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

If you're sitting for the Virginia bar this summer, knowing exactly what to bring to the Virginia bar exam is half the battle before you ever write a word. Virginia runs its own two-day test on Tuesday, July 28 and Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at the Berglund Center in Roanoke. Day One is the Virginia essay portion (five essays in the morning, four essays plus ten multiple-choice questions in the afternoon). Day Two is the MBE (200 multiple-choice questions). Virginia does not use the UBE, and the packing rules are stricter than most states, so read the list below carefully.

The Official Virginia List: What You Must Bring

A few items are flat-out required, and you won't be admitted without them.

For Day One (essays), you need:

• A photo ID that matches the name on your application.
• Three black or blue ink pens.
• If you're a laptop user: one laptop, its power plug, and an 8-foot-or-longer extension cord.

For Day Two (MBE), you need:

• Your photo ID again.
• The Exam Photo ID issued to you on Day One (don't lose it).
• Six #2 pencils with erasers. One extra eraser and a manual pencil sharpener are also allowed.

There's no traditional printable admission ticket in Virginia. Instead, you'll get an individualized arrival email and a Letter of Instruction that serve that role. Per the most recent official notice, confirm every required item on your arrival email and Letter of Instruction before you leave for Roanoke.

What Does Virginia Provide?

Almost nothing, and this trips people up every year.

During the essay portion, no scratch paper is available. Your only space for notes is the margins of your essay questions, so plan your outlines tight. Extra paper is handed out only if your laptop fails and you're forced to handwrite. If squeezing your issue outline into the question margins feels tight, practice essays under the same limit before exam day, and get them scored so you know the compressed version still holds up. BarScore can score a practice essay in seconds if you want that feedback loop.

On MBE day, the Board will not provide pencils, erasers, or sharpeners. There are no note boards either. Whatever you need for the multiple-choice sheets, you carry in yourself.

Water is not allowed in the exam room, but water stations and fountains are available, so you can hydrate on breaks.

What Can You Bring Into the Room?

Everything permitted (except your laptop on Day One) has to go in a clear, see-through plastic bag so staff can inspect it fast. Briefcases, purses, and any opaque bag are out.

Inside that clear bag, both days, you may carry:

• Soft foam earplugs (unpackaged).
• Tissues.
• A car key or fob only.
• Cash or a credit card (handy for lunch).
• Your hotel room key.
• Receipts (parking, lunch, luggage claim).
• Eyeglasses without a case.
• Menstrual or feminine hygiene products.
• A face mask, hand sanitizer (3 oz or less), and disinfecting wipes (25 count or less).

Cash is genuinely useful here since you can't bring food or drink into the room and you'll want lunch nearby.

What to Leave at Home

Virginia's rule is blunt: if an item isn't on the required or allowed list, it's prohibited. Bringing a banned item without prior written approval can mean disqualification, so err on the side of leaving it in the car.

Specifically banned:

• All study materials, outlines, notes, and bar-review content in any form. Wipe them from your laptop before entry, including anything on USB drives, CDs, or DVDs.
• Cell phones, smartwatches, and all wristwatches and timekeeping devices. There's no analog-watch exception.
• Fitness trackers (Fitbit, Garmin, Misfit, Jawbone) and smart glasses.
• Jewelry, including rings, earrings, piercings, necklaces, bracelets, and pins. The only exception is wedding and engagement bands.
• External mouse, keyboard, or peripherals, and laptop sleeves or protectors.
• Food or drink of any kind, including water in the room.
• Briefcases, purses, and bags other than the required clear plastic bag.
• Eyeglass cases, highlighters, mechanical pencils, and Wite-Out.
• Medication. It isn't on the allowed list, so if you need it during the exam you must submit a Medical Accommodation Request Form by July 15, 2026. The same form is how you get approval for any other non-listed item.

Laptop and Software

Virginia uses Extegrity's Exam4, not ExamSoft or Examplify (a common mix-up in third-party summaries). The setup has four steps: register with Exam4, pay the software fee, download the compatible version, and submit a required practice exam. That practice run has no real questions. It just confirms your machine runs Exam4 and gets you used to the interface.

A few key specs the Board flags: a working USB or USB-C port, WiFi for submission, a minimum 800x600 resolution, roughly 10 MB of free disk space, a fully charged battery plus your power cord and 8-foot extension cord, and an OS with the latest patches. Detailed hardware requirements live at exam4.com/support.

Two important dates. The software download window (which is when the practice exam must be submitted) runs June 10 through July 24, 2026. And July 2026 laptop registration is already closed. If you didn't register in time, you'll handwrite the essays. There's no separate standalone practice-upload deadline published beyond that download window, so per the most recent official notice, confirm your status on your Exam4 confirmation email.

The laptop is used only for typing essay answers on Day One. The MBE on Day Two is answered on paper with your #2 pencils.

What Should You Wear to the Virginia Bar Exam?

Virginia has an unusually strict, mandatory court-appropriate dress code. Required is a suit or jacket with a collared shirt and dress pants, or a dress, or a skirt or pant suit with a jacket. Neckties are optional.

Banned as casual attire: jeans, mini-skirts, tee-shirts, hoodies, sandals, flip-flops, and athletic or sneaker shoes. Hats and head coverings can't be worn in the room except for religious observance. The Board prefers court-appropriate soft- or rubber-soled shoes with flat or low heels.

Dress in layers. Exam rooms swing between too cold and too warm, and a jacket you can take off (that still meets the dress code) is your friend. Test-drive the whole outfit, including the shoes, before exam morning.

Key Deadlines and Report Times

Arrival times in Virginia are individualized. After 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 23, 2026, every applicant gets an email with a designated arrival time and an assigned entrance. Yours may differ from the person next to you, so follow that email exactly rather than any general schedule.

For rough planning, laptop instructions run around 8:45 a.m., the morning session about 9:00 a.m. to noon, afternoon instructions near 1:45 p.m., and the afternoon session about 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Treat those minutes as approximate, since one source lists earlier check-in times with a late-arrival cutoff, and your July 23 email is the real authority.

The official Board site has the full, current lists: barexam.virginia.gov/allowed-items. For a jurisdiction-neutral version of this planning, see the general exam day checklist.

One last thing worth doing in your final week. Virginia essays are graded by real people looking for issue-spotting and clean analysis, and the fastest way to sharpen that is timed reps with honest feedback. You can paste a practice essay into BarScore and get a score plus detailed feedback in seconds, using essays from whatever prep course you're already running (the plans include a free trial). It won't pack your clear bag for you, but it's a quiet way to walk into Berglund Center writing with confidence.