The NCBE — the National Conference of Bar Examiners, based in Madison, Wisconsin — develops bar admission exams including the UBE and its NextGen successor, scores their multiple-choice portions and conducts character investigations for many jurisdictions.
The jurisdictions administer those bar exams and grade the written portions; admission itself is never NCBE's call — it admits no one.
Its NCBE Number is an exam-day requirement for the NextGen UBE, and its NCBE Account is where its score services live and MPRE registration starts.
What the NCBE does
The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is the organization behind the exams used for bar admission: it develops the UBE and its NextGen successor and scores their multiple-choice portions, while the individual jurisdictions administer the exams and grade the written portions.
The MPRE is part of its system too — registration starts with creating an NCBE Account.
Exam development is only one service.
NCBE also hosts applications and conducts background investigations for many jurisdictions, though not every jurisdiction uses both or either of those services.
Your NCBE Account is where its score services live — MPRE scores earned since 1999 and MBE scores from the last seven years, the latter when the testing jurisdiction authorizes the release.
NCBE's listed address is 302 South Bedford Street, Madison, WI 53703.
One warning worth knowing early: per NCBE, unauthorized disclosure of its exam content can lead to a bar application being denied on character and fitness grounds — the exams are secure material, and sharing questions or answers has admission consequences.
What the NCBE does not do
NCBE admits no one and licenses no one.
It makes no character and fitness decisions or recommendations — each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practice law.
When NCBE investigates a bar applicant, it is gathering material for the jurisdiction's decision, not making one.
The same limit runs through everything else it touches.
Jurisdictions administer the exams and grade the written portions.
On the character report, jurisdictions decide which questions to ask and how answers are evaluated; NCBE only provides the standardized form.
And the final admission decision — who is fit to practice law — belongs to the jurisdiction, never to NCBE.
That is why your application planning starts with the bar admission authority in your jurisdiction — our bar admission guide compares requirements by state — and why NCBE questions are best aimed at its own services: the number, the account, the scores and the report itself.
NCBE is a service organization, not your admitting authority
Your NCBE Number and NCBE Account
Two identifiers carry your name at NCBE, and they do different jobs.
The NCBE Number is your exam-day requirement for the NextGen UBE: examinees need one to sit for that exam and must arrive with it.
The NCBE Account is the login you create to do business with NCBE — you must have one to begin the MPRE registration process.
In practice: registering for the MPRE starts with creating your NCBE Account, and our MPRE registration guide walks through the full process step by step.
Sitting for the NextGen UBE means your NCBE Number has to be with you when you arrive at the exam.
NCBE score services
The jurisdictions administer the exams and grade the written portions while NCBE scores the multiple-choice portions, so different parts of your result live in different places.
NCBE's score services work through your NCBE Account, which shows MPRE scores earned since 1999 and MBE scores from the last seven years — the MBE scores appearing when the testing jurisdiction authorizes the release.
That authorization is the detail applicants miss: if an MBE score you expected is not showing in your account, the testing jurisdiction is where the question goes first.
MBE scores older than the seven-year window are outside what the account displays, so check with NCBE and the jurisdiction that administered the exam.
How UBE scores travel between jurisdictions is its own topic, which our UBE guide covers in full.
NCBE character reports
A background investigation — the character and fitness review — is part of the admission process in every jurisdiction.
NCBE conducts investigations and hosts applications for many of them, but not all jurisdictions use both or either NCBE service.
Per NCBE's jurisdiction pages, as of October 2026:
| Jurisdictions | What it means for your application |
|---|---|
| 26 jurisdictions use NCBE investigations for some application types — Florida and Virginia only for foreign legal consultant applicants, Massachusetts only for admission on motion | The NCBE character report applies to those application types; the jurisdiction still sets the questions and evaluates the answers |
| 27 jurisdictions do not use NCBE's character and fitness services — including California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and North Carolina | The investigation is still part of admission there — it just runs outside NCBE, through the jurisdiction's own process |
Where a jurisdiction's investigation runs through NCBE, the jurisdiction still decides which questions to ask and how answers are evaluated — NCBE only provides the standardized form.
For what the review itself looks at, see our character and fitness guide.
On cost: NCBE increased its character report application fees effective October 1, 2026.
The current amounts are on NCBE's character and fitness pages — check the fee schedule there before you budget.
Career information, not legal advice. Character and fitness requirements, fees and procedures change — confirm them with the bar admission authority in your jurisdiction and with NCBE before you rely on them.