The Louisiana Notary Public examination is the state examination that stands between a qualified Louisiana resident and a notary commission in the parish of their residence. Louisiana notaries work inside the state’s civil law system: under Louisiana law they make inventories, appraisements, and partitions, receive wills, and make matrimonial contracts, conveyances, and generally all contracts and instruments of writing, and acts they execute in conformity with Civil Code Article 1833 are authentic acts. Non-attorney applicants must first be qualified by the Secretary of State and complete the mandatory online Notary Exam Pre-Assessment, then take and pass the state notary exam — a computer-administered, four-hour sitting at LSU Baton Rouge, built entirely on the Secretary of State’s official study guide, Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice, which applicants may bring into the testing room. To pass: a scaled score of 70 (of 100). Applicants licensed to practice law in Louisiana are exempt from the pre-assessment and the examination. No course or class is required by law.
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What this commission authorizes
A Louisiana notary public is not a signature witness with a stamp. The office is a civil law office, and the Secretary of State describes the work in those terms: the work of Louisiana notaries is deeply rooted in Louisiana law — particularly the Louisiana Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Louisiana Revised Statutes — and the official study guide covers the duties and responsibilities of notaries, legal document preparation, and the intricacies of Louisiana’s unique civil law system. The general powers statute, Louisiana Revised Statute 35:2, gives the office its working shape. Within their parishes, Louisiana notaries have power to make inventories, appraisements, and partitions; to receive wills, make protests, matrimonial contracts, conveyances, and generally all contracts and instruments of writing; to hold family meetings and meetings of creditors; to receive acknowledgements of instruments under private signature; to make affidavits of correction; and to affix the seals upon the effects of deceased persons, and to raise the same. All acts executed by a notary public in conformity with Civil Code Article 1833 are authentic acts. Every qualified notary may also certify true copies of authentic acts and instruments under private signature passed or acknowledged before them, and each notary may administer oaths in any parish of the state. A Louisiana notary’s signature is his seal, and Louisiana sets no statutory fee schedule limiting what a notary may charge.
That breadth is why the qualification gate is an examination at all, built as it is: a single official study guide, a four-hour sitting, and scenario items that test whether the applicant can apply notarial law to described instruments, not merely recite it. The companion reference is the Louisiana Notary Public Exam Guide, which sets out the route, the deadlines, the examination-day rules, and the commission that follows in full.
The examination at a glance
| Item | Verified position |
|---|---|
| Office | Louisiana Notary Public — commissioned in the parish of residence; qualification and examination administered by the Louisiana Secretary of State under Louisiana R.S. 35:191 |
| Who must test | Qualified applicants must complete the Notary Exam Pre-Assessment and take and pass the state notary exam, unless licensed to practice law in Louisiana |
| Pre-assessment | Mandatory online, taken once, before exam registration; an evaluation with no passing score required; scores never expire. Louisiana state fee: $30 |
| Examination format | Administered by computer in a four-hour sitting; two item types — (1) general knowledge of notarial law and procedures, and (2) scenario-based items requiring critical application of notarial law and processes |
| Item source | All items are based on The Louisiana Notary Public Examination Official Study Guide 2026 — Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice, published by the Secretary of State, which may be brought into the testing room for reference |
| Passing standard | A scaled score of 70 (of 100), in the Secretary of State’s published form |
| Location and frequency | All notary exams are offered at LSU Baton Rouge only; the examination is given at least twice a year |
| Deadlines | Application to Qualify, pre-assessment, and examination registration completed 30 days prior to the exam; pre-assessment completed at least 37 days prior; allow approximately one week (7 days) for pre-assessment registration and scoring |
| Course requirement | No course or class is required by law; the Secretary of State suggests a course or study group and maintains a list of registered examination preparation course providers |
| Louisiana state fees | Application to Qualify $35; pre-assessment $30; examination registration $100; official study guide $100 (non-refundable); commission documents $35 — Louisiana state fees charged by the Secretary of State, separate from any preparation program |
| Administrator | Louisiana Secretary of State (Notary Division); pre-assessment delivered with LSU Office of Testing and Evaluation Services (LSU OTES). PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Secretary of State or LSU |
What the examination covers
The Secretary of State publishes no topic percentage breakdown for this examination, and this page invents none. What the state publishes is the examination’s measure, its two item families, and its single source — and those three facts, taken together, are the syllabus.
The measure: practical comprehension of Louisiana notarial law
The examination measures the applicant’s practical comprehension of Louisiana notarial law, including specific notarial acts and related instruments. That phrasing governs preparation: the office being examined is the drafting office described above, and the examination tests comprehension of its law at the level of practice — which instrument, in which form, executed how, before whom, with what effect.
Item type 1: General knowledge of notarial law and procedures
The first item family addresses general knowledge of notarial law and procedures: the qualifications and duties of the office, the forms and requirements of its acts and instruments, and the procedures around them. These items reward exact knowledge of the official study guide’s statements of the law — the guide is the examination’s declared source, so its formulations and distinctions are the ones to learn.
Item type 2: Scenario-based items
The second item family is scenario-based: items that require critical application of notarial law and processes that inform practice. A described situation — parties, an instrument, a defect or a choice of form — must be resolved under the guide’s law. This family defeats recognition-level study: the candidate must operate the rule, not identify it, inside the four-hour sitting, with the study guide open beside them — which converts the skill tested from recall into accurate, fast application.
The single source: the official study guide
All items are based on the current official study guide — for current sittings, The Louisiana Notary Public Examination Official Study Guide 2026 — Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice ($100, non-refundable), which may be brought into the testing room for reference. Two disciplines follow. First, edition discipline: substantive information in earlier editions may no longer apply, and using any other reference material is considered cheating and grounds for dismissal. Second, navigation discipline: an open book helps only the candidate who can find the governing passage quickly — the guide may be marked up, highlighted, or annotated, and tabbed under strict published rules, so preparing the physical book is part of preparing for the examination. The Louisiana Notary Public Exam Guide sets out the tabbing and testing-room rules in full.
The pre-assessment: a reading-level diagnostic, not a second examination
Before the examination comes the mandatory pre-assessment, whose design tells candidates something important about the examination itself. Made mandatory for non-attorney applicants under Act 610 of the 2014 Regular Session, it evaluates reading comprehension: the official study guide, like the codes beneath it, is written at a reading level corresponding to Level B on the assessment, and the state’s research shows that the closer to Level A an applicant scores, the greater the likelihood of success on the examination. The score carries no pass mark and bars no one — but a candidate who treats the signal honestly knows how much of their preparation must be reading work before it can be law work.
The route, in order
Step 1 — Qualify: the Application to Qualify
Any resident citizen or alien of the state, 18 years of age or older, may be appointed a notary public in and for the parish in which they reside, provided they meet the requirements of Louisiana R.S. 35:191. To become an applicant you complete an Application to Qualify with the Secretary of State (Louisiana state fee: $35). To qualify, you must be registered to vote in the parish in which you seek commission; be a resident citizen or alien of this state; not have been convicted of a felony without a pardon (the statute: not convicted of a felony, or if convicted, pardoned); be able to read, write, speak, and be sufficiently knowledgeable of the English language; be 18 or older; and hold a high school diploma, an approved home study diploma, or a high school equivalency diploma. The statute adds that the applicant not be under interdiction or incapable of serving because of mental infirmity, and the application requires an attestation to good moral character, integrity, and sober habits.
Step 2 — Complete the Notary Exam Pre-Assessment
When the Application to Qualify is approved, you are notified to register online for the mandatory Notary Exam Pre-Assessment (Louisiana state fee: $30). The LSU Center for Assessment and Evaluation emails login instructions; the assessment is taken online, once only, and once the Secretary of State receives your score from LSU you may register for the state examination. It is an evaluation and does not require a passing score. Its clocks are the route’s first trap: it must be completed at least 37 days prior to the exam, its registration and scoring take approximately one week (allow 7 days for LSU to grade and transmit the score), and its scores never expire — so it can and should be cleared early.
Step 3 — Register for and sit the state notary exam
With a pre-assessment score received, register online for the state notary exam (Louisiana state fee: $100). The deadline to complete the Application to Qualify, the pre-assessment, and the examination registration is 30 days prior to the exam, and only one exam registration is allowed at a time. The examination is given at least twice a year, at LSU Baton Rouge only. The sitting is four hours, by computer, in the two item families above, with the official 2026 study guide permitted under the published marking and tabbing rules. To pass: a scaled score of 70 (of 100). A qualified candidate may register for examinations within one year after approval without a further application fee; the examination fee is paid per sitting, and applicants may sit as many times as they wish.
Step 4 — Be commissioned
Passing qualifies you; it does not itself commission you. To be commissioned by the Secretary of State on behalf of the Governor, the passing applicant files the commission documents (Louisiana state fee: $35 commission fee): two Oaths of Office — one with the Secretary of State, the other with the parish clerk of court — an Official Signature page, and an original or certified copy of a Notary Surety Bond or Personal Surety Bond in the amount of $50,000. Louisiana notaries are commissioned for life, and an examination passer may exercise notarial functions in every parish in the state. The commission is maintained, not renewed on a term: surety bonds must be renewed every five years (bond renewal filing fee: $20), and a commission shows as suspended for an expired bond or a past due annual report until the filing is made current. The full post-pass file is set out in the companion Louisiana Notary Public Exam Guide.
The attorney route, stated exactly
Applicants licensed to practice law in Louisiana are exempt from both gates in Steps 2 and 3, and attorney applicants file no notary bond. Their route is an Application to Qualify ($35) followed, once approved, by the commission documents ($35 commission fee): two Oaths of Office, an Official Signature page, and an original certificate of good standing from the Louisiana Supreme Court issued within the past 30 days. Attorney-notaries hold statewide jurisdiction; their commission is for their parish of residence. This program is built for the non-attorney route — the applicants the examination actually gates.
What makes this examination demanding
The first demand is source discipline. Every item is drawn from one book, which sounds like a narrowing and is actually a deepening: the whole of the guide is examinable, its statements are the standard against which scenario items are keyed, and no neighbouring state’s material, generic course, or prior edition substitutes for it. The second is application under time: scenario items require critical application of notarial law to described instruments inside a four-hour sitting, and the open book does not answer them — it locates the law for a candidate who already understands it, at the cost of the same clock as thinking. The third is the reading load the state itself warns about: the pre-assessment exists because the guide and the codes beneath it are written at a demanding reading level. The fourth is visible in the state’s own numbers: on the large September 14, 2024 administration in the Secretary of State’s published statistics, 145 of 682 candidates passed — 21 percent. An examination with outcomes of that order is not a formality.
The credential at work
The Louisiana commission is, in the Secretary of State’s published position, for life — no term to renew, only a standing to maintain through the five-year bond renewal and the annual report. What it authorizes is the civil law practice described at the head of this page: drafting and executing authentic acts and instruments of writing for the conveyances, matrimonial contracts, wills, inventories, partitions, and acknowledgements around which Louisiana property, family, and succession business moves, in banks, real estate and title offices, law offices, and independent notary practices across the state. Because an examination passer holds statewide jurisdiction, the credential travels to every parish, while the commission remains anchored in the parish of residence. Its holder is examined like a legal professional because, within its statutory scope, the holder works like one.
What the PassProfessor program will cover
Practice in the examination’s own shape. The Louisiana examination is a four-hour, computer-administered sitting in two item families, and the program in the works practises in that shape: general-knowledge items on notarial law and procedures, and scenario items requiring critical application of that law to described acts and instruments, worked against the real sitting’s clock.
Written from the primary sources. The program is written from the Secretary of State’s published process, the official study guide the state declares as the examination’s source, and the statutes the Secretary of State cites — R.S. 35:191 for qualification and examination, R.S. 35:2 for the office’s powers. It teaches the Louisiana office as Louisiana publishes it: a civil law commission, not a generic notary credential with a state name attached.
The book taught as a tool. Because the current official study guide may be carried into the testing room, the program treats the guide itself as examination equipment: its organisation, the marking and annotation the rules allow, and the tabbing rules — permanent, self-adhesive, clear plastic, no more than two inches, one per page — practised before the sitting, not improvised at its door.
The whole candidate, not only the test-taker. Around the item practice, the program carries the route as the Secretary of State publishes it — the Application to Qualify, the pre-assessment’s 37-day clock and one-week scoring allowance, the 30-day registration deadline, the LSU Baton Rouge sitting, and the commission file, bond, and maintenance duties that follow a pass — because on this route an administrative miss costs a whole examination cycle.
Preparation only. This is preparation for an examination administered by the Louisiana Secretary of State. PassProfessor is not affiliated with the Secretary of State or LSU, no completion of this program is reported to either, and nothing in it substitutes for qualification, examination, bonding, or any other requirement of Louisiana law.
Tell me when enrollment opens. The Louisiana Notary Public program is in the works and enrollment is not yet open. Leave an email address and PassProfessor will write to you when the program is ready — and only about this program.
Frequently asked questions
Who has to take the Louisiana notary exam?
Every qualified applicant who is not licensed to practice law in Louisiana: applicants must be qualified by the Secretary of State’s Office and, unless licensed to practice law in Louisiana, must complete the Notary Exam Pre-Assessment as well as take and pass the state notary exam.
Is the pre-assessment a second exam I can fail?
No. It is a mandatory online evaluation, taken once, that does not require a passing score; its score helps you make an informed decision about pursuing the commission, and scores never expire. It is, however, a hard gate in sequence: it must be completed before exam registration, at least 37 days before the exam date.
How long is the examination, and where is it given?
By computer, in a four-hour sitting, at LSU Baton Rouge only. The examination is given at least twice a year.
What is the passing score?
A scaled score of 70 (of 100) — in the form the Secretary of State publishes it. It is a scaled score, not a percentage of questions, and the Secretary of State publishes no question count for the examination.
Can I bring the study guide into the examination?
Yes — the official 2026 study guide may be brought into the testing room for reference. It may be marked up, highlighted, or annotated, and tabbed under strict rules; attachments and inserts are not allowed, and using any other reference material, including an earlier edition, is treated as cheating and grounds for dismissal.
Do I have to take a course first?
No. No course or class is required by law. The Secretary of State suggests a good course or study group, and maintains a list of registered notary exam preparation course providers.
What do the Louisiana state fees add up to on the examination route?
On the published fee schedule: Application to Qualify $35, pre-assessment $30, examination registration $100, official study guide $100, and commission documents $35 after a pass — Louisiana state fees, before the $50,000 bond and its costs. The examination fee is paid for each sitting.
What happens after I pass?
You file the commission documents — two Oaths of Office, an Official Signature page, and a $50,000 bond or personal surety — with the $35 commission fee, and you are commissioned on behalf of the Governor in your parish of residence. The commission is for life, carries statewide jurisdiction for examination passers, and is maintained through the five-year bond renewal and the annual report.
Is PassProfessor affiliated with the Louisiana Secretary of State?
No. PassProfessor is an independent preparation provider, not affiliated with the Secretary of State or LSU. The program confers no commission and reports nothing to the state.