How the conveyancing exam works — and how to beat it
The honest picture
The conveyancing admission exam is widely regarded as the hardest professional examination in South African law — pass rates have historically hovered far below the other admission exams. That is not because the material is impossibly clever; it is because the exam demands precision drafting under time pressure, and most candidates prepare by reading when they should be drafting.
What the exam demands
- Command of the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937 and its regulations — the spine of everything.
- The related legislation that walks into every transfer: sectional titles, matrimonial property, deceased estates, land alienation.
- Drafting: deeds of transfer, powers of attorney, conditions, bonds — drawn correctly, clause by clause, the way a Registrar of Deeds will examine them.
- Registry practice: how deeds are examined and rejected, and the practice rulings that govern the details.
Always confirm the current exam format, dates and syllabus with the LPC's official notices — we track them and email the list when anything changes.
The Lawify method
- Draft from day one. Reading about a deed of transfer teaches you less than drafting one and having it marked. Our programme is built around practice drafting with model answers.
- Learn the why. Every clause in a deed exists for a reason in the Act or the regulations. Understand the reason and the drafting becomes logic instead of memory.
- Practise under time pressure in the final stretch — the exam is as much a time-management test as a knowledge test.
Who teaches this
Maryke and Alicia are both admitted conveyancers and notaries in active practice. They have written these exams, passed them, and lodge and register deeds every week. The programme teaches what the examiners examine and what the registry actually does.