The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners is responsible for the bar exam. The Examiners are reasonably open and transparent. They release their essay questions here, and the links are reproduced below. They do not release their short answer questions.
The Virginia bar exam, a two-day exam, consists of
- the six-hour multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), weighted 40%;
- five Virginia essays given over three hours; and
- four Virginia essays plus twenty short-answer questions given over three hours.
Successful applicants must receive a combined scaled score of 140. Within 2 calendar years before or after the bar exam, applicants also must pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) with a scaled score of 85.
The following subjects may be tested on the Virginia bar exam:
- agency (business associations)
- conflict of laws
- constitutional law
- contracts, including UCC Article 2 sales
- corporations (business associations)
- creditors’ rights
- criminal law and procedure
- domestic relations (family law)
- equity (remedies)
- evidence
- federal practice and procedure (civil procedure)
- local government law
- partnerships (business associations)
- personal property
- professional responsibility
- real property, including real estate finance
- sales (UCC Article 2)
- suretyship
- taxation
- torts
- trusts (wills)
- Uniform Commercial Code, including Articles 1 (general provisions), 2 (sales), 3 (negotiable instruments), 9 (secured transactions)
- Virginia pleading, practice, and procedure, including appellate practice (civil procedure)
- wills and estate administration.
Here are links to the past Virginia questions:
- 2008 Feb 26, Section 2
- 2008 Feb 26, Section 1
- 2007 July 24, Section 2
- 2007 July 24, Section 1
- 2007 Feb 27, Section 2
- 2007 Feb 27, Section 1
- 2006 July 25, Section 2
- 2006 July 25, Section 1
- 2006 Feb 21, Section 2
- 2006 Feb 21, Section 1
- 2005 July 26, Section 2
- 2005 July 26, Section 1
- 2005 Feb 22, Section 2
- 2005 Feb 22, Section 1
- 2004 July 27, Section 2
- 2004 July 27, Section 1
- 2004 Feb 24, Section 2
- 2004 Feb 24, Section 1
- 2003 July 29, Section 2
- 2003 July 29, Section 1
- 2003 Feb 25, Section 2
- 2003 Feb 25, Section 1
- 2002 July 30, Section 2
- 2002 July 30, Section 1
- 2002 Feb 26, Section 2
- 2002 Feb 26, Section 1
- 2001 July 24, Section 2
- 2001 July 24, Section 1
- 2001 Feb 27, Section 1
- 2000 July 25, Section 2
- 2000 July 25, Section 2
- 2000 July 25, Section 1
- 2000 Feb 22, Section 2
- 2000 Feb 22, Section 1
- 1999 July 27, Section 2
- 1999 July 27, Section 1
- 1999 Feb 23, Section 2
- 1999 Feb 23, Section 1
- 1998 July 28, Section 2
- 1998 July 28, Section 1
- 1998 Feb 24, Section 2
- 1998 Feb 24, Section 1
- 1997 July 29, Section 2
- 1997 July 29, Section 1
- 1997 Feb 25, Section 2
- 1997 Feb 25, Section 1
- 1996 July 30, Section 2
- 1996 July 30, Section 1
- 1996 Feb 27, Section 2
- 1996 Feb 27, Section 1
- 1995 July 25, Section 2
- 1995 July 25, Section 1
- 1995 Feb 21, Section 2
- 1995 Feb 21, Section 1