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

If you're figuring out what to bring to the Texas bar exam, you're already doing the smart thing. The July 2026 exam runs two days, Tuesday July 28 and Wednesday July 29, and Texas security rules are strict about what makes it past check-in. Show up with the wrong bag or a mechanical pencil and you'll be scrambling before you've written a word. Here's the full picture, pulled from the official General Instructions, so you can pack once and forget about it.

Texas gives the Uniform Bar Exam. Day 1 is the two MPTs in the morning and six MEE essays in the afternoon. Day 2 is all MBE, 200 multiple-choice questions split into two sessions.

The official Texas list: what you must bring

Two things are non-negotiable to enter the Secure Area:

• Your Admission Ticket. It carries your randomly assigned five-digit examinee number. No ticket, no entry.
• A valid, unexpired government-issued photo ID. The name has to match your ticket.

Present both at check-in every day. Print your ticket ahead of time and keep it somewhere you won't forget it. This is the one pairing that can end your exam before it starts, so treat it like your passport at the airport.

What Texas provides

Texas hands out a few things at each site, which changes your packing list:

• Clocks and countdown timers, clearly displayed and visible from every seat. You don't need (or want) a watch.
• Foam earplugs, if you want them.
• Tissue and cough drops.

One big one: there's no scratch paper. None is provided and none is allowed. You can only make notes inside your exam question book. So all your MBE flagging and essay outlining happens in the margins of the booklet. Get used to that during practice so it doesn't throw you on exam day.

What you can bring

These items are permitted into the Secure Area beyond your ticket and ID. The details matter, so read closely:

• Water in a clear, resealable bottle.
• Pens (black ink only) and highlighters, but for the MPT and MEE only. They are not allowed on the MBE.
• No. 2 non-mechanical pencils and erasers with no sleeves, casing, or packaging.
• Keys or key cards, cash, and credit cards.
• A sweater or jacket.
• Prescription medicine in its original packaging.
• Prescription eyeglasses, with no cases, no cleaning cloths, no dark lenses, and no smart glasses.
• Contact lenses in individual containers (no boxes, no bottles of solution).
• Individually wrapped feminine hygiene products, which may be kept in an opaque container.
• Your cell phone, only if secured in a Yondr pouch where the site offers one.
• One clear bag to hold your smaller permitted items.
• Laptop gear for MPT/MEE examinees: laptop, external mouse and keyboard, power cord, extension cord, cooling stand, and a plain mouse pad.

The clear bag can be any size or shape, but it has to be genuinely clear. A semi-clear grocery bag won't pass. Empty your pockets into it. Large items like your laptop and extension cord don't have to go inside it.

What to leave at home

Anything not listed as required or permitted is prohibited. The instructions call out specific examples, and these are the ones people get burned on:

• Study materials of any kind.
• Phones not in a Yondr pouch, smart watches, fitness trackers, cameras, recorders, or any other electronic device.
• Watches, timers, and personal clocks (the room has clocks).
• Mechanical pencils and your own pencil sharpener.
• Pens and highlighters on the MBE.
• Laptop privacy screens, filters, or films.
• Food, snacks, candy, gum, mints, and cough drops, and any drink other than water.
• Hats and head coverings (except religious items), scarves, and headbands that cover the ears.
• Backpacks, purses, tote bags, laptop bags, and laptop sleeves.
• Wallets, billfolds, and cardholders.
• Headphones, earplugs, or any sound-suppression device.
• Lip balm, tissue, lotion, eye drops, and over-the-counter medicine.
• Calculators, smoking or vaping materials, and weapons (yes, even with a concealed-carry license).

If it rains, sites set up a non-secure umbrella drop for umbrellas only. There's no storage for prohibited items, and unattended items get discarded. So the rule is simple: if it's not on the permitted list, it doesn't come with you.

Laptop and software

Texas runs the MPT and MEE on ILG Exam360, not ExamSoft or Examplify. That trips up a lot of people, since most UBE states use Examplify. The MBE stays on paper. You bring your own laptop, and launch instructions are handed out at the site. The moment you open your laptop in the Secure Area, you must launch Exam360. Opening anything else is an Honor Pledge violation.

Registration to use a laptop opened June 5, 2026. The timely deadline was July 10, and late registration runs through July 17 with an extra $75 fee on top of the $90 laptop fee. Practice exams are available, and you can take as many as you want. Per the most recent official notice, any mandatory mock exam step, upload deadline, or minimum OS and system requirement should be confirmed on your admission ticket and on the ILG Exam360 portal at texas.ilgexam360.com before exam week. Run at least one full practice on the same machine you'll bring so you're not troubleshooting drivers the night before.

What should you wear

The official advice is short: dress in layers. Convention halls and exhibit spaces swing cold, and you can't predict where your seat lands relative to the vents. A sweater or jacket is permitted, so bring one you can add or remove.

Skip anything with a hood if there's a chance you'd pull it up, since head coverings are prohibited except for religious items. Scarves and ear-covering headbands are out too. Wear comfortable, quiet clothing you can sit in for three-hour blocks, and keep your pockets empty at check-in.

Key deadlines and report times

The daily schedule is tight, and being late has no remedy:

• Morning instructions begin at 8:30 a.m. Be in your seat by then.
• Lunch runs roughly 12:00 to 1:30.
• Afternoon instructions begin at 1:30 p.m.

Instructions start on schedule whether you're seated or not. There's no extra time for late arrivals, no exceptions. Build in a buffer for parking, finding your room, and clearing the security check. Each July site has its own parking situation (Austin's Palmer Events Center is cashless-only, San Antonio's JW Marriott charges for self-park and valet, Waco's Baylor Law has free spots), so check your specific venue the night before.

For anything you're unsure about, go straight to the source at ble.texas.gov/bar-exam-general-instructions and confirm the details on your own admission ticket. If you want a broader, non-Texas-specific rundown, here's the general exam day checklist.

One last thing on that final week. Your packing is handled, but your essays are where the points actually are, and Day 1 in Texas is all writing. If you're doing timed MEE practice, it helps to know how a graded eye would score what you just wrote. That's the idea behind BarScore: paste a practice essay and get a score plus detailed feedback in seconds, on essays from any prep course and any U.S. jurisdiction. There's a free trial, so you can see where you stand before July 28. Pack your bag, then go run a few essays through BarScore and get your reps in.