The bar exam: length, questions, scoring, dates and pass rates
The legacy Uniform Bar Exam takes two days: 200 multiple-choice MBE questions on one day, six MEE essays and two MPT tasks on the other, combined into a score out of 400. The NextGen UBE takes one and a half days and is scored from 500 to 750. In 2025, 63% of all takers passed, averaged across jurisdictions.
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How long is the bar exam?
On the legacy UBE, each component has a fixed time. The MBE runs in a morning and an afternoon session of three hours each. The MEE gives you six questions at 30 minutes each, and the MPT two tasks at 90 minutes each. Added up, that is twelve hours of testing over two days: six on the MBE and six on the written components.
The NextGen UBE is shorter: two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two, nine hours in total. Jurisdictions with their own exams differ again. How long is bar exam testing in Louisiana? Three days, with three tests per day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Source: NCBE — NextGen UBE. Checked 19 October 2026.
How many questions are on the bar exam?
The MBE has 200 multiple-choice questions, 100 per session. Only 175 are scored; the other 25 are unscored pretest questions that look like the rest, so answer every question. Each of the seven subjects has 25 scored questions, and there is no deduction for wrong answers.
How many questions on bar exam day one? Six MEE essays and two MPT tasks, given on the Tuesday; the MBE follows on the Wednesday. For the NextGen UBE, NCBE describes the mix by exam time rather than by count: about 40% standalone multiple-choice questions, integrated question sets on a common fact scenario, and about a third performance tasks. NCBE does not publish a question count per type on the pages we checked.
Source: NCBE — Preparing for the MBE. Checked 19 October 2026.
Bar exam scoring
NCBE scores the MBE and converts raw results to a scaled score through equating, which adjusts for differences in difficulty between exam forms. MBE scaled scores range from about 40 to 200. Each jurisdiction grades the MEE and MPT itself.
On the UBE, the MBE counts 50%, the MEE 30% and the MPT 20%, and the total bar exam score is reported on a 400-point scale. NextGen UBE scores are reported on a 500 to 750 scale. Your MBE score reaches you only after your jurisdiction has announced its results.
Source: NCBE — MBE scores. Checked 19 October 2026.
What score do you need to pass the bar exam?
To pass the bar exam you need your jurisdiction’s minimum score, not a fixed percentage. On the legacy UBE, minimum passing scores range from 260 to 270:
- 260: for example Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, and Iowa from July 2026
- 264: Indiana
- 266: for example the District of Columbia, Illinois, New Jersey and New York
- 268: Michigan
- 270: for example Arizona, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Texas
- NextGen UBE examples from NCBE’s Bar Admission Guide: Washington 610, District of Columbia 616, Illinois and North Carolina 620
- Louisiana (own exam): at least 650 of 900 weighted points
Source: NCBE — UBE minimum scores. Checked 19 October 2026.
Highest bar exam score and average scores
NCBE does not publish the highest bar exam score ever earned on the pages we checked, so any record you see quoted is not an NCBE figure. What NCBE does publish is the scale and the averages: the UBE runs to 400 points, and the mean scaled UBE score in 2025 was 278.6 overall, 260.0 in February and 285.5 in July.
What a bar exam high score buys you is room for portability: admission depends on reaching the minimum, and a higher UBE score matters when you later transfer it to a jurisdiction with a higher minimum.
Source: NCBE — 2025 statistics: the Uniform Bar Examination. Checked 19 October 2026.
Bar exam dates 2026 and 2027
The MBE is given on the last Wednesday in February and July, and the MEE on the Tuesday before. New York, as an example, published these bar exam test dates:
- February 24–25, 2026
- July 28–29, 2026
- February 23–24, 2027
- July 27–28, 2027
Source: New York State Board of Law Examiners — Dates of exams. Checked 19 October 2026.
Upcoming bar exam dates from NCBE
NCBE lists the same upcoming bar exam dates for the legacy UBE and the NextGen UBE: February 23–24, 2027, July 27–28, 2027 and February 22–23, 2028. You register through your jurisdiction, not through NCBE, and filing deadlines fall months earlier.
Louisiana runs its own schedule: its February 2027 exam is on Monday February 15, Wednesday February 17 and Friday February 19. In Washington, the July 2026 NextGen exam was cancelled and a make-up exam was held on September 1–2.
Source: NCBE — Uniform Bar Examination. Checked 19 October 2026.
Bar exam pass rate
What is the bar exam pass rate? Averaged across all jurisdictions, NCBE reports 63% overall and 76% for first-time takers in 2025, up from 61% and 75% in 2024. In absolute numbers, 42,496 of 67,442 takers passed in February and July 2025. The bar exam passing rate also depends on the sitting: 47% in February 2025 and 69% in July 2025.
- California: 58% overall, 69% first-time
- District of Columbia: 71% overall, 83% first-time
- Illinois: 66% overall, 80% first-time
- Louisiana: 69% overall, 79% first-time
- New York: 61% overall, 75% first-time
- Washington: 63% overall, 77% first-time
Source: NCBE — Ten-year summary of bar passage rates 2016–2025. Checked 19 October 2026.
Bar Exam exam: questions people ask
How long is the bar exam?
Two days for the legacy UBE (twelve hours of testing) and one and a half days for the NextGen UBE (three three-hour sessions). Source: NCBE, checked 19 October 2026.
How many questions are on the bar exam?
The MBE has 200 multiple-choice questions, 175 scored. The written day has six MEE essays and two MPT tasks. Source: NCBE, checked 19 October 2026.
What is a passing bar exam score?
It depends on the jurisdiction: 260 to 270 on the 400-point legacy UBE; on the NextGen UBE, for example 610 in Washington and 620 in Illinois. Source: NCBE, checked 19 October 2026.
What is the pass rate for the bar exam?
63% overall and 76% for first-time takers in 2025, averaged across all jurisdictions. Source: NCBE 2025 statistics, checked 19 October 2026.
When are the 2027 bar exam dates?
February 23–24, 2027 and July 27–28, 2027, per NCBE. Louisiana uses its own dates. Source: NCBE, checked 19 October 2026.
When do bar exam results come out?
Each jurisdiction announces its own results; NCBE releases MBE scores to examinees only after that. Louisiana, for example, reports an average grading period of 8–9 weeks in February and 10–12 weeks in July. Source: NCBE, checked 19 October 2026.
