My Ontario Bar Exam Experience as a Lawyer Licensing Candidate

Ontario requires paralegals to take 1 big licensing exam and lawyer licensing candidates to take 2 licensing exams to practice.

See 10 Point checklist blog post for all Ontario lawyer licensing requirements

The Barrister exam comprises the subjects: civil litigation, criminal law, family law, public law and professional responsibility. The solicitor exam comprises business law, estate law, real estate and professional responsibility. I signed up to write the Solicitor exam first because I had come back somewhat recently from Melbourne, interning at a firm doing some solicitor work including work on real estate files. I figured it might help me understand the real estate process better.

As you know from one of my previous posts, I had a concussion shortly after I had started the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) licensing process and could not take the solicitor exam in June 2018 when I had intended to. However, I had read a few chapters of an earlier year’s material with a friend before my concussion. After I had healed from my concussion, in late July to early August I started reading the new material released for the licensing cycle and created notes. I also started the Law Practice Program (LPP), the preparation for the LPP training and then signed up for the solicitor exam in November. I found it tough balancing my commitment to the LPP training and my LPP firm, applying for LPP work placements for January of the next year and studying for the solicitor bar exam. I also registered with a bar exam tutor for classes with her in the evenings and weekends. You don’t need a tutor if you’re thinking oh should I get a tutor now? I will explain my opinion later about whether I recommend a bar exam tutor. I found it to be useful to stay on track with a schedule while I was doing the LPP however I wouldn’t recommend doing tutor sessions or really studying for the bar exam in addition to doing the LPP really if you want to sleep or have some sanity or expect other commitments on the weekend and some evenings.

When you’re studying for the exam, expect to go through a lot of de-motivating feelings and stress and want to flip and throw the materials at the wall. There were times when I would take forever on a chapter and wonder when it would end. There were also times when you had a headache from going through a chapter. I will not lie; it was a painful process. With the two exams together, there are over 2000 pages to read through. I read somewhere before that the LSO recommends you read it 3-5 times. To be honest, I read it through once, with a few chapters twice, and I didn’t even get through all the material, BUT I would recommend you try to get through it all or as much as possible.

I would make notes directly on the materials, on the side or top, or bottom, around.  With taxes, for example, I drew a mini diagram to help my brain visualize partnership taxes splitting on the bottom of the page, and next to the examples of paid-up capital questions and answers on the text material, I wrote out the formula with a clear note explaining step by step. I did this so I would not have to look too deep into the material and if I was using the table of contents or indices, then I would look for this page and then the main material I was looking for would be clearly spotted.

Do you recommend a bar exam tutor?

Not necessarily. I understand this process is expensive, so I want to give you a heads-up with information when you’re about to pay something and let you decide whether it’s worth it.  I found it useful to keep me on track and motivated in a way to keep going and my tutor pointed out some key things for the exam but if you’re tight on budget, if you’re self-motivated, diligent, committed and reading everything, and understanding it all then you need not pay for a tutor to pass the exam. I say this from the perspective of an internationally trained lawyer, as often we feel pressure to need to buy something more. The pro to having a tutor however is that some tutors know the content of the exam well, they might not be an expert in all areas but they can give you some basic guidance to areas you should particularly pay attention to on the exam.

What about videos? There are companies such as Edmond that have lecture videos you can pay to stream, these videos help explain the concepts well and give you an overview review after you’ve read the material and may help clarify things. Again, are they necessary? No, but you might find it useful if you feel you aren’t grasping the content. These videos however are not a replacement for reading the bar materials. You can not rely on the videos to go through all the bar materials. The videos are not a course you watch and then you’re prepared to write the exam. These videos should be treated as additional or supplementary to the bar materials you have been given.

Let’s talk about Indices/Table of content

Should you make your own indices? You can, but I didn’t. Personally, for the solicitor exam, I used both the Detailed Table of Contents that came with the materials and indices I bought online. I used the detailed table of contents if I remembered the general area or heading of where a fact was that I was looking for, and then other times if I did not know where it was then I would use the indices. I also wrote some page numbers down on the additional notes I made for Real estate. I used the indices more though for finding the most. The key takeaway is, where or how can you find the answer when you’re practising and so you may use the detailed table of contents if you know the subheading of where it’s at, or you might find it through the indices. I found it didn’t matter whether you used the table of contents or indices if you could find the answer quickly.

The problem with buying indices or using someone else’s indices is that your brain doesn’t work always the same as the person who made the indices. Indices work by thinking about the right keyword to look up. The only way to get your brain to work that way is through practice. How? Through some practice exams. Unfortunately, unlike the LSAT, the Law Society of Ontario releases no previous or official practice exams. Some companies make unofficial exams you can practice with. Here are few companies I know that you can get these unofficial exams from (I have a greater list in my premium study guide):

Ontario Law Exam – I bought the exams here and got free indices with them.

ExamBarCrackers – I probably used this site the most as there’s no limit to how often you can repeat these exams. The questions they provide are smaller. The tax questions however that you calculate are not always updated so fair warning on that.

These aren’t to be taken as mimicking the exam bar experience. To get a sense of how the questions will actually be, the LSO releases a few sample exam questions on their website, but not a full exam. After practising and getting to know your indices/detailed table of contents, notes and materials then I would do these questions too to get a sense of what real exam questions will look like.

I didn’t have a ton of time to get through everything as I was also doing the LPP but I focused my time before the exam on ensuring I was comfortable finding everything. I went through the content, read when I could, and listened to my tutor go over the material. My bar exam tutor would go through 2-3 chapters a session for 3-hour sessions, and we would have 3 sessions a week, so we would go at 6-9 chapters per week. The idea was to get through all the material before the month in which the exam was scheduled. The LPP has 2 days during the training session where they don’t send you work and that’s on the barrister and solicitor exam days themselves. These exams are usually scheduled 2 weeks apart so while others took the barristers exam, I looked at solicitor practice exams that day and forced myself not to think about the ton of work from the LPP due before the end of that week. I also crammed the weekend before the solicitor exam. For the barrister exam which I took afterwards while working at my work placement, I was lucky to be given a week off to use to cram through.

The Night before the Exams:

After a certain time in the evening, I stopped cramming exam material to ensure I didn’t burn myself out before the exam. You don’t want to overtire yourself the night before. You might do one last cram out 2 nights ahead, but not the night before. Make sure you have all of your materials packed, your snacks and licensee card in your clear Zipbloc-like bag packed and your lunch ready for the next day. You want to get to bed early and set your alarm or wake up call for the next day.

Day of the Exams:

I got up early, and had a protein-packed breakfast, with some berries. Yoghurt, eggs, berries, and maybe a little granola or cereal (but not too many carbs) or a piece of toast spread with peanut/almond butter or cheese are all good I find. You don’t want a greasy or heavy starch breakfast because the last thing you need is a sugar or carb crash during this long endurance-like exam, but you want something to keep you full or filled up for the first half of the exam. You’re allowed snacks so I also packed some protein snack bars, almonds and maybe grapes I think in my clear Ziploc-like bag. I took the exams at the Toronto Congress Centre, so I packed my things and got there around 7:30 a.m. You want to ensure you have enough time to check-in and find your seat without having to stress out and be frantic right before you write. I used the coat check and checked in my large bag I used to bring my materials in (I used a roller suitcase), and my coat, and backpack with my phone in it. The one piece of paper you’re allowed to bring in and out of the exam room is the tiny coat check ticket stub. I carried my stack of my materials over to the sign-in section and then to the security checkpoint. Once you get into the room, and find your seat, there will be proctors that further help with another sign-in page. I set my materials on the desk, with my indices in one spot near me, and my law society materials in another reachable pile but spread slightly so I could see my subject label of each, then I had my notes laid out in front so I could spot out and know where they all were.  There is a giant digital clock projected to the front of the room, with a countdown timer and a clock showing the time. There will be an announcement before the exam starts and rules to listen for while the exam books and scantron sheets are being released. Once the exam started I just dove in. I went in order, and if I wasn’t able to find the answer after a while or took too long then I would guess and fill in a bubble and move on because I was afraid that if I tried skipping around or did not fill in a bubble, I would later mess up remembering where I was or bubble in an answer on the wrong question line of the scantron. I brought small sticky tabs to flag questions on the question book to go back to if I had time after. After the first half is done, you are given some time to fill out a feedback sheet about your experience with the first half of the exam. When you leave the testing area you can go back to the coat check and collect anything you want from there including your lunch if you left it there while on break. There’s a section at the convention centre to eat your lunch if you packed it, but there are a few restaurants around as well and a Tim Hortons beside the Toronto Congress Centre. When my boyfriend wrote the exam at a different time, I ordered him food at the Swiss Chalet around there about 5-10 minutes before the test takers were leaving for lunch. It can take a while for the exams to be collected and there’s an organization to leaving the room, it’s not just everyone get up and leave simultaneously. There is an exam schedule posted on the LSO website to know the approximate time lunch is and when you should head back inside, although the staff will tell you as you exit the testing site for lunch or you can ask them to confirm when you should come back and find your seat again in the testing area. You must check back anything you took out of the coat check-in during lunch.

You must continue to get through the rest of the exam or the second half after, so I would recommend having a good lunch with some protein and not a lunch that is solely sugar and sweets. You have to just keep pushing through the second half.  The subjects you wrote in the morning half were taken away from you before lunch, so you need to focus on the second half and finish it. I remember getting to the Toronto Congress Centre and checking in around 7:30 am and going through coat check and leaving around 7 p.m. If you’re planning to write both exams that month, don’t expect yourself to go straight back into studying for the next exam that evening as it is a tiring exam. I did my exams at 2 times, but if I did both exams in the same month I would go through both barrister and solicitor exam material ahead of time, studying it as if it was 1 giant exam (I would read a barrister exam subject like Civil procedure, then a solicitor exam subject like Real Estate, and then continue back and forth between the barrister and solicitor exam subjects) and try to finish getting through the content before the month of the bar exams and then focus my attention on learning how to find answers and practice.

This is my experience with the Ontario bar exams. I have been working on a course to offer for a small premium to help walk people through studying like a self-help guide going through the process. I understand that since the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the exam arrangements have changed so remember that my experience was about a year before the covid-19 pandemic.  However, to my understanding, the biggest change now in 2023 is just that the exams have been shortened from full days to half days, but otherwise, my strategies and tips should still apply to my course.

Premium Content Offer: About Ginny’s Ontario Bar Exam Study Guide course

My self-help guide course is a digital course to be used alongside your studies, to help guide you through and provide demonstrations and explanations on how to plan, organize your materials, study for the bar exam, how to use indices and more. I have summarized steps and provided detailed explanations to help students, especially students who A) feel overwhelmed and have no clue on where to start or how to study for these exams or B) have attempted the bar exams, and don’t understand where they’ve gone wrong and feel like they have never gotten the right study strategy down or understood how to actually pass the bar exam, and feel it’s been mission impossible. This is unlike anything out there on the market because, this course doesn’t focus on understanding the content of the materials like a lot of tutors, classes or videos do, but on creating a strategy for tackling the exams, and it is unlike a lot of coaches because this course is designed for you to access at ANY TIME for up to 30 months. I wanted to create this course that lets you feel like you have a coach at the price of a self-help book. I designed something to be affordable, so you aren’t having to spend a lot of money, and it can be used if you are studying by yourself or working with a tutor/class to go over the material. This course, like a self-help book, tells you tips and strategies to implement and is meant for you to have alongside your studies. You will read a chapter and complete your ‘homework’ which is the stage of studying for the bar exams you are at. I have created this self-help guide on Thinkific, a platform for online courses, so you get to read it at any time once you’ve created your account and enrolled. The price? A one-time payment of $65 for access for up to 2 and a half years which covers more than an entire cycle. It is both desktop and mobile friendly too. Click here or the photo below for a link to enroll!

Unlock a transparent and comprehensive approach to mastering the Ontario Bar Exams with Ginny’s Ontario Bar Exam Study Guide. Our expert tips and guidance are tailored to save you time and money, ensuring a confident and successful exam preparation journey. From organizing study materials to effective exam strategies, our course equips you with the essential tools and knowledge to tackle the exams with ease. With a focus on integrity and transparency, Ginny’s Study Guide provides a clear roadmap, eliminating trial and error and empowering you to succeed in your bar exam journey.

Best of luck to those writing soon!