Knowledge map · not a license
The legal profession, broken to IRAC
California and Arizona, in full, as the exams test them. Moored to American history, Constitution, statute, and received common law — not to “the Court claimed, therefore the law is.” You will not be admitted because you studied here. You could pass the questions if you were otherwise allowed to sit.
Read this twice. This hall is not a law school, not California Law Office Study, not an ABA J.D., not a diploma. The State Bar of California and the Arizona Supreme Court will not let you sit their exams on this website. LOS, an accredited J.D., or another rule they publish is their door. We teach the subjects so a person who has that door, or who simply wants the profession’s knowledge, can IRAC every hypo. We do not print a certificate. We do not say you “would get” a bar card.
Law is not a judicial claim
A court opinion is a claim about the law, made by officers under oath. Sometimes it is a true application of text and history (Heller, Bruen). Sometimes it is a substitution (means-end balancing that Bruen forbade). The exam will often want the claim as “the rule.” You will give it, in IRAC, because that is how the grader is trained. You will also know the difference: the Constitution’s words, the statute’s words, the Founding analog, and the panel’s sentence are four different things. This college will not teach you that the last of those four is the source. American history is the mooring. The resistance classes and the compact essay are the civics of that sentence. This page is the exam craft.
IRAC — the only written form
Every essay, every baby-bar hypo, every MEE: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion. Not a sermon. Not a policy paper. Lincoln’s “write it shorter” is the same act.
The skeleton (memorize)
I — Name the question the facts raise. One sentence. “Whether…” R — State the governing text first (Constitution, statute, common-law element). Then the leading application the grader expects. Then any distinction (CA vs FRE, majority vs minority). Do not start with a case nickname as if the nickname were the law. A — Walk the facts through each element. Use the facts. Do not repeat the rule. “Here, …” C — Therefore. One sentence. If the exam wants a California wrinkle, say so.
Crossovers: two IRACs, labeled. Professional responsibility inside a hypo: IRAC the ethics issue separately. Performance test: the task memo is the “I”; the library is the “R”; your filing is the “A” and “C.”
Worked miniature (contracts — not a judicial cult)
Facts. A writes B, “I will sell you the rifle for $400, offer open 10 days.” Day 4, A mails a revocation. Day 5, B mails acceptance. A’s revocation arrives day 6. B’s acceptance arrives day 6. Common-law goods? Assume a good.
I — Whether a contract formed despite A’s attempt to revoke. R — Offer is a manifestation of willingness to bargain (common law; UCC § 2-204/2-206 if goods). Revocation is effective on receipt, not dispatch. Acceptance of a bilateral offer is effective on dispatch (mailbox rule), unless the offer required receipt. A mailed revocation does not kill an acceptance already dispatched. A — A’s letter was an offer. B dispatched acceptance on day 5, before receiving revocation. Mailbox rule makes acceptance effective day 5. Revocation arrived day 6, too late. C — Contract formed on day 5. (If the exam adds UCC firm-offer facts, IRAC § 2-205 separately.)
The “rule” here is the received common law of offers and the UCC as enacted — not “because some court in 1952 liked the mailbox.” You may cite a leading case as an application. You do not bow to it as a creator.
California — what the exams actually are (2026)
Source: State Bar of California, scope and grading pages. Check calbar.ca.gov/admissions/examinations before you sit; they change format.
First-year law students’ examination (FYLSX / “baby bar”)
Who the Bar requires it of: unaccredited students, Law Office Study participants, and some others they name. We are not those programs. The knowledge is: Contracts, Criminal Law, Torts. As of 2026 the FYLSX is a three-hour, 100-question multiple-choice exam (90 scored). Passing is their scaled cut (they have published 560 on an 800 scale). Next dates live on their site (e.g. Oct. 27, 2026). You do not become eligible for LOS by studying this hall.
General Bar Examination
Day 1: five one-hour essays + one 90-minute PT. Day 2: MBE, 200 questions (100 + 100). California does not import another state’s MBE score. MPRE is separate (NCBE).
Essay subjects the Bar may test (know all of them; they pick five):
| Subject | Historical mooring (this hall) | IRAC the exam wants |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts / UCC Sales | Assumpsit; consideration as bargained exchange; Statute of Frauds as a statute | Formation, defenses, breach, remedies; UCC Art. 2 when goods |
| Torts | Trespass, case, negligence as duty — not a social-insurance theory | Intentional, negligence (duty, breach, causation, damages), strict, defenses |
| Criminal law & procedure | Actus reus, mens rea, common-law felonies; Fourth, Fifth, Sixth as text | Elements of crimes; 4/5/6 as the Court currently applies them, labeled as applications |
| Constitutional law | The document; Fed/Anti-Fed; this hall | Justiciability, separation, federalism, 1st, 5th/14th, equal protection, 2d as Heller/Bruen if tested — text first, then the claim |
| Evidence | Jury as fact-finder; hearsay as the thing the jury should not swallow raw | FRE for MBE; California Evidence Code distinctions on essays (Prop 8, etc.) |
| Real property | Estates, grant, recording — English common law received | Estates, landlord-tenant, recording, mortgages, land-sale K |
| Civil procedure | Jury, territorial limits, due process as text | FRCP for MBE; CA Code of Civil Procedure on essays when they ask |
| Business associations | Agency, partnership, corporate charter as a grant of the legislature | Agency, partnerships, corps, LLCs, fiduciary duty, piercing |
| Community property | Spanish/Mexican civil-law remnant in CA — a statute, not a mood | CP vs SP, transmutation, Pereira/Van Camp, creditors, death/divorce |
| Remedies | Law vs equity; injunction as extraordinary | Damages, restitution, injunctions, constructive trust, laches |
| Trusts | English uses and the Statute of Uses as history | Creation, duties, spendthrift, modification, charitable |
| Wills & succession | Statute of Wills; CA Probate Code | Execution, revocation, pretermitted, intestacy, omitted spouse |
| Professional responsibility | Oath, candor, the client as a person — not a “social justice” overlay | ABA Model Rules and California Rules (they test CA); conflicts, confidentiality, advertising, fees |
Performance test: file + library. Do the task they name (memo, brief, letter). Use only the library they gave you. That is IRAC with their “R” supplied — Lincoln’s closed-universe circuit file.
Arizona — UBE (through the legacy exam)
Arizona uses the Uniform Bar Exam. NCBE: MBE, MEE, MPT, MPRE. Legacy UBE passing score 270. MPRE passing 85. They have announced NextGen UBE first administration July 2027; legacy through February 2027. Confirm ncbex.org/jurisdictions/AZ and the Arizona Supreme Court’s admissions rules before you plan a year.
| Piece | Weight / notes | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| MBE | 50% | Same seven: Civ Pro, Con Law, Contracts, Criminal Law/Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, Torts |
| MEE | 30% | Business associations, plus MBE subjects. (NCBE has been dropping some MEE topics — Conflict, Family, Trusts & Estates, Secured Transactions — on a published schedule; verify the sitting you will take.) |
| MPT | 20% | Two practical tasks, closed library |
| MPRE | Separate, 85 | Professional responsibility |
| AZ-specific | Course or exam they name | Jurisdiction-specific requirement: yes. Read their current rule. Do not guess from this page. |
Same IRAC. Same mooring. Arizona is a reception state of the common law except as abrogated by constitution or statute. Teach the text of the Arizona Constitution when their course requires it — as a constitution, not as a press release.
Order of study (enrolled, no teacher of record)
You do not need a professor. You need the books, hypos, and a timer. Lincoln method: copy the elements, recite, IRAC a hypo every day, write it shorter.
- General education and full Latin underway (L6 legal Latin with this map).
- Baby-bar triad — Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law — until you can IRAC a hypo in 12 minutes and hit MBE-style questions at 70% timed. Blackstone on wrongs and on contracts as the history; a current outline as the exam’s expected elements (you buy or borrow one; we do not pirate Barbri).
- Evidence + Civ Pro + Real Property + Con Law (text first, then the applications the MBE tests).
- CA extras: Community Property, Remedies, Wills, Trusts, CA Evidence, CA Civ Pro, CA PR.
- Business associations; UCC 2; whatever MEE still lists for your AZ sitting.
- PT practice weekly: 90 minutes, closed library.
- MPRE: Model Rules as rules of a profession under oath — not a sociology of lawyers.
Daily: one hypo, IRAC, timer. Weekly: one PT or one full essay in one hour. Other side first if the hypo has two plausible rules (majority/minority, CA/FRE).
Constitutional law on this hall — how not to lie
When the MBE wants “the holding,” give the holding, labeled as the Court’s application. Then, in your own notes (not always on the bluebook if the minute is gone), keep:
- The clause’s words.
- The Founding analog (Fed/Anti-Fed, Militia Act, Bill of Rights as price of consent).
- The claim (Heller, McDonald, Bruen, Rahimi; circuit work in Reese, Lara, Cockerham on the resistance page).
If you reverse that order — claim first, text last — you have joined the social system this hall will not teach.
California: Scope of the California Bar Examination; FYLSX information on the same admissions tree. Arizona: NCBE jurisdiction page; Ariz. Sup. Ct. admissions rules. MPRE: NCBE. This page is PXD2 education, not the Bar. Not legal advice. Not an application to sit.