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Coming 2026

LSO Bar Exam Notes

The NCA Hub approach to exam preparation — concise, structured, built for open-book conditions — applied to the Ontario licensing exams.

What Are the LSO Bar Exams?

The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) licensing exams are the final step before being called to the bar in Ontario. After completing your NCA requirements and entering the LSO licensing process, you face two multiple-choice, open-book exams.

Each exam is 7 hours long. You are permitted to bring any hard-copy materials into the exam room. The questions are multiple choice, drawn from the LSO's own study materials. The challenge is not memorisation — it is navigating thousands of pages of material under time pressure to find the right answer quickly.

The Two Exams

Exam 1

Barrister

Covers litigation, criminal procedure, family law, public law, and professional responsibility as it relates to advocacy and dispute resolution.

Exam 2

Solicitor

Covers real estate, business law, wills and estates, professional responsibility as it relates to transactional practice, and practice management.

Why the NCA Hub Approach Works for Bar Exams

The LSO bar exams share the same core challenge as NCA exams: they are open-book. The difficulty is not knowing the law — it is finding the right material, fast, under exam conditions.

  • Concise and structured — designed for rapid lookup, not for reading cover to cover
  • Indexed by topic and cross-referenced to LSO study materials
  • Built to complement the LSO's own materials, not replace them
  • Focused on the format that actually works in a 7-hour, multiple-choice, open-book setting

These notes are being built by the founder — who is writing the bar exams right now. Every section is tested against real study conditions and refined as the preparation progresses.

Already Navigating the Ontario Licensing Process?

If you are an internationally trained lawyer working through NCA exams and planning your path to the Ontario bar, we have a complete guide covering the full journey — from NCA assessment to call to the bar.

Read: How to Become a Lawyer in Ontario →

Get Notified When Bar Exam Notes Launch

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