The eight essay questions* on the Nevada Bar exam can include any number of sixteen different areas of law. How often do each of these areas appear on the exam? Which ones appear the most often?
I have compiled a chart that shows the frequency of these topics from February 2007 to July 2018. The Nevada Bar makes public the essay questions (and model answers) for each exam, which is extremely helpful for study purposes, so there’s no inside information in the chart. The benefit to you is that I’ve already gone through each essay for the past ten years to determine which topics were tested on each exam.^
You can see the chart here: Nevada Bar Exam Essay Topic Frequency Chart: 2007-2018
The chart lists the topics from most frequent to least frequent. Family Law includes Community Property. The chart should be useful to anyone taking the exam in 2019. I was able to guess nearly every topic that would be on the February 2017 exam by using this chart and tailoring my study accordingly.
For example, based on the chart, I knew that Ethic, Torts, Property, Criminal Procedure, and Contracts would likely be on the exam (definitely Ethics). And I knew there was about .01% chance that Secured Transactions would be on the exam because it was tested on the July 2016 exam and rarely appears on the exam. You never know what the Bar will decide to test, but this chart can help guide your study.
On a final note, the Nevada Supreme Court recently cut the topic of Commercial Paper from the exam and lowered the MBE passing score from 140 to 138. Read more here.
*The July 2017 and February 2018 exams added an additional essay question for a total of eight; the February 2017 exam only contained seven essay questions.
^Disclaimer: I received a chart similar to this from a friend while studying for the exam. I updated and improved the chart he gave me, so I haven’t looked at every single essay question, but I trust the work he did before me and thank him for it.
This post was originally published on 5/22/2017 and most recently updated on 2/28/2019.
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