How many times you can take the bar exam has no single national answer: retake rules are set jurisdiction by jurisdiction.
NCBE develops the exams — retake limits are not its call.
Missouri sets no limit on attempts, North Dakota caps them at six, and Alabama moves to a five-attempt limit with the February 2027 exam.
Here are the documented attempt rules, the retake calendar and what a repeat attempt means for your job search.
Is there a limit on bar exam attempts?
There is no single national rule we can document: the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) develops the exam components and scores the multiple-choice MBE — jurisdictions grade the MEE and MPT — but the retake rule is not its decision.
NCBE's UBE materials note that UBE jurisdictions "set their own policies regarding the number of times applicants may retake the bar examination."
The rule you would run into is the one in the admitting authority's own standards.
So the answer depends on where you apply.
Missouri sets no limit on the number of attempts.
North Dakota stops an applicant at six.
Arizona lets examinees keep trying, but after four failures the rule requires the Committee on Examinations' permission before each further attempt.
The next section lists the caps and permission rules the research documents — your jurisdiction's current rule is the one that binds you.
If you are still mapping the exam itself, the bar exam overview covers the format, the components and who runs them.
Which states cap attempts?
Attempt rules are not uniform, and the differences are not subtle.
These are the rules the research documents, each with its own scope:
- Missouri sets no limit on the number of bar exam attempts.
- North Dakota caps bar attempts at six — its rule counts UBE, MBE or NextGen UBE administrations.
- Alabama: effective January 1, 2027 and governing the February 2027 exam onward, the Alabama Supreme Court limits applicants to five attempts at the Alabama bar exam, counted from July 2026 — attempts before July 2026 do not count against the five.
- Vermont limits bar exam candidates to four failed attempts, counting failures in any jurisdiction, waivable on a strong showing.
- Virginia allows up to four re-examinations after a failure, absent statutory conditions.
- Arizona: since January 1, 2026, Ariz. R. Sup. Ct. 35(g)(3) has required examinees who have failed four times to get the Committee on Examinations' permission before each further attempt — and withdrawing mid-exam counts as a failure.
- South Dakota will not seat applicants who have failed the bar three times anywhere unless they previously scored at least 125 on an MBE.
Two patterns matter for planning.
First, a cap can reach beyond the state where you sat: Vermont's and South Dakota's rules count failures in other jurisdictions.
Second, the rules move — Arizona's permission requirement took effect January 1, 2026, and Alabama's five-attempt limit only governs from the February 2027 exam onward.
Rules change — confirm before you re-file
How soon can you retake?
Retakes wait for the next administration.
The legacy UBE is given over two days — the MEE and MPT on the Tuesday, the MBE on the last Wednesday of February and July — and the NextGen UBE sits on the same Tuesday-plus-last-Wednesday pattern in those months.
NCBE's published dates line up for both exams: February 23–24, 2027, July 27–28, 2027 and February 22–23, 2028.
The legacy UBE ends there — NCBE administers it through February 2028 — and its timeline has most jurisdictions moving from the MBE, MEE and MPT to the NextGen UBE between July 2026 and July 2028.
In practice, that means a retake in a jurisdiction that switches in between may be a different exam than the one you failed: the NextGen UBE was first administered in July 2026.
Retake fees differ by jurisdiction: Idaho charges $200 for each of the first three re-examinations and $300 for each after that, while Nebraska's $250 re-take application covers the immediately next exam only.
Price the attempt into the plan rather than discovering it at filing, and confirm the current fee and filing deadline with the board where you re-apply.
One option before you re-sit at all: a UBE score that fell short in the testing jurisdiction can still be transferred to another UBE jurisdiction if it meets that jurisdiction's passing score.
Score-transfer windows run from 2 years (North Dakota, Rhode Island) to 5 years (Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, DC, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Texas), with most jurisdictions using 3.
The UBE jurisdictions guide maps where the exam — and its portable score — applies.
Do repeat takers pass?
Repeaters pass, and in the documented results — California's February 2026 and July 2025 exams — they pass at lower rates than first-time takers.
California's published exam statistics make the gap concrete.
On the February 2026 General Bar Exam, 30.8% of all takers passed: 44.0% of first-time takers and 23.1% of repeaters.
On the July 2025 exam, 54.8% passed overall — 69.7% of first-timers and 12.4% of repeaters — and first-time takers who graduated from California ABA-approved schools passed at 84.4%.
The swing between those two administrations is its own lesson: February's lower overall rate reflects the exam's larger share of repeat takers.
If your jurisdiction's published results break out repeaters, read that number before you reapply — it is the rate your repeat attempt will be measured against.
How do law firms treat repeat takers?
Our research vault holds no data on how employers weigh a failed attempt, so this section is career guidance rather than findings — take it as framing, not statistics.
What you control is how legible your timeline is.
A retake is not a vague gap: the exam calendar is fixed, so you can tell an interviewer which administration you are sitting, when scores should follow and what you are changing about your preparation.
Stating that plainly gives a firm something concrete to plan around.
For a role that requires bar admission, the exam timeline is part of the hiring picture.
Where admission is not the gate — roles that use legal training without waiting on it — the gap narrows.
The law clerk career guide covers one such role, and interim legal work keeps your record moving while you re-sit.
If the question comes up in an interview, answer in the same units the rules use: attempts so far against your jurisdiction's limit, what missed last time, and the date of your next sitting.
A pass on a later attempt speaks for itself in a way no interview answer can.
Career information, not legal advice. Attempt limits, retake rules and fees are set jurisdiction by jurisdiction and change; confirm them with the bar admission authority where you plan to sit.