Iran Bar Exam (SCODA)

It is the national multiple-choice licensing examination set under SCODA's supervision. Success, followed by the required practical training and admission steps at a provincial bar, is what allows you to practise as an attorney. It is not a university degree and does not by itself make you a member of the bar.

It is delivered entirely as multiple-choice questions covering the statutory subjects: civil law, criminal law, commercial law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, constitutional law, Islamic jurisprudence and legal ethics. Expect long stems, close distractors and questions that turn on precise statutory wording rather than general principle.

Those administrative figures change between cycles, so they are not stated here. SCODA publishes the current question count, duration, subject allocation and scoring rules on its official website and in the registration announcement. Always confirm against that announcement before planning your timing strategy.

It is competitive and selective, and most candidates who fail do so through uneven coverage rather than lack of ability. The questions reward exact knowledge of statutes and the ability to distinguish near-identical options. If you can recite the leading articles of the Civil Code and the procedural codes and apply them to short scenarios, you are in a strong position.

Retake rules, eligibility conditions and any limits on attempts are set by the official regulations and can be revised. SCODA's current announcement is the authoritative source. Do not assume an unlimited right to resit; check the conditions that apply to your cycle before you register.

Start with civil law, because it carries the greatest weight and underpins commercial and procedural questions. Then take civil procedure and commercial law, followed by criminal law and criminal procedure. Add constitutional law, then fiqh, which is best studied alongside the civil-law rules it explains. Keep ethics for short, regular review sessions.

Treat them as diagnostic tools, not a question bank to memorise. Do timed blocks, then review every wrong answer against the actual statutory text. Note recurring traps, such as options that swap a time limit, a quorum or a procedural step. This trains the precision the exam requires far better than rereading summaries.

Neglecting procedural subjects because they feel dry; reading commentaries instead of the codes; studying fiqh and civil law in isolation from each other; and running out of time because of untimed practice. Another frequent error is ignoring legal ethics, which is a small but real share of the paper and easy marks if prepared.

Only on SCODA's official website and the announcements of the bar association through which you register. This page is independent study material and has no official affiliation, so it deliberately does not quote figures that change each cycle. Verify everything administrative at the source before acting on it.