r/ONBarExam

Heyy ,Anyone here who is an international graduate and has applied for Articling exemption ? I needed some advice for that.

I have a family member who failed three times and says she can attempt again if they provide valid reasoning. I told her that it’s usually surrounding something major like an illness, death, in regards to reasoning behind the fails and asking for fourth attempt. She said she can say that family circumstance affected her outcome. Can someone clarify?

Hey everyone,
My best friend recently came out of a very difficult divorce. She’s currently staying with me, and I’ve been supporting her through everything.

She has nothing else to do now and decided to focus on her NCA exams and is hoping to sit for both exams in November. She completed her NCA process and registered with LSO in June 2025.

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been in a similar situation or has successfully taken both exams in one sitting.

She has been through a lot recently, so I’d especially appreciate honest but encouraging advice from people who have actually gone through the both exams.

Any suggestions, experiences, or tips would mean a lot. Thank you! Please support her :)

Totally bummed after failing the June 2026 Solicitor.

I don’t know what happened. My feedback makes me think I skipped an answer bubble or there was a Scantron issue.

I passed Barrister on the first try and scored decently on PT. Has anyone been in this situation before? What is the likelihood of a successful appeal?

Appreciate any help.

do we necessarily have to pay and download the study material for bar exams? I have barrister study material from last cycle and I know the changes to it and wish to use the same. If I do not pay for the new study material, I can still write the exam?

I didn't photocopy or take photos of the highlighted PR copy for the next exam. This could have greatly improved my preparation for the second exam and saved me a lot of time. I thought about doing it, but I was lazy in June, and now I regret not doing it. For those taking their first exam, I recommend photocopying your highlighted PR for the next one, especially if your exams are not scheduled back-to-back.

Does anyone have any clue when to expect our license certificates for people called in june? I had heard its usually 6-8 weeks, however LSO just sent a message with a deadline of August 7th to update our mailing addresses to ensure the correct address was on file and had another 6-8 week timeline on there.

Is the 6-8 week timeline from the call to bar or from their last previous message a week ago?

Any one have a more accurate timeline for this?

RESULT Finally!!!! Pass or Fail ?

As the title says, I passed both LSO bar exams without reading the materials. I wrote both exams in June 2026.

The method to my madness?

-I began studying about 2 months before the exams.

-I started with taking all the 2025 Emond exam prep courses for Barrister and Solicitor, and I printed out the slides and I took handwritten notes. Each subject had a cours of about 6 hours, except for Business which had 3 courses of about 12 hours total. Each 6hrs course would take me 2-3 days to complete.

-I printed the materials and spiral-bound each subject separately, when the LSO made them available to us. In each binder, I included a copy of the Detailed Table of Content (DTOC) provided in the material.

-I did an untimed Brickam test for each subject after each Emond course and I would write down the answers in my notebook. To find answers, I used the materials + the DTOC provided in the materials + Emond pdfs and notes.

-I read the U of T summaries and charts, after completing all the Emond courses.

-Then, I reviewed my notes of the Emond courses + notes of answers to questions per subject

-Then, I did these practice tests timed: Access Bar Prep (all their practice tests, especially for Prof Resp), Brickam (mini and full exams), Emond (full exam), Pinpoint (mini exams)... I referred to the materials and my notes from Emond courses

-I used a time tracker everytime I did mini or full practice tests, and I also used it on the actual exams.

-I never used an index but I used the DTOC provided in the materials. Indexes did not make sense to me.

Why did I not read the materials?

-short answer: i was intimidated by the huge amount of material to read that my brain would just shut down.

-The material was also too dry and too new for me.

-I am a slow reader and I never had to study this way. I always had teachers explain things to me. For the rare times, I've had to learn things this way, it was never this much information and it was never for a high stakes exam like this one.

-I was worried that I'd get lost in the weeds and miss the big picture or miss the most important concepts.

-I graduated many years ago, and in law school, I did not take any of the Solicitor classes. By June 2026, I had forgotten most of my Barrister classes.

-Many years ago, I wrote the bar exam without reading 90% of the material and without doing anything else to learn. I winged it on the exams. Of course, I failed and I just gave up.

-after the 2021 cheating scandal, I heard that questions became harder and they now require a deeper understanding of the materials than before.

-And it's no longer a search-and-find exercise. I found that this was true when I wrote exams in June 2026 as there were many questions which I had to think hard and take an educated guess.

-my first language is french but I wrote the exams in english for reasons explained below. So there was also some language barrier on my end.

-I was fortunate to have the time and money to take the Emond courses and to take all those practice exams.

A Francophone writing exams in English. Why?

-my first language is French but I chose to write in English for multiple reasons. English materials had less pages than French materials; the terminology was obviously different; French materials often felt like a direct translation of the English materials and the sentences did not always make sense to me; the outside resources (bar prep courses, UofT summaries, practice tests) are mostly (only?) available in English; at the exam, the questions are already long and convoluted in English so I was worried that the French exam would be even worse and that I'd not be able to answer all the questions.

-It worked out well for me and I am very grateful.

Exam day:

-Day before, did not study and I slept 9+ hours.

-For breakfast, I had lunch with meat in the morning, not a traditional breakfast. It allowed me to not get too hungry during the exams.

-I did not dring any tea or coffee to avoid trips to the bathroom during exam

-for each exam, I packed bananas, cookies, cheese and water. I only drink some water when I was parched.

-I was not able to look up all the answers in my materials. I looked up about 40% of the questions in my materials, that's all I had time for...

-some questions mixed 2 or 3 concepts so there was no way for me to look up each concept before answering. I took educated guesses and moved on.

-Use a time tracker and stick to it. Take educated guesses and move on. Sometimes I had to physically pinch arm to force myself to stop searching and move on.LOL

-Answering all the questions was my #1 goal.

-Carefully reading all the questions was my # 2 goal. And I was able to accomplish both goals thanks to the time tracker.

-after the Barrister exam, I did not study that day. I slept early that night as I was exhausted. I resume studying the next day for the solicitor exam.

-I finished Barrister exam with 7 min to spare and I finished solicitor with 2 min to spare.

-after each exam, I genuinely had no idea if I would pass or fail. It could go either way. There were so many inference-based questions for which I had to guess the answer. There were many Prof Resp questions too that I just had to guess and move on. There were also a many questions that I answered solely based on knowledge I got from Emond courses and practice tests.

How I organized my life to study?

-I did not work during the 2 months that I was studying

-I did have 2 young kids, including a baby. I studied while they were in school and in daycare, and also at night after their bedtime. My spouse was the real MVP and I am forever grateful. My parents were also amazing and I am also very grateful for them.

-I was obviously not contributing to home responsabilities as much as I usually did but they stepped up (cooking, cleaning, laundry, bathing kids, taking them to activities, etc..)

-I missed about 15 days of studying because of family obligations and sickness (my exhaustion + kids will bring home all the germs)

Last words: please do what works for you. Good luck to all of you !!!

Folks we are now 8 weeks plus one day from our solicitor exam date. Is today the day?

Just thought it might help to chat and maybe talk about next steps. I’m feeling pretty down.

First of all, congratulations to everyone who passed & those who finished or will finish the whole licensing process soon.
Second, hard luck for those like me who failed.

I have a query for those who have experienced a situation similar to mine and can probably give me an insight.

My first attempt was June 2025 technically but I could not sit during that one because of my cousin’s death back home just a few days before the exam. The death happened on May 26, 2025 and I flew back home for 10 days roughly. I was in no mental state to remember that I had to cancel that attempt. I was probably marked absent but it did count as an attempt on the website.
I passed Barrister afterwards but failed twice in solicitor - Feb 2026 & June 2026.

I want to request a fourth attempt- my query is can I state my first attempt’s absence because that’s the reason why a fourth attempt if given to me will be worth it.

I am also not sure if they will grant it - I have the death certificate if there is a way to attach it I can do that.

Feeling so dejected & demotivated, I don’t know how to build the strength for a possible rejection & doing the whole licensing again after one year pause.

Please help me with any information that may be useful and thanks for reading this.

❤️

So I just found out I'm pregnant and believe I have missed the deadline to submit a accommodation request. If I submit a request now, it is possible to get accommodation? Also, any tips for submitting an accommodation request for someone that's pregnant who needs to use the washroom frequently. I don't think I can sit 4 hours straight without going to the washroom at least 4 times, so I don't want to lose the time.

After months of prep and anxiety ridden waiting, I'm feeling pretty unfettered. No exams haunting my life, no spirals into the what ifs of resitting, no more wondering when LSO will release us from the misery of not knowing. I haven't been able to concentrate on work today, and I need to get my head back in the game.

Any advice from people who've made it through the fire of this process and clawed their way back to normalcy?

Dear LSO,

We are not mad, we are not angry, we are not even sad,

….. we are disappointed

No notice, no heads up, no courtesy email “hey all you anxious students, we know you’ve been waiting patiently, but due to {insert any excuse} there will unfortunately going to be a delay in the release of the solicitor exam results.”

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO EXPECT??

In a world where deadlines and limitations matter, this is setting a really good example for the new class of lawyers who get competency rules shoved down there throats :|

ive been hurt before

Has anyone used the 2025 materials for their 2026 exams?

I was supposed to write both exams in the 2025 cycle but couldn’t for some reason. I used my 2025 Solicitor materials for the June 2026 exam and, after comparing them with the 2026 materials, they seemed pretty much the same.

I’m wondering specifically about the Barrister materials. Has anyone compared the 2025 and 2026 versions and noticed any substantial changes?

I already have the 2025 materials printed, tabbed, etc., and I’ve purchased the new 2026 while registering for the Nov exam. I just don’t want to pay to print everything again if the changes are minor.

TIA!

place prediction on time of release to farm immeasurable aura