New York Bar Exam Quick Facts
Administering Body: NY State Board of Law Examiners
UBE State: Yes, since July 2016
Passing Score: 266
MPRE Required: 85
Next Exam: 23-24 February 2027
Filing Window: 1-31 October 2026
Application Fee: $250 domestic / $750 foreign-educated
NextGen UBE From: July 2028
Sources: NY State Board of Law Examiners, exam dates and filing periods; NCBE jurisdiction profile for New York. Checked 1 August 2026. The July 2026 exam was held on 28-29 July 2026; figures here look forward to February 2027.
New York Asks for Seven Things, Not One
Most bar exam guides treat New York as an exam with a number attached. It is not. Admission in New York depends on a set of separate requirements, most of which have nothing to do with the two days you spend in the exam hall, and two of which are tied to decisions you make before or during law school.
Candidates who fail to get admitted on schedule usually have not failed the exam. They have missed one of the other six.
1. The Uniform Bar Examination
A score of 266 or higher. New York adopted the UBE with the July 2016 administration, on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee and by order of the Court of Appeals.
2. The New York Law Course (NYLC)
An online course of roughly 17 hours of recorded lectures on New York law, with questions embedded in the video that must be answered correctly before the lecture will continue. It is not an exam, but it is not passive viewing either, and 17 hours is a real commitment to schedule.
3. The New York Law Exam (NYLE)
A two-hour open-book online test of 50 multiple-choice questions on New York law, set by the Board. You need 30 correct to pass. The NYLC must be completed before you sit it.
4. Fifty hours of qualifying pro bono work
Required under Rule 520.16 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals for everyone seeking admission after 1 January 2015, other than admission-on-motion candidates. The hours must be documented and filed. This is the requirement most easily left until it is too late to complete comfortably.
5. The skills competency requirement
Rule 520.18, adopted by the Court of Appeals in December 2015, requires applicants to show they have acquired the skills and professional values needed to practise competently. It can be satisfied through one of five pathways: three built around experiential coursework during legal education, and two that rely on practical experience gained outside law school.
6. The MPRE
A scaled score of 85 or higher on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, which is sat separately from the bar exam. A passing MPRE score is valid for four years from the date you sat it, so taking it very early carries its own risk.
7. Character and fitness
After the Board certifies you to the Appellate Division, you must appear before the Committee on Character and Fitness and be examined as to your character and fitness before you are admitted. Passing everything else does not admit you; this is the final step.
Who the skills rule applies to: for applicants qualifying via an ABA-approved law school under section 520.3, or on foreign legal education alone under section 520.6, it first applies to those who began legal studies after 1 August 2016. For foreign-educated applicants required to complete an LL.M. to sit the exam, it applies to those who began the LL.M. after 1 August 2018.
Sources: New York State Board of Law Examiners; Rules of the Court of Appeals for the Admission of Attorneys, 22 NYCRR Part 520. Verified 1 August 2026.
New York Bar Exam Format
The UBE itself runs over two consecutive days and is identical in structure to the exam given in Texas, Illinois and every other UBE jurisdiction.
Day 1: Written Components
Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
Six essays, 30 minutes each, three hours in total.
Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
Two tasks, 90 minutes each, three hours in total. You work from a supplied file and library rather than from memory.
Day 2: Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)
200 multiple-choice questions in two three-hour sessions of 100. The MBE carries half the total UBE score.
Separately: the NYLE
Taken online, on its own schedule, and not part of the two-day exam. You can sit it before or after the bar exam. Because the NYLE tests New York law specifically, the general rules you learned for the UBE will sometimes give you the wrong answer.
New York Bar Exam Pass Rates
The Board examined 9,931 candidates in July 2025 and 6,976 passed. The headline 70% is the least useful number on this table, because New York's candidate pool is unlike any other state's: more than a third of it is foreign-educated.
| Group (July 2025) | Pass Rate |
|---|---|
| All JD ABA graduates, first-time takers | 89% |
| Out-of-state ABA schools, first-time takers | 91% |
| New York ABA schools, first-time takers | 87% |
| All first-time takers | 78% |
| Foreign-educated, first-time takers | 54% |
| All ABA graduates | 84% |
| All foreign-educated | 46% |
| All repeat takers | 32% |
| All candidates | 70% |
The 89% for first-time ABA graduates was the highest for that group on a July exam since 2009. Foreign-educated candidates numbered 3,587, or 36% of everyone who sat, and passed at 46%. If you are a first-time graduate of an ABA-approved school, the 89% line describes your position far better than the 70%.
Source: New York State Board of Law Examiners press release, 23 October 2025, July 2025 examination results. Verified 1 August 2026.
Fees and Filing Deadlines
New York's fees are flat rather than tiered, and low by comparison with several other large jurisdictions. The thing to understand is that New York does not run a "file by" deadline. It runs a one-month filing window, and the portal is shut on either side of it.
Fees
- Domestic-educated applicants: $250
- Foreign-educated applicants: $750
- The same fee applies to first-time takers, repeaters and attorneys
- Fees are set by statute; the Board cannot waive or reduce them
Filing windows
- February exam: 1-31 October, the year before
- July exam: 1-31 March, the same year
- February 2027 exam: 1-31 October 2026
- July 2027 exam: 1-31 March 2027
Two traps in the window. First, you cannot file early: filing opens on the 1st, so there is no point preparing to submit in January for a July exam. Second, if you sat the preceding exam and did not pass, you get longer than the published window: the deadline for you is the later of the normal deadline or the seventh day after the Board releases results. Repeaters routinely give up on the window date when they still had weeks.
There is also a separate $100 technology fee if you choose to type your answers. It is not a Board fee and does not appear in the Board's schedule of fees: it is paid directly to ExamSoft, which handles laptop registration and software, and it only applies if you opt into the Laptop Program.
Sources: NY BOLE exam dates and application filing periods; Rules of the State Board of Law Examiners, 22 NYCRR 6000.4 (amended 1 December 2024); NY Bar Exam Information Guide. Checked 1 August 2026. Note NCBE's chart still lists New York's former April and November windows; the Board's own rule governs.
Transferring a UBE Score
A UBE score is portable in both directions, subject to each jurisdiction's cut score and time limit.
Into New York
- Minimum score: 266
- Transfer window: 3 years
- Still required: NYLC, NYLE, MPRE, pro bono, skills competency, character and fitness
Out of New York
A 266 meets the cut score in many UBE jurisdictions but not all of them. Texas requires 270, for example, and several states sit higher still. Transfer windows also differ, and New York's three years is shorter than some. Check the destination state's own figures rather than assuming.
Transferring a score does not transfer the requirements. Bringing a qualifying UBE score into New York removes the two exam days. It removes none of the other six requirements on this page. Note also that the three-year clock runs from the second day of the exam, and that from July 2028 New York will not accept NextGen scores earned before July 2028.
Source: NCBE jurisdiction profile for New York. Verified 1 August 2026.
What Changes in 2028
New York is scheduled to administer the NextGen UBE for the first time in July 2028. Ten jurisdictions began with it in July 2026; New York was not among them, and neither were California or Texas.
If you are sitting in 2026 or 2027 this changes nothing about your exam. If you are choosing a law school now, the exam you eventually face may well be the NextGen version, which is built around a different balance of legal knowledge and lawyering skills. February 2028 is the last administration of the current NCBE components.
Source: NCBE, NextGen UBE adoption timeline. Verified 1 August 2026.
How to Prepare
1. Start the pro bono hours early
Fifty hours is not a lot spread across three years of law school, and is a great deal to find in the months around a bar exam. It is also the requirement with the least flexibility, because the hours have to be genuinely completed and documented.
2. Check your skills pathway before you graduate
Three of the five Rule 520.18 pathways depend on experiential coursework taken during law school. Working out which pathway you are on after you have finished your degree removes the three easiest options.
3. Do not sit the NYLE cold
It is open book and most people pass, which is exactly why it gets underestimated. It tests New York rules that differ from the general law tested on the UBE, so recall from bar prep can actively mislead you. Take notes during the NYLC and keep them to hand.
4. Treat the MBE as half the exam
It carries 50% of the UBE score and responds more predictably to timed practice than the written components do. A strong MBE gives you room to have one weak essay.
Keep Going
The bar exam is the last gate, not the first. These guides cover the steps that come before it.