Exam Format, Scoring, and the 1390 Passing Score

California scores the bar exam on a 2,000-point scale. Your raw essay and Performance Test scores and your raw MBE score are each converted to scaled scores, the two days are weighted equally (50 percent written, 50 percent MBE), and the result is reported on the 2,000-point scale. The headline number every candidate should know is the passing score. For most of the exam's modern history the cut score was 1440, the highest in the nation and a frequent target of reform criticism.

On July 16, 2020, the California Supreme Court permanently lowered the passing score from 1440 to 1390 out of 2,000, a 50-point reduction, citing pandemic-era disruption and arguments that 1440 excluded competent candidates who would pass comfortably in other states. The court declined to apply 1390 retroactively to earlier examinees. So the operative number for 2026 is 1390, not 1440 — but you will still see 1440 referenced in older materials, which is why both numbers matter when you read study guides.

The drop from 1440 to 1390 was consequential: 1440 was, for years, the second-highest cut score in the United States, behind only Delaware, and critics argued it kept out candidates who would pass comfortably in states with cut scores closer to the national norm (many states set their line around 1330 to 1350). Lowering the line by 50 points measurably raised pass rates, especially for repeat takers and candidates near the margin.

For you, the practical takeaway is to calibrate your target to 1390 and aim comfortably above it — treat roughly 1440 as a safety buffer in practice scoring, not as a requirement, so that a bad essay or a rough MBE block on the real day still leaves you above the line.

How the Two Days Combine

Because Day 1 and Day 2 are weighted 50/50, the written and multiple-choice portions are equally important. The written component is itself a blend: the five one-hour essays and the single 90-minute Performance Test are scored on the written scale together. A practical consequence is that strong MBE performance can offset weaker essays and vice versa — the so-called 'compensatory' scoring model. There is no separate minimum you must hit on each component; you need a combined 1390.

This is strategically important: if your MBE practice scores are consistently strong, a disastrous single essay will not automatically sink you, and if you write excellent essays, a middling MBE day can still pass.

The State Bar uses a two-phase grading process. In the first phase, an applicant with a total scale score of at least 1390 after one reading passes. Candidates who land in a band just below 1390 (roughly 1350-1390) have their written answers re-read in a second phase, which can move borderline candidates over the line.

Allocating Study Hours to the Blueprint

Because the two days are weighted equally, a balanced plan allocates roughly half of total study time to MBE practice and half to essays and the Performance Test. Within essays, weight your hours toward the highest-frequency California subjects. Historically, Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Evidence, Contracts, Torts, Real Property, Civil Procedure, and Business Associations appear most often, while Trusts, Wills, Remedies, Constitutional Law, and Criminal Law/Procedure round out the rotation.

Because Professional Responsibility can be tested in any essay (it is frequently 'crossed' into another subject's fact pattern), it deserves disproportionate attention.

For the MBE, the seven subjects are not equally weighted by the NCBE; Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts each contribute a defined share of the 175 scored questions, so spread MBE drilling across all seven rather than over-investing in a favorite. A simple rule: do timed mixed MBE sets daily, and rotate essay subjects so that no high-frequency subject goes more than a few days untouched.

In-Person Administration and Tools (2026)

For 2026, both administrations are fully in person at designated California test sites. On Day 1, applicants type their essay and Performance Test answers into the Examplify exam software on a laptop (handwriting remains an option), and receive hardcopy materials and scratch paper. On Day 2, the MBE is delivered on paper: applicants receive a hardcopy question booklet and mark answers on a Scantron sheet with a No. 2 pencil — MBE answers are not entered into Examplify. Sessions are long: Day 1 runs a 3-hour morning block (Essays 1-3) and a 3.5-hour afternoon block (Essays 4-5 plus the PT); Day 2 runs two 3-hour blocks of 100 questions each.

You generally must be seated by about 8:20 a.m. each day, with instructions beginning around 8:30 a.m.; Day 1 typically concludes near 5:30 p.m. and Day 2 near 5:00 p.m. Knowing the tooling matters: practicing essays in software that mimics Examplify and practicing MBE sets on paper Scantrons builds the muscle memory that prevents Day-of surprises. The shift back to in-person, paper-Scantron MBE administration is a direct response to the February 2025 remote-testing failures, and it changes how you should rehearse.

If your prep course offers a digital MBE interface, supplement it with at least several timed paper sets so that bubbling answers with a No. 2 pencil, tracking your place in a printed booklet, and transferring answers without mis-bubbling all feel routine. For the essays and PT, install or replicate the Examplify environment and practice typing full answers in it, including using its limited formatting, so you are not fighting the software for points on exam day.

Small mechanical frictions — a Scantron transcription error, an Examplify formatting fumble — cost real points under time pressure, and the only cure is to rehearse in the actual tools and on the actual cadence the State Bar uses in 2026.