The OntarioBarExam.com blog
Study strategy, indexing advice, and plain explanations of how the Barrister and Solicitor examinations are built and graded, from the tutors at LexPD.
September 14, 2026 · LexPD
Three attempts per examination within your licensing term, four only if specifically authorised. What the licensing examination profile tells you, and how to use it.
September 11, 2026 · LexPD
The exams run three times a year and you are not obliged to take them together. The arithmetic that should decide it, and the two reasons people get it wrong.
September 9, 2026 · LexPD
Candidates argue about this constantly and there is no published data to settle it. What there is: a real difference in how the two papers feel, and a good reason not to plan around the answer.
September 7, 2026 · LexPD
Three areas of law, five competency headings, and a paper that tests whether you know the steps of a transaction rather than whether you can reason toward an answer.
September 4, 2026 · LexPD
Four areas of law, Professional Responsibility running underneath all of them, and seven competency headings that explain what the questions are really testing.
September 2, 2026 · LexPD
No. The Law Society says plainly that it does not use a bell curve and that no proportion of candidates is pre-determined to pass. Here is why that is better news than it sounds.
August 31, 2026 · LexPD
Nobody outside the Law Society knows, and anyone quoting you a number is guessing. Here is what is actually published, why the number is withheld, and what to aim for instead.
August 28, 2026 · LexPD
It is nobody's specialism, it feels like common sense until it isn't, and it is the last thing candidates get to. It is also the only material that pays for itself twice.
August 26, 2026 · LexPD
If the Law Society has granted you accommodations, your practice should reflect them. What that changes about pacing, and what to ask us for.
August 24, 2026 · LexPD
A free pacer that tells you, at any moment in the exam, which question you should be on. How it works, and how to use it without letting it panic you.
August 21, 2026 · LexPD
Owning a good index and being fast with one are different things. What to practise before the day, and the rule that saves the most marks.
August 19, 2026 · LexPD
You cannot find these by reviewing, because you were sure. They are also the cheapest marks on the paper to get back.
August 17, 2026 · LexPD
Both papers are open book, print materials only. That is not the relief it sounds like, and misreading it is one of the most common preparation mistakes we see.
August 14, 2026 · LexPD
Two reading passes, practice mixed in rather than saved for the end, and a week at the end you deliberately keep empty. Built from real page counts and a real reading pace.
August 12, 2026 · LexPD
Work it out from the page count rather than from a number someone gave you. Here is the arithmetic for one exam and for both, and what it usually leaves out.
August 10, 2026 · LexPD
Your accuracy does fade over a long paper, and that is well documented. The fix is not one heroic session. It is adding one quiz at a time until the next length stops hurting.
August 7, 2026 · LexPD
There are two exams, not one. Each is marked the same way: one point per question, no penalty for a wrong answer, and a single overall pass mark rather than a threshold in each section. What that means for where you spend your time.
August 5, 2026 · LexPD
Why endurance, not knowledge, is what most often decides the Ontario licensing exams, and what to do about it.
July 31, 2026 · LexPD
LexPD's practice-exam platform gets its own home: full-length timed simulations of the Ontario licensing exams, with diagnostic reporting that shows exactly where you stand.