On NCBE's calendar, the bar exam is given twice a year, in February and July, and each administration spans a Tuesday and the last Wednesday that follows.
NCBE's published calendar shows the same three remaining dates for its legacy UBE and its NextGen UBE: February 23–24, 2027, July 27–28, 2027, and February 22–23, 2028.
The next administration is February 23–24, 2027.
When is the next bar exam?
The next administration on NCBE's published calendar is February 23–24, 2027.
Both of NCBE's bar exams — the legacy UBE and the NextGen UBE — publish the same three remaining dates, so the February 2027 administration falls on those days on either calendar.
The two-day shape is the same on both.
On the legacy UBE, the MEE and MPT run on the Tuesday and the MBE — a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice exam — is given on the last Wednesday of February and July.
The NextGen UBE follows the same pattern: day one on the Tuesday, day two on the last Wednesday.
| Administration | Exam dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| February 2027 | February 23–24, 2027 | Legacy UBE in the 35 jurisdictions still running it as of October 2026; NextGen UBE where jurisdictions have already switched. |
| July 2027 | July 27–28, 2027 | Twelve more jurisdictions start the NextGen UBE, from Arizona to Wyoming. |
| February 2028 | February 22–23, 2028 | The final legacy UBE administration. Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois and Montana start the NextGen UBE. |
Which exam you actually sit depends on your jurisdiction.
The ten that switched first — Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington — give the NextGen UBE now, and the waves on the table above move more jurisdictions across at each administration.
New to the exam itself?
The bar exam overview covers the format, components and scoring; this page stays on the calendar.
February vs July dates
NCBE's calendar repeats every year: one administration in February, one in July.
The anchor date is the last Wednesday — the MBE sits on the last Wednesday of February and July — and the written day lands on the Tuesday immediately before it.
The NextGen UBE anchors day two to that same last Wednesday.
Length differs by exam.
The legacy UBE runs twelve hours over two days; the NextGen UBE runs nine hours over a day and a half, in two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two — and jurisdictions with local components may extend day two.
For the full hour-by-hour picture, see how long the bar exam is.
Both administrations run the same format — what differs is where a date lands in your own timeline: graduation, a study window, or a retake.
That timing choice, not the calendar itself, is what is worth planning around.
Application deadlines: who sets them
NCBE's exam calendars list exam dates, not filing deadlines.
Each UBE jurisdiction independently decides who may sit and be admitted, what the educational requirements are, and how character and fitness, retake limits and local-law components are handled — admissions work at the jurisdiction level, not through NCBE, and filing deadlines differ from one jurisdiction to the next.
Four jurisdictions show how far apart they sit.
Texas's timely deadline for a February exam is September 1, with a late deadline of November 1 and a final deadline of December 1, after which no applications are accepted.
For the February 2027 exam, Pennsylvania's timely deadline is October 30, 2026 (late November 30, final December 15, 2026) and Ohio's is November 2, 2026 (late December 10, 2026).
Virginia's statutory deadline for the February exam is December 15, with no late filing period.
So the deadline that applies to you depends on the jurisdiction and the administration you are targeting — confirm it with the admitting authority where you plan to sit.
Confirm dates and deadlines before you plan around them
NextGen dates and the switch timeline
The NextGen UBE keeps the legacy calendar's rhythm — day one on the Tuesday, day two on the last Wednesday of February and July — and NCBE has published the same three dates for it: February 23–24, 2027; July 27–28, 2027; and February 22–23, 2028.
The switch itself is staged jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
The NextGen UBE was first given in July 2026 in ten jurisdictions: Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington.
Twelve more start in July 2027 — Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Wyoming.
Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois and Montana follow in February 2028, and in July 2028, 25 jurisdictions — including California, Florida, New York and Texas — make the switch.
Mississippi has adopted the NextGen UBE with its start date still to be announced.
For the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction list, see which states give the NextGen bar exam and when.
As of October 2026, NCBE's map showed only four jurisdictions with no NextGen adoption: Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada and Puerto Rico.
On the legacy side, 42 jurisdictions adopted the UBE since 2011 and 35 were still administering it as of October 2026.
NCBE says that exam runs through February 2028, and its timeline puts the final MBE, MEE and MPT administration in the first quarter of 2028 — the February 22–23, 2028 exam.
When bar exam results come out
The published calendars are exam-date calendars; neither lists a results date, and our research found no single national one.
Scoring on the legacy UBE is split: NCBE scores the MBE, each jurisdiction grades its own MEE and MPT (scaled to the MBE), and NCBE calculates the total UBE score.
NextGen scores come back as one number on a 500–750 scale, with no separate multiple-choice and written scores.
On the legacy UBE, jurisdictions grade their own written answers, and each UBE jurisdiction runs its own admission decisions, so release timing is a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction question rather than a line on NCBE's calendar.
Our guide to when bar exam results come out covers what is known about release timing.
Career information, not legal advice. Exam dates, application deadlines and results timing: confirm them with NCBE's calendar and with the admitting authority in the jurisdiction where you plan to sit before you act on them.