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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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). The examination’s pre-assessment is delivered with LSU Office of Testing and Evaluation Services (LSU OTES). PassProfessor is independent and is not affiliated with the Louisiana Secretary of State or LSU |
Read the table’s silences as carefully as its entries. The Secretary of State publishes no question count and no topic percentage breakdown for this examination, and this guide prints neither. Third-party pages that supply a number of questions, a percentage pass mark, or a single standing pass rate are supplying figures the state has not published; where they conflict with the state’s own pages — on the current bond amount, much circulating copy is a full law-change behind — this guide follows the state.
Reading the verified facts
Every fact in this guide is stated as the State of Louisiana states it in its own publications. Four reading disciplines govern what follows. First, the route is the Secretary of State’s route — qualification, pre-assessment, examination, commission, in that order — with the state’s own deadlines (37 days, approximately one week, 30 days) treated as parts of the examination, because missing one costs the same cycle as failing the sitting. Second, the passing standard is given only in the form the Secretary of State publishes it: a scaled score of 70 (of 100) — not a percentage of questions answered correctly, for which the state publishes no conversion. Third, the examination’s content is described only as the state describes it: practical comprehension of Louisiana notarial law, including specific notarial acts and related instruments, in two published item families against one published source. The state publishes no blueprint weights, so this guide allocates study time by the office’s statutory powers and the study guide’s own organisation. Fourth, the companion PassProfessor program is in the works and unbuilt: nothing in this guide describes a question bank, a course, or an enrollment that exists today.
The route, step by step
Step 1 — Qualify with the Secretary of State
The process opens with qualification, not with the examination. 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. The applicant completes an Application to Qualify (Louisiana state fee: $35) and must show the full eligibility set: registered to vote in the parish in which commission is sought; resident citizen or alien of this state; not convicted of a felony without a pardon (the statute: not convicted, or if convicted, pardoned); able to read, write, speak, and be sufficiently knowledgeable of the English language; 18 or older; and holder of a high school diploma, an approved home study diploma, or a high school equivalency diploma. The statute adds two conditions the application pages compress: the applicant must 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. A residence-based applicant must be a registered voter of the parish — R.S. 35:191(B) states it directly — so voter registration is a qualification, not paperwork to tidy later.
Step 2 — Take the mandatory pre-assessment, early
Once the Application to Qualify is approved, the Secretary of State notifies the applicant to register online for the Notary Exam Pre-Assessment (Louisiana state fee: $30). The LSU Center for Assessment and Evaluation emails the login instructions, the assessment is completed online, and when the Secretary of State receives the score from LSU, the applicant may register for the state examination. Three properties decide calendars. It is mandatory but taken only once. It does not require a passing score — it is an evaluation, and its score informs the applicant’s decision rather than gating it. And it runs on the route’s longest clock: it must be completed at least 37 days prior to the exam, while its registration and scoring take approximately one week — allow 7 days for LSU to grade and transmit the score before exam registration. Scores never expire, which makes this the one step that can be banked far in advance, and the step whose delay most quietly destroys an intended sitting: work backwards from the exam date, not forwards from today.
Step 3 — Register for the examination inside the deadline
With qualification approved and a pre-assessment score received, the applicant registers 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. Only one exam registration is allowed at a time. The statute gives a one-year window: a qualified candidate may register for any examinations within one year after the Secretary of State’s approval notice, with no further application fee in that period — but the examination fee is paid for each sitting. Plan on that arithmetic: the $35 qualifying fee is paid once per approval window, the $100 examination fee per sitting.
Step 4 — Sit the examination at LSU Baton Rouge
The examination is given at least twice a year, on days determined by the Secretary of State, and all notary exams are offered at LSU Baton Rouge only — there is no regional or local sitting for the new-applicant examination, whatever older summaries suggest. The sitting is by computer and lasts four hours. It measures practical comprehension of Louisiana notarial law, including specific notarial acts and related instruments, in the two item families detailed below, and every item is based on the current official study guide, which the applicant may carry into the room under the rules detailed below. To pass: a scaled score of 70 (of 100).
Step 5 — File the commission documents
A pass completes the examination route, not the commission. The passing applicant files the documents required to be commissioned by the Secretary of State on behalf of the Governor (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, approved by the parish clerk of court. The commission that issues is in the parish of residence, is for life, and — for an examination passer — carries the statewide jurisdiction described below. Keep the examination result and the commission file together: the bodies and clients who will ask for the credential later ask in their own formats, and the file is the answer.
The attorney route, in parallel
At every step above, one class of applicant is carved out, stated here exactly as the official sources scope it. The Application Process page states the pre-assessment and examination requirements apply unless licensed to practice law in Louisiana. The statute, R.S. 35:191(C)(2)(c) and (C)(3)(c), dispenses with both tests if the applicant has been duly admitted to practice law in this state — and, in the same provisions, if the applicant holds a valid notarial commission in this state, the provision that matters to already-commissioned notaries below. The attorney-only filing route is: Application to Qualify ($35); then, once approved, the commission documents ($35) — 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. Attorneys do not file a notary bond. Attorney-notaries may exercise notarial functions in every parish, while the commission remains for their parish of residence. Nothing in the attorney route shortens the non-attorney route by analogy: for everyone else, both gates stand.
The examination in full
The source: one book, current edition only
All items are based on information in The Louisiana Notary Public Examination Official Study Guide 2026 — Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice, published by the Secretary of State — in the application pages’ words, the study guide contains the sources and materials from which the exam items are drawn. The guide costs $100, is non-refundable, and is sent by U.S. mail within 48 hours of the order: order it at qualification, not at registration, because the route’s deadlines leave no slack for a book in transit. Its coverage, as the Secretary of State describes it, runs to the duties and responsibilities of notaries, legal document preparation, and the intricacies of Louisiana’s unique civil law system. Edition discipline is absolute: substantive information in earlier editions may no longer apply, and using any reference materials other than the 2026 edition is considered cheating and grounds for dismissal. A candidate studying from a borrowed prior edition is preparing for an examination that no longer exists, with a book they will not be allowed to open.
Item family 1: General knowledge of notarial law and procedures
The first family addresses general knowledge of notarial law and procedures: the qualifications, authority, and duties of the notary; the forms and execution requirements of the acts and instruments the office passes — inventories, appraisements, partitions, wills received, protests, matrimonial contracts, conveyances, acknowledgements, affidavits of correction, and authentic acts executed in conformity with Civil Code Article 1833; and the procedures around them, from oaths (which a Louisiana notary may administer in any parish) to certified true copies. The guide teaches this family as exact knowledge: because every item is drawn from one book, the book’s own statements are the standard, and preparation means learning them in the guide’s formulations rather than in a summary’s.
Item family 2: Scenario-based items
The second family requires critical application of notarial law and processes that inform practice. The construction is a described situation — parties presenting an instrument, a form to choose, a defect to catch, a sequence to order — and the keyed answer is the application the guide’s law supports. This family is why the published measure is practical comprehension: the candidate is examined as a future drafter and executor of instruments, not as a reader of rules. The guide teaches it as a method: identify the act or instrument, the parties and their capacities, apply the execution and form requirements the study guide states, and eliminate options that describe a sound act for a different situation.
The pre-assessment as part of the examination’s design
The pre-assessment deserves a section of its own: it is the state’s published diagnostic for this examination, and candidates who read it properly prepare differently. The Secretary of State, in conjunction with LSU Office of Testing and Evaluation Services (LSU OTES), made it available to aid the applicant’s decision to take the examination; Act 610 of the 2014 Regular Session made it mandatory for non-attorney applicants. Its logic is reading logic. The work of Louisiana notaries is deeply rooted in Louisiana law — particularly the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Revised Statutes — and, like those codes and statutes, the official study guide is written at a reading level corresponding to Level B on the assessment. The state’s research shows that the closer to Level A one scores, the greater one’s likelihood of success; each level is based on averages and gives only a general estimate of reading comprehension ability. Regardless of score, applicants are not prohibited from taking the state examination at any administration, as many times as they wish. The disciplined reading of a Level B result is therefore a study-plan instruction: the first block of preparation is sustained reading of dense legal text — the guide itself, worked as reading — before item practice can do its work.
Examination day: the book, the tabs, and the room
The examination’s open-book character is rule-bound. If applicants elect to use the study guide during the examination, its pages may be marked up, highlighted, or annotated. Attachments and inserts are not allowed — the published examples are loose paper stored within the guide, and paper attached to any sheet with staples, adhesive, and the like. Pages may be tabbed, under strict requirements: tabs must be self-adhesive and permanently attach to the edge of a page; only one tab per page; no longer than two inches; clear plastic only; labels may be inserted into the tab to detail page content. Non-permanent, repositionable, or removable tabs are not allowed; post-its, sticky tabs, gummy tabs, and sheet protectors are also not allowed. Prepare the book to this specification weeks ahead and study from the prepared copy, so the tab map you navigate in the room is the one you built while learning.
The room’s conduct rules carry stated consequences, repeated here because a dismissal scores nothing. Eating, drinking, tobacco, and reading materials are not permitted in the testing room. Timers, cell phones, smart watches, pagers, and electronic devices of any kind are strictly prohibited and must be turned off and not accessed until testing concludes. If a device is activated — rings, vibrates, or its alarm sounds — or is used at any time during the test, including the break, the applicant will be dismissed, the answer documents will not be scored, and no refund will be issued. Disruptive behavior may also bring dismissal. For ADA accommodations: requests may be approved for candidates meeting the ADA’s requirements; supporting documentation from an attending physician or medical specialist is required, on letterhead, specifically describing the accommodation and updated within the previous six months; documentation must reach the LSU Office of Testing and Evaluation Services at least three weeks before the examination; a request must be submitted for each test date; accommodation testing is held only on Saturdays; and the approved candidate must bring the approval email to the test site. Item comment forms are available upon request at the administration, and all items undergo statistical analysis to ensure their validity.
The sitting itself: scoring, outcomes, and retakes
Scoring discipline first, because it is the point on which outside copy most reliably misleads. The standard is a scaled score of 70 (of 100). Read that as the state publishes it and in no other way: not 70 percent of items, not a count of correct answers, and not a figure any third party may convert for you, because the state publishes no conversion and no question count to convert from. A plan rebuilt after a miss is rebuilt against the two item families and the study guide’s organisation — the diagnostic structure the state actually publishes.
Outcomes discipline second. The Secretary of State publishes statistics on the pass rates of previously administered examinations, administration by administration — dated sittings, not a standing rate. The large September 14, 2024 administration records 145 passed of 682 taken, 21 percent. Read alongside the examination’s design — a single dense source, a four-hour sitting, scenario items demanding application, and a pre-assessment built to warn readers about the text’s level — that figure is coherent: a substantial majority of sitters do not pass on a given administration, and those who do are disproportionately those who treated the study guide as a text to be mastered and navigated, not skimmed.
Retakes, third. The structure is permissive and the cost is time. Applicants may take the state notary exam any time it is administered, as many times as they wish. Only one registration is allowed at a time; the examination fee is paid per examination; and the approval window runs one year from the Secretary of State’s approval notice, within which no further application fee is required. A failed sitting is recoverable inside the same window if the calendar allows, and the rebuild should begin from the sitting’s evidence — which item family, which parts of the guide, which reading failures — while the four hours are still memorable.
Already commissioned? The Act 793 route
One population sits this examination by choice. Under Act 793 of the 2006 Regular Session, as the Secretary of State presents it: statewide jurisdiction is provided for notaries who have taken and passed the state notary exam, and any regularly commissioned notary public who was commissioned before the state exam was instituted may qualify for statewide jurisdiction by taking and passing it. The commissioned applicant registers by Examination Registration Form before the deadline, with the $100 fee — and failure to pass has no effect on the status of the existing commission. The statute’s dispensation provisions align: the qualification-stage requirements are dispensed with for holders of a valid notarial commission, which makes this a voluntary jurisdictional sitting rather than a re-qualification — the same four hours, the same standard, a different stake.
What this examination is for
The examination exists because the office does legal work. Within their parishes, Louisiana notaries make inventories, appraisements, and partitions; receive wills; make protests, matrimonial contracts, and conveyances; and pass, generally, all contracts and instruments of writing — with acts executed in conformity with Civil Code Article 1833 standing as authentic acts. The Secretary of State’s preparation material describes the study guide’s field as the duties and responsibilities of notaries, legal document preparation, and the intricacies of Louisiana’s unique civil law system. An examination guarding that office cannot be a witnessing-signatures quiz; it is, as published, a measure of practical comprehension of notarial law including specific notarial acts and related instruments, rooted in the Civil Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Revised Statutes. Candidates who understand what the office is stop asking why the examination is demanding — and start preparing at the level the office operates at.
Preparation errors this guide is written to prevent
The recurring errors are structural. Candidates study from the wrong source — a prior edition, a generic national notary course, another state’s material — for an examination whose items are all drawn from one current book, and whose room rules treat any other material as cheating. Candidates misread the open book as a substitute for knowledge, and discover that scenario items test application at a pace a cold lookup cannot sustain. Candidates misread the standard, carrying a percentage in their heads because a third-party page printed one. Candidates miss the route: the pre-assessment left inside its 37-day window, the one-week LSU scoring allowance unbudgeted, the registration deadline passed — each an administrative failure that costs the full cycle. Candidates skip the pre-assessment’s signal, treating a reading-level warning as a formality. And candidates prepare the law but not the book — unmarked, untabbed, or tabbed with prohibited materials — and lose the room’s one permitted tool to an avoidable specification. Every section of this guide is aimed at one of those errors.
After the examination
The commission that follows a pass is, in the Secretary of State’s published position, for life: notaries in Louisiana are commissioned for life pursuant to Attorney General Opinion 1940-42. It is issued in the parish of residence, by the Secretary of State on behalf of the Governor, on the commission file described in Step 5. What the holder may do with it is wider than the parish line suggests. Under R.S. 35:191(P), each person who has taken and passed the written examination on or after June 13, 2005 may exercise the functions of a notary public in every parish in the state — statewide jurisdiction is the examination’s jurisdictional dividend, also held by Louisiana-licensed attorney-notaries. Alongside it, the statute maintains groups of reciprocal parishes in which a validly appointed notary may exercise all notarial functions without additional bonding or examination, and a dual commission is available for one other parish in which the applicant maintains an office and which is not reciprocal with the existing commission. A notary who changes parish of residence must change the commission to that parish.
Holding the commission is a maintenance discipline with two published failure modes. Notary Surety Bonds and Personal Surety Bonds are required by law to be in the amount of $50,000; surety bonds must be renewed every five years, personal surety bonds expire upon cancellation or death of the surety, and a $20 filing fee is required on filing. The suspended status in the state’s database refers to an expired bond or a past due annual report: cure is by filing the bond (original or copy, with the $20 filing fee) or by filing the current and any past due annual reports. One currency warning belongs here in full: by HB 259, signed June 11, 2025 and effective February 1, 2026, the required bond and personal surety amount rose from $10,000 to $50,000 and the option to file an errors and omissions policy was removed; the Secretary of State’s office does not accept bonds or personal sureties below $50,000 after February 1, 2026. Any source still describing a $10,000 bond or an E&O alternative describes a law that no longer governs. In practice the credential works where Louisiana’s paper moves — conveyances and matrimonial contracts, wills and successions paperwork, inventories and partitions — and the notary’s signature is, in the state’s own phrase, his seal; Louisiana publishes no statutory fee schedule limiting what a notary may charge.
A preparation plan that respects the source
Build the plan on the examination’s published structure: one source, two item families, four hours, and a route with three clocks. Begin at qualification, not at registration — file the Application to Qualify and clear the pre-assessment early, banking a score that never expires and buying the full one-year approval window for the sittings themselves. Order the current official study guide when you qualify; it is the only book the room allows, and everything else in the plan is commentary on it. Work it as the office’s statute-shaped syllabus — powers and duties first, then the acts and instruments in their execution requirements — reading at the sustained level the pre-assessment warned about: if your result indicated Level B territory, schedule reading volume before item volume. Convert to items early and in both families: general-knowledge items to fix the guide’s exact statements, scenario items to practise the application method — identify the act, the parties, the form, the defect — under time. Prepare the physical book in parallel: annotate as you study, and tab to the published specification early enough that your navigation habits form on the compliant copy. Reserve at least one full four-hour rehearsal, open-book as the room allows it, for the final stage. Close by re-running the deadline arithmetic backwards from your sitting — 30 days for registration, 37 days and roughly a week of scoring for the pre-assessment behind it. The companion Louisiana Notary Public Exam Preparation page describes the preparation program itself, which is in the works; this guide stands on its own as the route and examination reference for the Louisiana Notary Public examination.
Frequently asked questions
Does the pre-assessment have a passing score?
No. The statute provides for a pre-assessment test with no minimum score required; its purpose is to assess the probability of passing and to help the applicant make an informed decision about pursuing the commission. It is nonetheless mandatory for non-attorney applicants, taken once, and completed before exam registration.
How many questions are on the examination?
The Secretary of State publishes no question count for this examination, and this guide states none. What the state publishes is the sitting’s shape: computer-administered, four hours, two item types, all items based on the current official study guide. Question counts on third-party pages are not the state’s figures.
Is 70 the same as 70 percent?
No. The published standard is a scaled score of 70 (of 100) — the examination’s reported scale, not a percentage of questions answered correctly, and the Secretary of State publishes no conversion between the two.
What exactly may I bring into the testing room?
The official 2026 study guide, and nothing else by way of reference. It may be marked up, highlighted, and annotated, and tabbed within the published specification. Attachments and inserts are prohibited; any other reference material — including an earlier edition of the guide itself — is considered cheating and grounds for dismissal.
What happens if my phone goes off during the sitting?
Dismissal, in the state’s published terms: if a device is activated — rings, vibrates, or its alarm sounds — or is used at any time during the test, including the break, the applicant will be dismissed, the answer documents will not be scored, and no refund will be issued.
Can I retake the examination?
Yes — any time it is administered, as many times as you wish. Only one registration may be held at a time, the $100 examination fee is paid for each examination, and within one year of the approval notice no further application fee is required.
I am already a commissioned notary. Why would I sit this exam?
For statewide jurisdiction. Under Act 793 of 2006, a regularly commissioned notary who was commissioned before the state exam was instituted may qualify for statewide jurisdiction by taking and passing it — and failure to pass has no effect on the existing commission.
Why do so many sources still say the bond is $10,000?
Because it was — until February 1, 2026. HB 259 (signed June 11, 2025) raised the required bond and personal surety to $50,000 and removed the errors and omissions policy filing option, effective that date. Sources not updated since the change describe superseded law; the Secretary of State’s current pages govern.
Where do this guide’s facts come from?
From the State of Louisiana’s own publications — the Secretary of State’s notary pages (application process, examination information, examination preparation, frequently asked questions, ways to file, and the forms and fee schedule), the Secretary of State’s published examination statistics, and Louisiana Revised Statutes 35:191 and 35:2 as cited by the Secretary of State — recorded in this file’s INTERNAL section. Facts that could not be verified from those sources were omitted.