California Bar Exam: Instructions for Essay Questions and Performance Test

Essay Questions

The instructions for the essay questions on the California Bar Exam are as follows:

  1. Your answer should demonstrate your ability to analyze the facts in the question, to tell the difference between material facts and immaterial facts, and to discern the points of law and fact upon which the situation turns. Your answer should show that you know and understand the pertinent principles and theories of law, their qualifications and limitations, and their relationships to each other.
  2. Your answer should evidence your ability to apply the law to the given facts and to reason in a logical manner from the premises you adopt to a sound conclusion. Do not merely show that you remember legal principles. Instead, try to demonstrate your proficiency in using and applying them to the facts.  
  3. If your answer contains only a statement of your conclusions, you will receive little or no credit. State fully the reasons that support your conclusions, and discuss all points thoroughly.
  4. Your answer should be complete, but you should not volunteer information or discuss legal doctrines that are not pertinent to the resolution of the issues raised by the call of the question. 
  5. Unless a question expressly asks you to use California law, you should answer according to legal theories and principles of general application.

Performance Test

The instructions for the Performance Test on the California Bar Exam are as follows:  

  1. This performance test is designed to evaluate your ability to handle a select number of legal authorities in the context of a factual problem.
  2. The problem is set in the fictional State of Columbia, one of the United States. In Columbia, the intermediate appellate court is the Court of Appeal and the highest court is the Supreme Court.
  3. You will have two separate sets of materials with which to work: a File and a Library. 
  4. The File consists of source documents containing all the facts of the case. The first document in the File is a memorandum containing the directions for the task you are to complete. The other documents in the File contain information about your case and may include some facts that are not relevant. Facts are sometimes ambiguous, incomplete, or even conflicting. As in practice, a client’s or supervising attorney’s version of events may be incomplete or unreliable. Applicants are expected to recognize when facts are inconsistent or missing and are expected to identify sources of additional facts.
  5. The Library contains the legal authorities needed to complete the task and may also include some authorities that are not relevant to the assigned lawyering task. The cases, statutes, regulations, or rules may be real, modified, or written solely for the purpose of this performance test. If any of them appear familiar to you, do not assume that they are precisely the same as you have read before. Read each thoroughly, as if it were new to you. You should assume that cases were decided in the jurisdictions and on the dates shown. In citing cases from the Library, you may use abbreviations and omit page references. Applicants are expected to extract from the Library the legal principles necessary to analyze the problem and perform the task. 
  6. In answering this performance test, you should concentrate on the materials in the File and Library. What you have learned in law school and elsewhere provides the general background for analyzing the problem; the File and Library provide the specific materials with which you must work.
  7. This performance test is designed to be completed in 90 minutes. Although there are no restrictions or parameters on how you apportion that 90 minutes, you should allow yourself sufficient time to thoroughly review the materials and organize your planned response before you begin writing it. Since the time allotted for this session of the examination includes two (2) essay questions in addition to this performance test, time management is essential.   
  8. Do not include your actual name or any other identifying information anywhere in the work product required by the task memorandum. 
  9. Your performance test answer will be graded on its responsiveness to and compliance with the directions regarding the task you are to complete, as well as on its content, thoroughness, and organization.