Everyone who writes an NCA exam agrees not to share exam content, even from memory, so here is where the line sits on this forum.
The [NCA Candidate Agreement](https://nca.legal/exams/nca-candidate-agreement/) prohibits disclosing, reproducing or publishing any exam content, including from memory, and sharing information about your answers. It also requires candidates to report breaches by others. A post that breaks it can put the writer's candidacy at risk, and readers who use the information or don't report it may be at risk too.
**Fine to post:**
- How it felt: "it was long", "I ran out of time", "I felt well prepared"
- What you'd change in your preparation
- Anything the NCA publishes itself: the syllabus, sample exams, the three-hour open-book format
- Questions about the law and the cases on the syllabus
**Not fine:**
- Topics, cases, offences or fact patterns that came up
- How your paper was structured: the number of questions, their marks, what each covered
- Your answers, or asking others what they answered
- Asking what came up on an exam, including ones you haven't written yet
Moderators remove posts like these without warning. If you see one, please report it rather than reply.
Yes, NCA exams are open book, but hard copy only. You write online for three hours, watched by a remote proctor, and type every answer.
Everything below comes from the NCA's exam rules and FAQs (checked 18 Oct 2026). If something looks different when you read this, the NCA page wins; please reply so we can update this post.
**What you can use**
- Any reference material in hard copy: books, printed notes, handwritten notes. You can highlight, tab and annotate them.
- No electronic notes or books, and no electronic devices other than the ones the exam requires.
- Answers must be typed. Scans, attachments and photos aren't accepted.
- The online rules set no word limit, but read the instructions on screen at the start of each exam carefully.
**Timing and your start time**
- Each exam is three hours.
- Your start time appears in the NCA portal under Exam History about two weeks before the session. If it isn't there a week before, email exam@flsc.ca.
- To ask for a different start time, use the NCA Rescheduling Request Form or email schedule@monitoredu.com. Changes aren't guaranteed.
**Before exam day**
- Check the [technical requirements](https://nca.legal/exams/technical-requirements-and-testing-for-online-exams/). Complete the MonitorEDU pre-check no later than 6:00 pm Eastern the day before your first exam, and test again on exam day.
- Have government-issued photo ID ready for the proctor.
- Read the NCA's [Online Exam Tip Sheet](https://nca.legal/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Online-Exam-Tip-Sheet.pdf).
**At your desk**
- A drink in a clear container and a small bag of snacks are allowed.
- No breaks in the first hour: leaving during it ends your exam and disqualifies it.
- After the first hour, ask the proctor before leaving. Breaks are limited to five minutes, and the clock keeps running.
- Destroy any rough notes you make during the exam; the proctor checks. Your own study notes from before the exam are yours to keep.
**If something goes wrong**
- During the exam, tell your proctor immediately. Then report the problem to the NCA at exam@flsc.ca within five days of writing.
- If anything looks wrong when you submit, tell the proctor before you close anything, and include it in your report to the NCA. MonitorEDU's live chat (open 24/7) is for questions about the technical requirements before exam day.
**Cancelling**
- Cancel in the portal (My Course Info → Exam History → Refund) before midnight Eastern the day before your exam.
- The NCA keeps a $100 plus tax administrative fee for each cancelled exam.
- If you don't cancel in time and don't write, you lose the full fee. A cancelled exam doesn't count as an attempt, but there are no make-up exams: you re-register and pay again.
**Accommodations:** email accommodations@flsc.ca for the request form.
Wrote recently? Share practical set-up tips below: room, camera, lighting, how you laid out your books. Please keep them about logistics, not the exam itself.
Sources: [Online exam rules](https://nca.legal/exams/online-exam-rules/), [NCA FAQs](https://nca.legal/faqs/)
If your assessment lets you choose, weigh how often each exam runs, how it overlaps with your core subjects, and the kind of law you want to practise.
Beyond the five mandatory subjects, the NCA can assign Contracts, Torts and Property, which it treats as core common law subjects, depending on how your degree covered them. It can also assign additional subjects from a list of six, mainly where your legal qualifications are stale. Some assessment reports let you pick ("two of the following"). If Contracts, Torts or Property are assigned, you don't choose them; the choice, where there is one, is among the other six. Here's how the options compare, using the NCA's 2027 schedule and exam outlines page (checked 18 Oct 2026).
| Subject | Sittings in 2027 | Current syllabus | Pairs well with |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Contracts | 3 (Jan, May, Sep) | September 2026 | Remedies, Commercial Law |
| Property | 3 (Feb, Jun, Oct) | 2025 | Real estate and solicitor work |
| Torts | 3 (Mar, Jul, Nov) | September 2024 | Remedies, litigation |
| Business Organizations | 2 (Feb, Aug) | Revised October 2023 | Corporate and commercial practice |
| Commercial Law | 2 (Jan, Jul) | November 2025 | Contracts, Business Organizations |
| Civil Procedure | 2 (Mar, Sep) | 2024 | Litigation; Torts |
| Evidence | 2 (Apr, Oct) | April 2025 | Criminal Law, litigation |
| Family Law | 2 (Apr, Nov) | 2026 | Family practice |
| Remedies | 2 (Mar, Aug) | 2024 | Contracts, Torts |
**What to weigh**
- **Check what your assessment actually allows.** Some subjects are assigned outright; where there's a choice, your assessment report says so (for example, "two of the following").
- **How often it runs.** A subject offered twice a year runs about every six months, so a fail usually means waiting around six months for the next sitting.
- **Overlap.** Evidence sits naturally beside Criminal Law; Remedies builds on Contracts and Torts; Commercial Law and Business Organizations share ground.
- **Where you want to practise.** Civil Procedure and Evidence suit a litigation path; Business Organizations and Commercial Law suit corporate work; Family Law suits family practice.
- **Materials.** Read each syllabus and its required texts before you commit.
- **The new framework.** In the NCA's proposed modernized system (as of September 2026), Contracts, Property and Torts become one "Canadian Private Law" exam, and the six additional subjects don't appear as separate exams. If you're early in the process, watch the transition details (see our post on the Modernized Assessment Framework).
If you've written an optional exam, which one, and would you choose it again? Candidates choosing between options find these replies the most useful.
Sources: [2027 NCA exam schedule](https://nca.legal/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2027-NCA-Exam-Schedule-FINAL.pdf), [Exam outlines and samples](https://nca.legal/exams/content/), [NCA FAQs](https://nca.legal/faqs/)
Answer the question asked, apply the law to the facts, and show your reasoning: the NCA's own exam tips say analysis earns more marks than conclusions or lists.
Most NCA exams are three hours of fact-based problems. What follows draws on the NCA's published tips for writing its exams and on the warnings in the subject syllabi (checked 18 Oct 2026).
**What examiners say they reward**
- Relevance, conciseness and organization
- Complete sentences, not point form
- Analysis: how you reached your conclusion matters more than the conclusion itself
- The leading cases and authorities named in the syllabus, cited correctly
**IRAC for an NCA fact pattern**
1. **Read the question before the facts.** Know whose perspective you're writing from: adviser, advocate or judge.
2. **Issue.** Name each legal issue precisely. One issue per heading keeps the marker with you.
3. **Rule.** State the Canadian rule in your own words, with the leading syllabus case.
4. **Application.** Use the specific facts. Where facts cut both ways, argue both sides.
5. **Conclusion.** Give a clear answer for each issue. If you assume a fact or the law is unclear, say so and explain why.
**What the syllabi warn against**
- Listing every rule or case you know without applying it. The Criminal Law syllabus says this won't pass.
- A laundry list of procedural fairness entitlements. The Administrative Law syllabus says it earns no extra marks, and answers built on the pre-*Vavilov* framework earn no marks at all.
- Boilerplate. The Constitutional Law syllabus discourages generic, pre-written passages.
**Don't copy templates**
Frameworks are for organizing your thinking, not for typing out word for word. The NCA's tips tell you not to copy from notes or templates: the text may be outdated, and it doesn't show understanding. Plagiarism, meaning presenting someone else's work as your own, gets a mark of 0 and is reported to licensing bodies.
**Managing three hours**
- Split your time by marks, and leave about 10 minutes at the end to check every question has an answer.
- Spend the first few minutes on each question writing a short outline of the issues.
- If you're running out of time, a short, structured answer to every question beats a perfect answer to one.
**Practise under real conditions**
The NCA publishes sample exams on its [exam outlines page](https://nca.legal/exams/content/). Write them under a three-hour timer with your hard-copy materials, then compare your answer with the syllabus. Lexn's Exam Simulator runs timed practice exams with feedback on every answer.
What's your answer structure? Share a skeleton you use for a subject (no exam content), and others can borrow what works.
Sources: [NCA tips for writing NCA exams (Torts)](https://nca.legal/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Tips-for-Writing-NCA-Torts-Exam.pdf), [NCA exam outlines and syllabi](https://nca.legal/exams/content/)
There's no official answer, because the NCA doesn't publish pass rates, but candidates most often name Constitutional Law and Foundations as the hardest.
That matches what we see in candidate forums and study groups. "Hard" depends a lot on your background, though, so here is why each subject trips people up and what tends to help.
| Subject | Why candidates find it hard | What usually helps |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Constitutional Law | Federalism is new to most: division of powers and the overlap doctrines, plus the Charter and s 35 in one exam | A framework for each type of issue, and a well-tabbed copy of the Constitution Acts |
| Foundations of Canadian Law | Theory and assigned articles, not just fact patterns; Indigenous law is new to most candidates | Read the articles themselves, and practise structuring short essays |
| Administrative Law | An abstract framework; the syllabus gives no marks for a standard-of-review answer built on the old *Dunsmuir* analysis; a new casebook edition from June 2026 | Check your materials are current and practise the full problem-question sequence |
| Criminal Law | Concepts feel familiar, but the syllabus is long, and the August 2026 version adds a required criminal procedure text | A tabbed, annotated Code you can navigate fast, and timed practice |
| Professional Responsibility | Often seen as the most approachable, which leads to answers that state the obvious without citing and applying the Model Code | Anchor every point in a rule and apply it to the facts |
**Why "hard" varies so much**
- **Your legal system.** Common law graduates usually find the method familiar; civil law graduates often find the case-based reasoning itself the hardest part.
- **Your exam background.** If your degree used oral or memory-based exams, three hours of typed problem answers is a skill to practise in itself.
- **Time.** Many people who know the law still run short of time. Practising under a timer is the fix.
- **Open book can mislead.** Having every note with you doesn't help if you can't find the right page in seconds.
**About pass rates**
The NCA doesn't publish them. Figures that circulate online are old and unofficial, so don't plan around them.
If you've written more than one exam, which was hardest for you and why? Ranking them below helps the people just starting out.
The NCA doesn't set an order, so the right sequence comes down to the exam calendar, the wait for results, and how the subjects build on each other.
This is the question we see most from new candidates. Here's how to think it through, using the NCA's published 2027 schedule (checked 18 Oct 2026).
**How the calendar works**
Each core subject is offered four times a year, always in the same months:
| Exam months (2027) | Core subjects offered |
| --- | --- |
| January, April, July, October | Constitutional Law, Foundations of Canadian Law |
| February, May, August, November (first session) | Professional Responsibility, Criminal Law |
| March, June, September, November (second session) | Administrative Law |
So you can write a different core subject every month. Registration for each session closes three to four weeks before its first exam: for January 2027 it opens 16 November and closes 10 December 2026. Accommodation requests have an earlier deadline, shown on the schedule. Always confirm dates on the [NCA schedule](https://nca.legal/exams/schedules/), which can change.
**Why one fail can cost you six months**
Results come 10 to 12 weeks after the last exam in a session, and you can't register to re-write until you have your result. By then, registration for the next offering of that subject has usually closed. For example, if you write Constitutional Law in January 2027, your result is expected around late March or early April. April registration closes on 4 March, so the realistic re-write is July. Build in a buffer for one fail.
**Orders candidates use, and why**
There's no single right answer, but these patterns come up again and again:
- **Constitutional before Administrative.** Administrative Law leans on constitutional ideas: the Charter in administrative decisions, the duty to consult, and the courts' role in review.
- **Constitutional and Foundations close together.** They share themes (Indigenous peoples and the law, Parliament and the courts, statutory interpretation) and are offered in the same months.
- **Criminal and Professional Responsibility close together.** Same months, and the ethics of criminal defence and prosecution appears on the PR syllabus.
- **A subject you feel confident in first.** Many candidates use their first exam to learn the online format with less at stake.
- **One exam per session if you're working.** Two in one session saves calendar time but splits your study time.
**A sample core plan for 2027**
Constitutional (January) → Professional Responsibility (February) → Administrative (March) → Foundations (April) → Criminal (May). That's all five core exams in five months if every exam passes the first time. Most people need longer, and that's normal.
Also plan for Legal Research and Writing, taken through CPLED intakes or an approved law school course rather than in NCA sessions, and the Indigenous Law and Peoples requirement if it applies to you.
**Before you commit**
- Check your assessment report for exactly which subjects you've been assigned.
- If you're aiming for an articling or licensing start date, check that law society's timeline and work backwards.
- Leave room for one re-write.
Post your plan below for feedback, in this format:
- **Assigned subjects** (and LRW or Indigenous Law, if assigned):
- **Target date for your Certificate of Qualification:**
- **Planned sittings:** subject and month
- **Hours per week, and whether you're working:**
- **What you're unsure about:**
If you've finished, the most useful reply is what you'd change about your own order.
Sources: [2027 NCA exam schedule](https://nca.legal/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2027-NCA-Exam-Schedule-FINAL.pdf), [NCA FAQs](https://nca.legal/faqs/)
