Later results dates are in our dates and deadlines guide.

Attorneys' Exam: same subjects, written day only

The Attorneys' Exam is Day 1 only: the same five essays and the same Performance Test, with no MBE. It is open only to lawyers whose license in a U.S. jurisdiction has been active and in good standing for at least four years immediately before the exam. Pass or fail is decided on the written scaled score alone, which must reach 1390 (Attorney Applicants; Rule 4.3(C), Title 4 rules).

A lawyer admitted in another country is not eligible for the Attorneys' Exam. Foreign-admitted attorneys take the full two-day General Bar Exam: all 13 subjects plus the MBE (Foreign Education). They pay the attorney-applicant exam fee of $1,650 rather than the $878 general fee, under the fee schedule in effect for 2026 (Board action of November 2025) (Appendix A fee schedule). The eligibility routes are in the foreign-lawyer guide.

February 2028 is the last scheduled one-day Attorneys' Exam. The State Bar says "There may be no Attorneys' Exam administered in July 2028 and February 2029" and advises U.S.-licensed attorneys to take it no later than February 2028 (State Bar notice, July 15, 2026).

What changes after February 2028

The Supreme Court's order of July 15, 2026 replaces the current exam with the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam from July 2028 (Supreme Court order S296951; State Bar notice, July 15, 2026). The subject list changes with it.

Sources: NCBE NextGen content scope; State Bar notice; Supreme Court order S296951.

The consequence for a 2027 or February 2028 candidate is simple: study the 13 subjects above, in the current format, and do not mix in NextGen materials. The consequence for anyone who might slip to July 2028 is that Community Property, Wills and the California overlays disappear from the exam for at least two sittings. The full timeline is in the exam overview.

What to do this week

1. Confirm your target sitting and its deadlines in how to apply. The February 2027 application opens on October 1, 2026, the timely deadline is November 2, 2026 and the final deadline is January 4, 2027 (Dates and Deadlines).
2. Read the free first chapters of Professional Responsibility and Contracts in the subjects. Professional Responsibility is the most-tested essay subject, and Contracts is the MBE subject that appears most often in the essays.
3. If you are a foreign-admitted lawyer, check your route in the foreign-lawyer guide.
4. Compare the plans on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

How many subjects are on the California Bar Exam?

Thirteen: Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Community Property, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, Real Property, Remedies, Torts, Trusts, and Wills and Succession. Any of the 13 can appear in the five essays, and the State Bar publishes a content map for each (Scope page). This list applies to the February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028 sittings.

Which California Bar Exam subjects are on the MBE and which are essay-only?

Seven subjects are on the 200-question MBE and can also be essays: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property and Torts. Six are essay-only: Business Associations, Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Remedies, Trusts, and Wills and Succession. Each MBE subject has 25 scored questions, for 175 scored plus 25 unscored pretest questions (July 2026 exam page).

Which subject appears most often on the California Bar essays?

Professional Responsibility: 49 of the last 50 exams (98%) in SmartBarPrep's July 2026 count, and all 12 of the most recent exams in the State Bar's released questions (SmartBarPrep frequency analysis; Past Exams). Remedies is next at 38 of 50, then Contracts at 32, Evidence at 29, and Community Property and Torts at 28 each.

What is a passing score on the California Bar Exam?

1390 out of 2000 total scaled points. The written day and the MBE each count for 50 percent (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin). Below 1350 fails. From 1350 to 1389 the written answers get a full second read, and the average must reach 1390 (Grading). The Supreme Court lowered the score from 1440 to 1390 in July 2020, first applied to the October 2020 exam. The 1390 standard applies to the February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028 sittings.

How is the California Bar Exam score calculated?

Each essay and the Performance Test is graded from 40 to 100 in steps of 5; an answer that does not identify the subject and try to apply the law can receive 0. The Performance Test score is doubled, so the written day has a maximum of 700 raw points, and the Performance Test is worth up to 200 of them. The State Bar converts the raw written score to a scaled score using constants that change each administration. For July 2025 the formula was raw x 3.9900 minus 328.79 (July 2025 Unsuccessful Bulletin). Total = (MBE scaled x 0.50) + (written scaled x 0.50) (same bulletin). The 40-to-100 scale and the zero rule are on the Grading page.

Do foreign lawyers take the same subjects as everyone else?

Yes. A lawyer admitted in another country takes the full two-day General Bar Exam: all 13 subjects in the essays, the Performance Test and the MBE. The one-day Attorneys' Exam is limited to lawyers licensed in a U.S. jurisdiction for at least four years (Attorney Applicants). Under the fee schedule in effect for 2026 (Board action of November 2025), foreign-admitted attorneys pay the attorney-applicant exam fee of $1,650; LL.M. graduates who are not admitted anywhere pay $878 (Appendix A).

Sources

• Scope of the California Bar Examination and the 13 subject content maps linked in the first table
• Grading and Exam Content Instructions by Question Type
• July 2026 Admittance Ticket Bulletin
• July 2025 California Bar Exam Unsuccessful Bulletin
• July 2026 California Bar Exam page and California Bar Examination main page
• State Bar Dates and Deadlines, Board of Trustees, July 16, 2026, Board and Committee of Bar Examiners, January 23, 2026 and Committee of Bar Examiners, April 17, 2026
• Past Exams, July 2025 questions and selected answers, February 2026 questions and selected answers, July 2026 questions, July 2025 Performance Test, February 2026 Performance Test
• SmartBarPrep California Essay Frequency Analysis, July 2026 edition (third-party count of the last 50 exams), JD Advising Performance Test frequency chart, JD Advising on California distinctions and Impact Fund on the 2020 cut score (third-party)
• NCBE, preparing for the MBE, NCBE MBE Subject Matter Outline and NCBE NextGen UBE Content Scope, August 2025
• State Bar MPRE page
• Attorney Applicants, Rules of the State Bar, Title 4, Division 1 and Foreign Education
• Appendix A, Schedule of Charges and Deadlines
• February 2026 results, July 2025 statistics, February 2026 statistics
• Supreme Court Administrative Order 2026-07-15-01 (S296951) and State Bar notice on the bar exam to be administered beginning July 2028

Last verified: September 24, 2026. The State Bar's pages control if anything here differs from them.