Three times each year, the Law Society of Ontario (previously known as the Law Society of Upper Canada) offers candidates the opportunity to write the Ontario Lawyer Licensing Examinations. Unlike the Quebec Bar, the Ontario Bar Exam is separated into two parts: the Barrister Examination and the Solicitor Examination. You can register to complete these two exams back-to-back within two weeks of each other (barrister first, solicitor second) or write them months apart at different sittings.

In order to prepare for these exams, you are given roughly 2,000 pages (double column) of preparatory materials. These materials contain all of the information which you need to know in order to pass both the Barrister and Solicitor Examinations. The notes are surprisingly well written and provide a clear overview of the different subject materials covered by the exams.

Each exam consists of roughly 240 multiple-choice questions which are answered over the course of one day in two 3.5-hour sittings (120 questions each). The answers to all of the questions may be found in the supplied materials. The questions are generally short and straightforward. The challenge is not the difficulty of the questions, rather it’s the limited amount of time to answer them.

It should be mentioned that any materials which are brought into the examination are confiscated by the Law Society of Ontario at the end of the exam. This means that you’ll be losing your annotated version of the preparation materials and any handwritten notes. Try to make a copy of anything important. Good luck!