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United States · Licensing exam

Bar exam pass rates by state

On the July 2026 exam, the bar exam pass rate for first-time takers ran from 56% in Nevada to 91% in Iowa, among the states that had reported to NCBE by October 26, 2026. Repeaters did far worse, often under 25%. Check the figure for your own state and for your group.

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Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

What is the bar exam pass rate in each state?

July 2026 results from NCBE's table, last updated October 26, 2026. A dash means the state didn't report that figure. California, Alaska, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Puerto Rico had no figures in the table yet; California releases its results on October 30, 2026.

NCBE points out that each jurisdiction defines first-time and repeat takers its own way, and that legacy UBE and NextGen scores are on different scales, so treat close numbers with care.

JurisdictionExam givenTakersOverallFirst-timeRepeaters
AlabamaLegacy UBE54852%77%13%
ArizonaLegacy UBE45064%74%15%
ArkansasLegacy UBE24965%75%24%
ColoradoLegacy UBE70070%79%15%
DelawareOwn exam20166%71%27%
District of ColumbiaLegacy UBE2,22275%83%26%
FloridaOwn exam2,75064%75%15%
GeorgiaOwn exam1,15764%75%17%
HawaiiOwn exam16073%83%33%
IdahoNextGen UBE17780%87%-
IllinoisLegacy UBE2,25971%80%20%
IndianaLegacy UBE46565%77%17%
IowaLegacy UBE19084%91%41%
KansasLegacy UBE17774%80%35%
KentuckyLegacy UBE33276%83%21%
LouisianaOwn exam52070%78%24%
MaineLegacy UBE14364%68%35%
MarylandNextGen UBE81169%85%-
MassachusettsLegacy UBE1,54173%81%-
MichiganLegacy UBE77862%71%20%
MinnesotaLegacy UBE65077%84%25%
MissouriNextGen UBE65377%85%34%
MontanaLegacy UBE9478%80%50%
NebraskaLegacy UBE19175%79%31%
NevadaOwn exam (last sitting)30550%56%17%
New MexicoLegacy UBE17755%72%19%
New YorkLegacy UBE9,93667%76%25%
North CarolinaLegacy UBE76576%82%37%
North DakotaLegacy UBE6263%69%47%
OhioLegacy UBE1,01171%82%24%
OklahomaLegacy UBE33573%82%25%
OregonNextGen UBE42980%90%44%
PennsylvaniaLegacy UBE1,47373%81%26%
Rhode IslandLegacy UBE10866%69%52%
South CarolinaLegacy UBE43578%82%52%
South DakotaOwn exam7173%82%11%
TennesseeLegacy UBE71972%80%-
TexasLegacy UBE3,23070%79%23%
UtahLegacy UBE27989%90%54%
VermontLegacy UBE6063%75%10%
VirginiaOwn exam55872%79%28%
WashingtonNextGen UBE28074%--
West VirginiaLegacy UBE11762%--
WisconsinLegacy UBE12253%63%16%
WyomingLegacy UBE6569%76%30%
When each state releases bar exam results →

Which state has the hardest bar exam, and which is easiest?

No official body ranks state bar exams by difficulty. Two published numbers get you closest. The first is the passing score each state sets: on the legacy UBE it runs from 260 to 270 out of 400, so the same performance can pass in one state and fail in another.

The second is the pass rate. Reading NCBE's July 2026 table, the lowest first-time rates were in Nevada (56%), Wisconsin (63%) and Maine (68%), and the highest in Iowa (91%), Utah (90%) and Oregon (90%). That ranking is ours, from one exam, and it can change from sitting to sitting.

Passing scores in every UBE state →Bar exam by state →

How hard is the bar exam the second time?

The gap between first-time takers and repeaters is the clearest pattern in the numbers. In Texas, 79% of first-timers passed in July 2026 against 23% of repeaters. In Florida it was 75% against 15%, and in New York 76% against 25%.

In New York, 9,936 people sat the July 2026 exam and 67% passed, so roughly 3,300 didn't. That's our arithmetic from NCBE's figures.

How many times you can take the bar exam →

Where to find more bar exam statistics

NCBE's table links each state's own results page, and some states break their numbers down further, by law school or by first-time and repeat takers. Check the board in the state where you plan to sit for the most detailed figures.

NCBE: Bar exam pass rates by jurisdiction ↗
Sources: NCBE and 2 more. Checked October 2026.

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