How Do You Get Admitted to the South Dakota Bar?

The South Dakota Board of Bar Examiners, based in Pierre, runs bar admission in the state; applicants apply through its ujsbarexam.sd.gov site.

South Dakota has a mandatory bar: under SDCL 16-16-1, lawyers must become active members in good standing of the State Bar of South Dakota.

The Board administers the exam and grades the written portions, while NCBE develops the multistate exams and scores the multiple-choice portions.

South Dakota is not a UBE jurisdiction: NCBE's list marks it as one of the places that never adopted the Uniform Bar Exam, NCBE's exam combining the MEE, two MPT tasks and the MBE.

The Board's exam instead combines the Multistate Essay Examination with an essay question on Indian Law, the Multistate Performance Test, the six-hour, 200-question Multistate Bar Examination and the MPRE.

NCBE describes the MEE as six 30-minute questions and the MPT as two 90-minute items; our research did not establish how many of each South Dakota uses.

To pass, an applicant needs a 75% average on the MPT, MEE and Indian Law portions and a scaled MBE score of 133 or higher.

The Board's rules also allow up to 3 bonus MBE points for applicants with strong written scores.

South Dakota requires a J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school.

Applications for the February exam are due November 1, per the Board's FAQ; NCBE lists May 1 for the July exam.

An applicant who has failed the bar three times anywhere will not be permitted to sit in South Dakota unless they previously obtained a scaled score of at least 125 on an MBE.

Our research did not establish the full set of eligibility rules beyond these, so check the Board's admission information before you apply.

South Dakota requires an MPRE scaled score of 85, earned within 28 months of the South Dakota exam.

The MPRE is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice exam offered three times a year; it measures knowledge of the established standards of lawyer conduct, not personal ethical values.

MPRE scaled scores run from 50 to 150, and each jurisdiction sets its own passing score.

NCBE's jurisdiction page for South Dakota lists the same 85.

Character and fitness investigations are part of bar admission in every jurisdiction, and NCBE runs the investigations for many of them — but NCBE makes no decisions; each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practice.

South Dakota applicants file NCBE's standardized character report, and jurisdictions decide which questions the report asks and how the answers are evaluated.

The Board's fee schedule prices the character report at $395 for a first exam after graduation or $550 for a later application.

Our research did not establish how the South Dakota Board weighs individual issues in an applicant's history; questions about a specific record belong with the Board of Bar Examiners.

Yes, through two routes.

South Dakota's admission on motion — admission without examination under SDCL 16-16-12.1 — requires an ABA-accredited law degree and documentary evidence of practice in 3 of the last 5 years before applying, one of the typical practice patterns NCBE's jurisdiction pages show ('3 of past 5' or '5 of past 7').

Separately, South Dakota does not accept transferred legacy UBE scores — the 400-scale exam NCBE now calls the legacy UBE — but it accepts transferred NextGen UBE scores of 620 or higher, which it has accepted since July 2026.

The South Dakota application fee is $450.

NCBE's character report adds $395 for a first exam after graduation or $550 for a later application, per the Board's fee schedule.

Applications for the February exam are due November 1, per the Board's FAQ; NCBE lists May 1 for the July exam.

Our research did not establish South Dakota's pass rates or when the Board releases results, so ask the Board of Bar Examiners for current figures.

South Dakota will first give the NextGen UBE in July 2027, and February 2027 is the last administration of the current MPT, MEE, Indian Law and MBE format.

NCBE lists South Dakota among the jurisdictions scheduled to start the NextGen UBE that July.

The NextGen runs 9 hours over 1.5 days (jurisdictions with local components may extend day two) and reports a single score on a 500–750 scale, and examinees pay NCBE a $149 software/technology fee on top of the state's application fee.