What to Bring to the Michigan Bar Exam (July 2026)

If you're figuring out what to bring to the Michigan bar exam, start here and keep it simple. Michigan gives the Uniform Bar Exam over two days: Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29, 2026. Tuesday is the written day (two MPT tasks in the morning, six MEE essays in the afternoon), and Wednesday is the MBE (200 multiple-choice questions on paper). What you can carry into the room is tightly controlled, and the rules shift a little between the two days, so packing the right things matters as much as knowing the law.

The Official Michigan List: What You Must Bring

Two items are non-negotiable. Bring your Admission Certificate and a government-issued photo ID. The board mails your admission certificate along with detailed exam-day instructions the first week of July 2026, so watch your mail. The certificate is one of the specific items allowed inside your clear bag, and you cannot sit for the exam without it.

Everything you carry in has to fit inside one clear plastic food-storage bag, one gallon maximum. That bag is the whole system. There's no locker, no coat check, and the board says plainly it has no place to store prohibited items and isn't responsible for anything lost or damaged. Leave anything that doesn't make the list at home, in your hotel room, or in your car.

What Does Michigan Provide on Exam Day?

Here's where you should be careful. The board hands out the essay and MPT questions on paper on exam day, so those don't appear on your Examplify screen. If you're handwriting, or if your laptop fails, proctors issue paper answer booklets.

What's less clear is scratch paper. There's no official statement that the board supplies scratch paper, note boards, or pencils for July 2026. In fact, bringing your own scratch paper is prohibited, which strongly implies any scratch work stays inside the exam or answer booklets. Per the most recent official notice, treat "the board provides scratch paper" as unconfirmed and confirm the specifics on your admission ticket when it arrives.

What You Can Bring

These are the items Michigan's UBE Security Policy allows inside your clear one-gallon bag on both days:

• Admission Certificate and government-issued photo ID
• Wallet and keys
• Earplugs with no wires (foam or silicone, not the headphone type)
• Pencils (standard, not mechanical) and erasers (not mechanical)
• Pens
• Highlighters are essay-day only (see below)
• Medication and medical items in an opaque bag, only if you've been granted prior permission
• Menstruation products in an opaque bag
• Facial tissue
• One clear plastic bottle of water per session (label removed, contents clear)
• A small bottle of hand sanitizer
• One extra mask

On the Tuesday essay day only (MEE and MPT), you also get to bring highlighters, mechanical pencils, and mechanical erasers. Note the asymmetry: those mechanical pencils, mechanical erasers, and highlighters are all barred on Wednesday's MBE scantron day. So pack standard wood pencils for the multiple-choice day and your mechanical set for the essay day. When in doubt, bring both types.

What to Leave at Home

The prohibited list is long and strictly enforced everywhere in the testing area, including restrooms and hallways:

• Coats and jackets
• Hats, hoods, or any headgear (religious apparel is exempt; if you wear a hoodie, the hood stays down at all times)
• Flip flops
• Sunglasses and glass cases
• Any electronic device: cell phones, calculators, cameras, radios, recording devices, hand-held computers, fitness trackers, media players, and any wireless communication device
• Watches and timepieces of any type
• Handbags, purses, backpacks, duffle bags, briefcases, tote bags, and laptop cases
• Notes, scratch paper, books, magazines, or any study or reading material
• Headphones and headsets
• Food or beverages other than the permitted water, unless pre-authorized
• Weapons of any kind, even with a carry permit

Be ready to empty your pockets and show the inside of your face mask. Your eyes and ears have to stay uncovered and visible to proctors (again, religious apparel excepted). This isn't a technicality: possession of a prohibited item is treated as a cheating incident and can lead to immediate disqualification and ejection. You can read the full rules on the official board site.

What Laptop and Software Does Michigan Use?

Michigan uses ExamSoft's Examplify, Bar Edition. The law-school edition won't work, so remove it first and install the bar version. Your laptop is for the Tuesday essay portion only. Wednesday's MBE is paper.

A few things that trip people up:

• You must complete registration and a mock exam before exam day. Miss that and you handwrite the entire essay portion, with no refund. The registration notice goes out weeks before the exam; register at examsoft.com/mibar. You can take the mock exam up to five times.
• Only one laptop is allowed. No backup machine.
• No internet is needed during the exam, but you do need it to download exam files beforehand and to upload your answers by 11:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 28. Answers not uploaded by then are not graded. That's a zero, so build in buffer time.
• Power is provided, but your battery should last about an hour on its own. Spell-check is disabled. An external mouse and full-size keyboard are allowed.

One caution on system requirements: the operating-system specs floating around in older board materials are outdated. Per the most recent official notice, confirm the current Windows and macOS minimums and the exact Examplify version on examsoft.com before you install, and verify anything else against your admission ticket.

What Should You Wear to the Michigan Bar Exam?

There's no formal dress code beyond the security items: no coats or jackets, no hats or hoods, no sunglasses, and eyes and ears stay visible. If you wear a hooded sweatshirt, the hood must stay down the entire time.

The practical tip almost every Michigan taker repeats: the Breslin Center runs cold in July. Dress in warm layers you can wear (a sweater works), since you can't bring a coat or jacket into the room. Being comfortable for six hours of testing is worth planning for.

Key Deadlines and Report Times

The application filing deadlines (March 1, with late filing through May 15) have already passed. What's left on your calendar:

• Examplify registration and mock exam: before exam day, no exceptions.
• Essay upload deadline: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 28, 2026.
• Admission certificate and detailed instructions: mailed the first week of July 2026.

For report time, the most recent official guidance points to being at your seat and starting Examplify boot-up by 8:30 a.m., with sessions running until you're excused in the afternoon. Per the most recent official notice, confirm the exact per-session check-in times on your admission ticket, since those are the authoritative times for July 2026. Latecomers can be barred from laptop use and required to handwrite. For a jurisdiction-neutral version of all this, keep the general exam day checklist handy too.

One last thing on the essay day, since it's where points are won and lost. In the final week, timed practice essays are only as useful as the feedback you get on them. If you're writing MEE answers with no one to score them, BarScore can grade a practice essay and return a score plus detailed feedback in seconds, and you can start with a free trial. It works with any prep course's essays and any U.S. jurisdiction, so you can pressure-test your MEE writing before you walk into the Breslin Center. Pack smart, sleep well, and let BarScore and your own practice do the heavy lifting.