Georgia Bar Exam: Requirements, Applications, and MPRE

To be admitted to the Georgia bar, you need an undergraduate degree, a Juris Doctor from an ABA-approved law school, a Certification of Fitness from the Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants, a scaled score of at least 75 on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, and a combined scaled score of at least 270 on Georgia’s two-day bar exam. The Georgia bar exam requirements are set by the Supreme Court of Georgia and administered through the Office of Bar Admissions, with two boards splitting the work: one reviews your character and background, the other writes and grades the test.

Who Can Sit for the Exam

Georgia requires two academic credentials before you can take the bar exam: an undergraduate degree from an accredited institution and a JD (or equivalent first law degree) from an ABA-approved law school.¹ A less common alternative allows graduation from a law school separately approved by the Board of Bar Examiners.²

Graduates of non-ABA law schools can petition the Board of Bar Examiners for a waiver. You must show “good cause by clear and convincing evidence,” and the Board looks at your educational background, the quality of your academic work, your employment history, and your career goals. Most waiver petitions include a Dean’s Letter from a dean at an ABA-approved school analyzing whether your legal education was equivalent to an ABA program.¹

Every applicant, regardless of school, must obtain a Certification of Fitness to Practice Law before sitting for the exam. No one is admitted to the Georgia bar without it.²

The Two Applications You File

Fitness certification and the bar exam itself require two separate applications with separate deadlines and separate fees. Miss a window and you pay for it.

Certification of Fitness

The fitness application digs into your personal and professional history. You’ll provide a full residential history, detailed employment records going back years, and multiple character references with contact information. Official undergraduate and law school transcripts must come directly from your institutions to the Georgia Office of Bar Admissions. A fingerprint-based criminal background check is part of the review, and the Board uses everything together to evaluate whether you have the honesty, trustworthiness, and reliability expected of a practicing attorney.

Precision matters. Omissions or inconsistencies can cause serious delays or outright denial, so over-disclose rather than hope something won’t surface.

For the July 2026 exam, the regular fitness filing window ran from October 22 through December 3, 2025, with a final filing period carrying a $500 late fee extending to March 4, 2026.³ The base fee depends on your timing:

Filed before earning your law degree: $450
Filed after earning your law degree: $750
Late filing surcharge: additional $500

Filing while still in law school saves real money. A student who files before graduation during the regular period pays $450; a graduate filing late pays $1,250 for the same certification.³

Bar Exam Application

Once fitness is filed, you submit a separate bar exam application through the Office of Bar Admissions online portal. For the July 2026 administration, the regular filing period opens March 1, 2026, and the final deadline (plus $500 late fee) is 4:00 p.m. on June 1, 2026. Official transcripts must arrive by June 15, and laptop registration closes April 1.³

Current law student: $400
Law school graduate: $550
Late filing surcharge: additional $500
Laptop software (ExamSoft): $105, whether you type or handwrite

A graduate who misses the regular windows for both applications can pay upward of $2,000 in combined fees before sitting down to take the test.³

What the Exam Covers and How It’s Scored

The exam spans two days and combines three components into a single scaled score. You need a 270 to pass. Georgia does not impose a minimum MBE score threshold, so all MPT and essay answers are graded regardless of your MBE performance.⁴

Day One: MPT and Georgia Essays

Day one is 50 percent of your total score. You complete two Multistate Performance Test tasks and four Georgia-specific essays. The MPT is a closed-universe exercise: you get a file of facts and a library of authorities, then produce a memo, brief, or client letter using only those materials.

The four essays are drafted and graded by the Board of Bar Examiners. You get 45 minutes per question, and topics are drawn from a pool of 14 subjects: Business Organizations, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Federal Practice and Procedure, Georgia Practice and Procedure, Non-Monetary Remedies, Professional Ethics, Property, Torts, Trusts, Wills, and Estates, and the Uniform Commercial Code (Articles 2, 3, and 9). Out-of-state applicants most often stumble on Georgia Practice and Procedure and Federal Practice and Procedure, which turn on Georgia-specific rules that commercial bar prep sometimes undercovers.

Day Two: Multistate Bar Examination

Day two is the MBE: 200 multiple-choice questions in two three-hour sessions. Of those, 175 are scored and 25 are unscored pretest questions distributed across seven subjects: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts.⁵ Only correct answers count, with no penalty for guessing, so answer everything.

When Results Come Out

Results for the February 2026 exam were released on the third Friday of April.⁴ July results follow a few months after the exam, with the exact date posted on the Office of Bar Admissions website. Successful candidates are listed publicly; individual score reports are delivered through your private online account.

The MPRE Ethics Requirement

Passing the bar exam alone isn’t enough. Georgia requires a minimum scaled score of 75 on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, a 60-question ethics test administered separately by the National Conference of Bar Examiners three times a year, typically in March, August, and November.⁶ You can take the MPRE before or after the bar exam, but you will not be admitted until both requirements are satisfied. Most applicants take it during the final year of law school while Professional Responsibility coursework is still fresh.

Alternative Paths for Out-of-State Attorneys

Attorneys already licensed elsewhere have two shortcuts.

One-Day Attorneys’ Examination

Attorneys who passed a bar exam and are in good standing in another jurisdiction can take the Attorneys’ Examination, a one-day test of only the MPT and Georgia essays. Your written score is effectively doubled, so you need at least a 135 to reach the 270 passing threshold. You’re eligible only if you’ve never previously failed a Georgia bar exam and don’t qualify for admission on motion. The fitness application fee is $1,200, and the conversion deadline from a two-day application is January 5 for the February exam or June 5 for the July exam.⁷

Admission on Motion

Experienced attorneys may skip the exam entirely through admission on motion. You must have been primarily engaged in the active practice of law for at least five of the past seven years, and the Board does not count typical document review as practicing law. You must also have been admitted by passing a bar exam in a jurisdiction reciprocal with Georgia.⁸

Georgia maintains reciprocity with more than 40 jurisdictions, including New York, Texas, Illinois, and the District of Columbia. California, Florida, and South Carolina are not reciprocal, so attorneys licensed only in those states cannot use this path.⁸ The petition requires a $2,500 fee, and supporting documentation (including certificates of good standing and disciplinary history from every jurisdiction where you’ve been admitted) must be submitted within 30 days of filing. Georgia also applies whatever “more stringent and exacting” requirements the reciprocal jurisdiction would impose on a Georgia attorney seeking admission there, so extra conditions may apply depending on where you were originally licensed.

After You Pass

A passing score doesn’t make you a lawyer. You must be sworn in before a Georgia judge, and ceremonies are handled at the county level. Contact the clerk of superior court in the county where you want to be sworn in for scheduling.

Most newly admitted attorneys must then complete the Transition Into Law Practice Program, a mandatory mentoring and continuing legal education program run by the State Bar of Georgia that pairs new lawyers with experienced mentors.⁹ Ongoing CLE is required as well. Starting January 1, 2026, all active attorneys moved to a biennial reporting cycle of 18 hours of credit over two years, including 3 hours in ethics and 2 hours in professionalism.¹⁰

NextGen Bar Exam Transition in 2028

Georgia will adopt the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination beginning with the July 2028 administration. NextGen replaces the current MBE, MPT, and state essay format with a redesigned national exam that integrates multiple question types into a single test. For anyone sitting through February 2028, the current two-day format with Georgia-specific essays remains in effect. If you’re early in law school, watch the Office of Bar Admissions website for updated rules as the transition approaches.

1
Office of Bar Admissions. Guidelines for Dean’s Letter
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Office of Bar Admissions. Supreme Court of Georgia Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law
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Georgia Office of Bar Admissions. Deadlines and Fees
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Georgia Office of Bar Admissions. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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NCBE. Sample MBE Questions
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NCBE. Georgia
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Georgia Office of Bar Admissions. Attorneys’ Examination
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Georgia Office of Bar Admissions. Admission on Motion without Examination
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State Bar of Georgia. Transition Into Law Practice Program
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State Bar of Georgia. Continuing Legal Education