MPRE scores are reported on a scale from 50 to 150 — a scaled score, not the raw count of questions you answered right.
Of the exam's 60 multiple-choice questions, 50 are scored and 10 are unscored pretest questions, with no penalty for wrong answers.
Each jurisdiction sets its own passing score on that scale, results are typically released within five weeks in your NCBE Account, and sending a score to an additional jurisdiction costs $30.
The MPRE score scale: 50 to 150
Every MPRE result is reported the same way: as a scaled score from 50 (low) to 150 (high).
NCBE reports the scores; the line you have to clear on that scale is each jurisdiction's to set, not NCBE's.
The scale is a yardstick of its own.
There are only 50 scored questions on the exam, so neither a correct-answer tally (which would top out at 50) nor a percentage of questions answered right (which would top out at 100) can reach the numbers this scale carries — the score on your report sits on the 50–150 scale instead.
What the NCBE pages we reviewed do not set out is the conversion itself: how your answers become the specific number on your score report.
What the number measures is narrower than the name suggests.
The MPRE measures knowledge of the established standards of lawyer conduct — NCBE is explicit that it is not a test of an individual's personal ethical values.
The score says whether you know the standards, not what you personally believe.
How the MPRE is graded
The grading picture starts with a split: of the 60 questions on the MPRE — a two-hour multiple-choice exam offered three times a year — only 50 are scored.
The other 10 are unscored pretest questions.
Every question has four answer choices, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer.
That makes the test-taking math simple: since a wrong answer costs nothing, there is no scoring reason to leave a question unanswered.
Your result is the scaled score from the section above, released in your NCBE Account — and the minimum it is checked against depends on where you are seeking admission, since each jurisdiction sets its own passing score.
Is the MPRE curved?
It is the question the sources we reviewed answer least directly.
The NCBE pages we reviewed in October 2026 do not set out how raw answers convert to the 50–150 scale, and we found no national average or percentile ranking on them that a curve could be measured against.
What is on the record is the shape of the result: a scaled score compared with a minimum established by each jurisdiction.
Ask for the source behind any "MPRE curve" or percentile chart you come across — and plan around the passing score where you are applying.
Is there an average MPRE score or percentile?
No average we can quote.
The NCBE pages we reviewed in October 2026 do not publish a national mean or average MPRE score, and our research found no official percentile either — so this page will not invent either.
An average or percentile figure from any other source needs its source checked before you plan around it.
What is public instead is the bar itself.
The MPRE is required for bar admission in every U.S. jurisdiction except Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, and each admitting authority sets its own minimum on the 50–150 scale; Connecticut and New Jersey also accept a law-school professional responsibility course in lieu of a passing score.
Per NCBE's jurisdiction pages as of October 2026, those minimums run from 75 to 86 and cluster nearly evenly at 85 (21 jurisdictions) and 80 (20).
The full MPRE passing score table belongs to its own page.
The number worth planning around
When and how you get your MPRE results
MPRE scores are typically released within five weeks of the exam date, and they appear in your NCBE Account.
The account keeps history too.
Per NCBE's score services page, it shows MPRE scores earned since 1999 and — when a testing jurisdiction authorizes it — MBE scores from the last seven years.
Five weeks is the planning number.
If the result has to meet a deadline in your jurisdiction's admission process, work backward from that deadline, and get the deadline itself from the admitting authority where you are seeking admission.
Sending an MPRE score to another jurisdiction
A score moves between jurisdictions through NCBE's score reporting, and moving it is not free: sending an MPRE score to an additional jurisdiction costs $30 per MPRE Score Report.
Check two things before ordering one.
The minimum travels separately from the score: each jurisdiction sets its own passing score on the 50–150 scale, so a result that cleared one jurisdiction's requirement can fall short of another's.
And how long an older score still counts is its own question — the FAQ below covers what we could and could not confirm.
Career information, not legal advice. NCBE reports MPRE scores and each jurisdiction sets its own passing requirement — confirm anything that matters to your application with NCBE and with the bar admission authority where you intend to practice.
Confirm report details before you rely on one