Florida Bar Exam Study Guide: Subjects, Scoring & Deadlines

The best way to prepare with a Florida Bar Exam study guide is to work directly from the official study guide published by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, because it contains the past essay questions, model answers, and grading rubrics the examiners actually use.¹ Everything else you study, whether a commercial course or your own outlines, should be measured against what those rubrics reward. Florida does not offer reciprocity, so this is the exam every applicant takes, including attorneys already licensed elsewhere.²

What You Are Preparing For

The exam runs two days, on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July, at the Tampa Convention Center.³⁴ It is the only testing site, and hotels near the venue fill during exam weeks, so book early.

Part A, the first day, is Florida law: a three-hour essay session and a separate three-hour block of 100 multiple-choice questions. Part B, the second day, is the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), two three-hour blocks of 100 questions each covering general legal principles tested nationally.⁴ Your study plan has to feed both.

Part A Subjects: Florida Law

Part A tests a broader list than many applicants expect. The Board identifies these testable subjects:⁴

Florida Constitutional Law
Federal Constitutional Law
Trusts
Business Entities
Real Property
Evidence
Torts
Wills and Administration of Estates
Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure
Contracts
Articles 3 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code
Family Law
Chapters 4 and 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar
Professionalism
Florida Rules of Civil Procedure
Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure
Florida Rules of Judicial Administration (limited to disqualification of trial judges, public access to judicial branch records, minimizing sensitive information in filings, attorney qualifications and conditions for representing clients in Florida courts, and signature requirements on pleadings)

A few of these pull more weight than their line on the list suggests. Chapters 4 and 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar cover professional conduct and trust account rules, and ethics questions appear in both the essay and multiple-choice portions of Part A.⁵ Florida evidence law and the UCC articles diverge enough from general common law that applicants who studied only MBE-style materials get caught.

Essay questions are not labeled by subject, so a single fact pattern may blend real property with trust law or cross criminal procedure with constitutional questions.³ Issue-spotting across subjects is itself a skill, and the best way to build it is by working through the Board’s past essays.

Part B Subjects: The MBE

The MBE is a standardized 200-question multiple-choice exam from the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Of the 200, 175 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest questions you cannot identify. It covers seven subjects:

Civil Procedure
Constitutional Law
Contracts
Criminal Law and Procedure
Evidence
Real Property
Torts

MBE questions test general principles, not Florida statutes. Evidence, torts, real property, and criminal law appear on both days, so Part A study feeds Part B, but watch the trap: on the MBE, do not default to the Florida-specific rule when the question is asking about the majority rule.

Using the Official Study Guide

The Board’s official study guide is the single most useful resource for Part A. It is updated twice a year with essay questions from the most recent administration, and the sample multiple-choice questions are refreshed periodically.¹

The core of the guide is the collection of past essays paired with model answers and grading rubrics. The model answers show the level of detail and analysis that earned high scores. The rubrics show the specific legal points and analytical steps examiners award credit for. If your practice essay hits every rubric point, you are studying the right material at the right depth.

Use the past essays to simulate test conditions. Write full answers under the clock, then compare your work against the rubric before you read the model answer. That order matters: the rubric tells you what you missed; the model answer then shows you how a strong writer put it together. Two skills grow at once, issue-spotting under pressure and the concise, structured writing style the graders reward. The sample multiple-choice questions let you calibrate to Part A’s format, which differs from the MBE in testing Florida-specific rules.

Scoring and the Two Passing Methods

You need a scaled score of 136 to pass. Scaled scoring accounts for difficulty variations between administrations, so a 136 in February represents the same competency level as a 136 in July. Florida offers two paths to passing status:⁴

The Overall Method is available only when you take Part A and Part B in the same administration. Your scores from both parts are averaged, and if that average is 136 or higher, you pass. A strong performance on one part can offset a weaker one on the other.

The Individual Method lets you pass Part A and Part B separately across different administrations. Each part must independently reach 136. Once you pass one part, that score is permanently banked. You retake only the part you failed, and electing the Overall Method on a later attempt does not jeopardize a previously banked passing score. For retakers this matters: if you cleared the MBE but fell short on Part A, you only need to retake Part A. Florida does not limit the number of times you can sit for the exam.

Results are released by order of the Supreme Court of Florida and posted online for 30 days after that order.⁶ Individual score breakdowns come through the Board’s applicant portal.

The MPRE Requirement

Passing the General Bar Examination is not enough on its own. You also need a scaled score of at least 80 on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), a separate 60-question, two-hour test given by the NCBE in March, August, and November.⁷ Your passing MPRE score must be attained within 25 months of passing the other parts of the Florida Bar Examination.⁴

The MPRE covers legal ethics and professional responsibility: client confidentiality, conflicts of interest, attorney-client relationships, litigation conduct, trust account management, judicial conduct, and lawyer advertising.⁸ Because Chapters 4 and 5 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar are tested on Part A, MPRE study reinforces your Florida ethics study. Most applicants take the MPRE in law school or shortly before the bar exam to stay inside the 25-month window.

Fees and Filing Deadlines

First-time applicants who have never filed a bar application in Florida pay a $1,000 application fee. If you previously registered as a law student registrant, the fee is $600.⁹ Late fees climb fast.

For the July exam, applications postmarked by May 1 carry no late fee; by June 1, a $325 late fee; received by June 15, a $625 late fee, which is the absolute cutoff. For the February exam, applications postmarked by mid-November carry no late fee; by December 15, a $325 late fee; received by January 15, a $625 late fee, which is the absolute cutoff.

After the final cutoff, the Board will not accept applications for that administration regardless of circumstances. All required forms, fingerprinting proof, and fees must arrive by the final deadline.⁴ A deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday extends to the next business day.

The Laptop Program

You can type the essay answers on a personal laptop, but you have to apply for the laptop program separately and pay a nonrefundable $125 fee on top of exam fees.¹⁰ The Board requires approved software that locks your laptop to word processing only, blocking other files, the internet, and external programs.

Key dates and requirements:

Laptop fees and forms must be received by January 15 (February exam) or June 15 (July exam).
You must download and install the software by February 1 or July 1, respectively.
After the exam, you must connect to the internet and upload your essay answers before the 10:00 p.m. cutoff on the day of the essay portion.
If you miss the registration deadline or fail to install the software, you handwrite your essays. No exceptions.

Practice with the software before exam day. If your laptop fails during the exam, you switch to handwriting with no extra time, so familiarity with the locked-down environment removes one source of stress on a hard day.

Note on Timing: NextGen Bar Exam

Florida has adopted the NextGen Bar Exam, with the first NextGen administration scheduled for July 2028.¹¹ The NCBE will discontinue the MBE after February 2028, so the two-part format described in this guide applies through that final MBE administration. If you are testing before July 2028, this is the format and study guide you need. If your timeline reaches beyond that date, watch for Board announcements about the new structure, which will replace the MBE and will likely change both the format and the subjects tested. The February 2028 exam would be the last chance to sit under the current format.

One more thing worth knowing while you plan: Florida does not offer admission on motion or reciprocity with any other jurisdiction, with a narrow exception for military spouses under Chapter 21 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.² Out-of-state attorneys preparing for the Florida exam should weight Part A heavily, because the Florida-specific subjects will be new ground even for experienced practitioners.

1
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. Study Guides
2
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. FAQ
3
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admissions to the Bar
4
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. Exam Information, Test Specifications, Study Guide, and Virtual Tour
5
The Florida Bar. Rules Regulating The Florida Bar
6
Florida Supreme Court. Bar Scores
7
National Conference of Bar Examiners. Florida
8
National Conference of Bar Examiners. MPRE Subject Matter Outline
9
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. Application Fee Worksheet
10
Florida Board of Bar Examiners. Laptop Program
11
Florida Courts. Florida Adopts NextGen Bar Exam for July 2028