South Carolina Bar Exam

South Carolina Bar Examiners

Supreme Court of South Carolina
Board of Law Examiners
1231 Gervais St.
P.O. Box 11330
Columbia, SC 29211
(803) 734-1080

Bar Exam Format

South Carolina has adopted the UBE that includes the MPT and MEE on Tuesday and the MBE on Wednesday.

Day 1

Two MPT questions are administered within a 3-hour session, allowing an average of 90 minutes to answer each of them. Six MEE questions are administered within another 3-hour session, allowing an average of 30 minutes to answer each essay question.

Day 2

Both 3-hour sessions have 100 MBE multiple choice questions to answer in 1.8 minutes each, on average.

Reciprocity

If you fulfill several other, detailed requirements and are the Dean or a tenured professor of the Charleston School of Law or the University of South Carolina School of Law, then you may obtain admission to the South Carolina Bar without having to take:

  • the South Carolina Bar Exam;
  • the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (“MPRE”); and
  • the Course of Study on South Carolina Law.

South Carolina will accept a transferred UBE score of 266 within 3 years after the UBE at which that score was attained.

Subjects/Topics

The South Carolina essay questions can examine these subjects:

  • Agency,
  • Civil Procedure,
  • Conflict of Laws (this will not be the main subject of an essay question),
  • Constitutional Law,
  • Contracts,
  • Corporations (and LLCs),
  • Criminal Law and Procedure,
  • Evidence,
  • Family Law,
  • Partnership,
  • Property,
  • Torts,
  • Uniform Commercial Code – Articles 2 and 9, and
  • Wills, Trusts, and Estates.

Bar Exam Dates

The South Carolina bar exam is held in February and July. The exam is usually on the last Wednesday and prior Tuesday of each month.

2024

  • February 27-28, 2024
  • July 30-31, 2024

Exam Results

Traditionally, the South Carolina Board of Law Examiners releases the February South Carolina Bar Exam results in late April, and the July exam results in late October.  South Carolina bar exam takers will receive a letter stating whether they passed or failed.  Each exam passer’s name, and each exam failer’s identification number, is posted online.

Scoring/Grading

To pass the South Carolina bar exam, you have to score at least 266 on a 400-point scale.  The Multistate Essay Exam (“MEE”) and Multistate Performance Test (“MPT”) scores are scaled to the Multistate Bar Exam (“MBE”) and combined with the MBE score.

Pass Rate/Stats

For total takers, 88% is the highest pass rate and 65% is the lowest.  For first-time takers, 92% is the highest pass rate and 70% is the lowest.  For repeat takers, 67% is the highest pass rate and 8% is the lowest.