The New Jersey Notary Public Exam

N.J.S.A. 52:7-10.3 directs the State Treasurer to prescribe an exam that tests a non-attorney applicant's fitness to act as a notary. By statute the exam must be based on the statutes, rules, procedures and ethical requirements described in the Treasurer's manual, and must include the requirements, functions, duties and responsibilities of the office.

The same section lets the Treasurer give the exam directly or through a contract vendor working to the Treasurer's specifications, and it leaves the minimum qualifications and passing requirements solely to the Treasurer. Attorneys licensed in New Jersey are outside the exam requirement entirely.

DORES lays out four steps on its exam portal, and the order matters because the exam unlocks only after the education attestation:

The manual states that the Treasurer may charge up to $15 for each test administered online. The portal ties a set number of attempts to each commissioning application. If you still have attempts left, you use the Begin Exam Attempt option; if you have used them all, you start a new commissioning application. A Retrieve My Exam Results option lets you pull up your outcome later.

The portal also warns about its session timer. If a session times out or you choose to finish early, any question you have not answered is scored as incorrect, so budget your time and answer every item before you submit.

The public pages reviewed for this guide do not state the number of questions, the time allowed, the passing score or whether you may consult the manual while testing. Treat any specific figure you see online as unverified unless it comes from DORES. If you need accommodations or have a question about the rules, the portal lists the DORES notary unit at 609-292-9292 and a help page.

Because the statute ties the exam to the manual, the manual's chapters are the best available outline. The September 2026 edition is organized this way:

Several parts of the manual turn on exact numbers or wording, which makes them natural test material. Know the three-month deadline to take the oath and the ten-day window the clerk has to transmit the certificate. Know that identity documents may be current or expired no more than three years. Memorize the six journal entries and the ten-year retention rule, the ten-day deadline to report a lost stamp or journal, and the 45 days a personal representative has after a notary's death. Learn the three fee tiers of $2.50, $15 and $25 and when each applies, and the three-day window for a remote signer to send a tangible record back to the notary.

Also study the grounds for denial and revocation. They include giving legal advice, acting as an immigration consultant, misleading advertising, missing the oath deadline and withholding someone's original record.

Passing the exam does not make you a notary. The next move is the Notary Public Registration Application on the DORES notary site, which carries the $25 commission fee and needs a state legislator's endorsement, so line up that endorsement while you study rather than after you pass.

When the commission arrives, the clock starts on a second deadline that has nothing to do with the test: you have three months to swear the oath of office before your county clerk. It is easy to treat the exam as the finish line and let that window close, and a commission that is never sworn is revoked and void. Put the date in your calendar the day the commission lands.

Work through the manual one chapter at a time and watch the matching training video right after each chapter, since DORES requires both anyway. Keep a one-page sheet of every number and deadline. Then test yourself under time pressure so that the portal's timer is not the first clock you have practiced against.

For that last stage, NotaryPrepHQ offers New Jersey practice questions written from the manual and the 2021 law, a diagnostic, topic drills that explain each answer, and timed practice exams with a readiness score. Practice questions are separate from the manual review and video series that DORES requires before the exam.