Steven Alan Childress - Louisiana Notary Exam Sample Questions and Answers: Explanations Keyed to the Official Study Guide

STOP . Please dont flip through the book and read a lot of questions before you scan this introduction. Seeing too much of it may lessen its usefulness to simulate an exam or two for yourself after youve prepared well for the state exam. Ill detail below why I say this, but first, a little on the exam and this book.

The Louisiana state notary examination is famously challenging, usually sporting below a 20% pass rate at each administration. Everything you need to know to pass is found somewhere in the states official study guide, Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice , which is interesting, detailed, and available to use open-book the day of the examso its certainly a helpful resource for preparing and taking the exam itself. But its 650 pages long, dense, not intuitively organized, and without an index. Most people find the bookand of course the subject-matter of notary law itselfto be a challenge even before game day.

To that end, over thirty prep coursesin-person, online, or some combinationhave been registered with the state and are listed on the Secretary of States website. Some community colleges and universities offer academic courses in notary law and practice, such as one I teach at Tulanes School of Professional Advancement. Many effective study aids including detailed workbooks and outlines are available, as are private study groups and Facebook groups for support. Earlier this year, I published a book of information on the exam, study strategies, and big-picture discussions of key areas of law, entitled Louisiana Notary Exam Sidepiece to the 2020 Study Guide: Tips, Index, FormsEssentials Missing in the Official Book , also part of the Self-Study Sherpa Series.

All of these resources recommend reviewing sample questions and even taking practice exams, and the best classes and workbooks do provide exam-taking. The states Fundamentals book includes a mini-test in the back. This book is not meant to obviate your need for further advice and sample questions that you get by taking a class or self-prepping with quality commercial notebooks that include quizzes. My goal is to support and augment those resources, not wholly replace them (heaven forbid my own class), since many students do need organized study or outlines to have a good shot at passing the exam.

But classes cost a lot of money and may come at times that dont fit a working scheduleor they already started before the time seemed right to prepare for the next exam (currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, but allowing use of the 2020 Fundamentals study guide on exam day). We saw the need for a workbook wholly devoted to sample questions while then adding detailed explanations of the options and answers, cross-referenced to the official study guide. We priced it relatively low so that theres room in the budget for other resources.

This books explanations and page references are keyed specifically to the 2020 Fundamentals guide and, occasionally where warranted, to the 2020 edition of Sidepiece . Nonetheless, it can be used to prepare for new editions of these guides once they are released in 2021 (for example, if youre taking the first 2021 exam using their 20 book, which is also allowed). This is because the explanations still hold and the pages will be off at most by a couple pages. If you own it already, dont waste money replacing this book when the new Fundamentals is availablethough the detailed index and page references in the current Sidepiece will make that book much more obsolete for users of 2021 Fundamentals . At any rate, the Secretary of State website has not announced for next year any changes to the structure, scope, and rules of the exams to be administered in 2021 or the format of the individual questions one can anticipate.

This book isnt sponsored by the Secretary of State, or LSUs testing office which administers the notary exam several times a year for the SOS. Its unofficial and based on publicly available information. Yet Ive been teaching and testing on law for 35 years; took the state-wide notary exam; practice as a notary with my wife Michele; and give, grade, and explain several multiple-choice exams in my notary class. This is my best view of the format, coverage, and phrasing of the typical question one may face on the state examwhile explaining the strategy or trick behind several questions that are like a decoy you may face in the official test. Its good practice.

Why the STO P above? As I see it, there are two ways to use this book. First, wait , and use it as review and exam-practice after your own thorough preparation for the examafter youve read Fundamentals and used whatever study aids or classwork to get ready. Or, second, use it as a learning tool as you go though, even then, its best to have enough reading under your belt that the questions and explanations make sense. The order here is fairly random to mimic the real exam, and not so much centered on specific subjects like donations as other guides do it. It can replicate a time-pressured exam scenario or it can be lighter reading, depending on your comfort level for simulating the state exam and the timeframe in which you decide to use this. Also, you could read one test (or part of it) before full study, then wait to use the other ones as a proper measure of your preparation and exam skills, taking those at least under simulated exam conditions and proper time limits. I would recommend, in that case, test A as the prep one and hold off on B, C, and D until later. Chapter 3 guides you in breaking down the exams further, if you prefer to employ them in smaller chunks.