Alabama bar exam: Legacy or current exam until July 2028; NextGen afterward.
| July exam | Feb. 1 |
| February exam | Oct. 1 |
| Fees | First-time $575 + C&F; attorney $875 + NCBE fee; repeater $575; laptop $107 |
| MPRE minimum | 75 |
Dates can change. Check the board’s site before you pay.
Before filing in Alabama, check the current NCBE profile ↗.
| Rule | Rule III.(A)(5)(A), Rules Governing Admission to the Alabama State Bar |
| Accommodation | No exam; admission on a showing of admission elsewhere plus limited practice experience, for spouses on orders to Alabama over 180 days |
| Duration | Duration of qualifying orders |
| Supervision | Not required |
| Adopted | 2020 |
Confirm current status directly with Alabama's bar admission authority ↗: this area of law shifted federally in December 2024 and states are still catching up.
An applicant must be at least 19, must have registered as a law student under Rule I, and must meet the education requirements in Rule IV. Graduates of ABA-approved schools do not have to show proof of pre-legal education; the three Alabama schools with ABA approval are Alabama, Cumberland (Samford) and Thomas Goode Jones (Faulkner).
Graduates of Birmingham School of Law, Miles College of Law, and Jones School of Law before June 11, 2006 may also sit, and they must file a bachelor's-degree transcript. A graduate of a non-ABA school in another state qualifies only if the applicant has been licensed there and practiced continuously for at least five years, and only if that state extends comity to graduates of Alabama's non-approved schools.
A foreign-educated applicant must have graduated from a school approved in its own country and be admitted there. That applicant then needs one of three things: a law degree with a substantial English common-law component, 24 semester hours of bar-tested subjects at an ABA- or AALS-listed school, or three years of continuous U.S. practice.
The next two administrations are February 23-24, 2027 and July 27-28, 2027. The MBE is given on the last Wednesday of February and July, and the essay portion (MPT plus MEE) is given on the Tuesday before it.
The February application window opens September 1 and closes October 1. The July window opens January 1 and closes February 1. Alabama has no late-filing period and no late fee, and the Admissions Office says it cannot waive a deadline. An applicant who fails has 10 days from the release of results to re-apply for the next exam, and results come about 8 to 9 weeks after the exam.
The first-time exam fee is $575, and so is the fee for a re-applicant who last applied within five years and has not applied elsewhere since. An applicant who has applied to another jurisdiction, and a foreign-educated applicant, pays $575 plus an investigation fee set by NCBE. UBE score transfer and reciprocity applicants each pay $875 plus the NCBE fee.
Anyone who never filed a law student registration also owes a $250 non-registration fee, whether the application is for the exam, score transfer or reciprocity. All application fees are non-refundable. An exam applicant who withdraws at least seven days before the exam and pays a $100 administrative fee may carry the fee forward to the next exam only.
Source: Application Fees ↗
The passing score on the Alabama exam is 260, and the exam is the full UBE with no state-only component. There is no limit on how many times a candidate may sit (Rule IV.C).
A candidate who fails but earns 140 or higher on either the MBE or the written portion (MEE plus MPT) may skip that portion next time, provided the retake happens within 36 months. Alabama accepts a transferred MBE score of 140 or higher for the same 36 months, but does not accept transferred essay scores. A carried-forward or transferred MBE or essay score cannot be used to earn a portable UBE score. Alabama does not regrade exams, though a failing candidate may review essay answers alongside the three top-scoring answers for each question.
Source: Alabama bar admission FAQ ↗
A transferred UBE score must come from a single sitting, must be 260 or higher, and the admission must be finalized within 36 months of the day the score was earned. The transfer applicant still needs the MPRE, the Alabama law course and character-and-fitness approval.
Alabama treats 25 jurisdictions as reciprocal: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. A lawyer licensed elsewhere must file a Certificate of Jurisdictional Reciprocity, and the bar then decides whether to admit. A reciprocity applicant needs an MPRE score of 75 or higher, with no limit on when it was earned.
Source: Reciprocal Jurisdictions ↗
The Committee on Character & Fitness reviews every application and makes the final decision. Some applicants are certified to sit for the exam and cleared on character at the same time. A candidate the committee calls in person is told the hearing date about three to four weeks ahead, and that hearing takes place only if the candidate passes the exam.
The duty to disclose does not stop at certification: an applicant must report any incident or change until the day of admission. Required paperwork includes three attorney affidavits from lawyers licensed at least five continuous years, and a certified driving record from every state that issued the applicant a license in the past ten years. Alabama Code § 34-3-6(d) limits licensing to U.S. citizens and to people legally present in the United States with appropriate federal documentation.
Source: Alabama bar admission FAQ ↗
A passing candidate has 25 months from the exam date to finish the remaining requirements: an MPRE score of 75, the online Alabama law course, and committee approval. An MPRE score is valid for 36 months from its test date, and a candidate who passes without one has 36 months from the passed exam to earn it.
The Alabama law course is eight online modules: Alabama Constitution, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Civil Litigation, Criminal Law, Family Law, Real Property, Torts, and Wills & Trusts/Probate. Exam takers get access about 7 to 10 days after the exam; score-transfer applicants get it once the committee has approved a complete application.
The Alabama State Bar posts a combined statistics sheet for each exam. For February 2026 it shows 318 examinees, of whom 106 passed, 33.33%. The 94 first-time examinees passed at 52.13% (49) and the 224 repeat examinees at 25.45% (57). In-state examinees were 261 of the 318 and passed at 29.12% (76), while the 57 out-of-state examinees passed at 52.63% (30).
By school, 27 examinees came from Faulkner's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law (12 passed, 44.44%), 26 from Samford's Cumberland School of Law (11, 42.31%), 11 from the University of Alabama (4, 36.36%), 170 from Birmingham School of Law (49, 28.82%) and 27 from Miles Law School (none passed). First-timers from Birmingham passed at 51.92% (27 of 52), but 22 of its 118 repeaters passed, 18.64%. The sheet's columns run together in the text extraction, so the first-time and repeat counts here are worked out from the sheet's passed and failed columns; each row's counts add up to its total.
You need a 260 on the UBE scale. Alabama gives the full Uniform Bar Examination (MBE, MEE and MPT) with no separate state test, and the Admissions Office publishes 260 as the passing score for both the exam and for a transferred UBE score.
No. Rule IV.C sets no cap on attempts. Each time you fail you have 10 days after results are released to file for the next administration.
Yes, if either half was 140 or higher. A 140-plus on the MBE, or on the MEE and MPT combined, may be carried forward for 36 months so you can skip that half on a retake. The carried score cannot be used to build a portable UBE score.
A first-time exam application costs $575, and UBE transfer and reciprocity applications cost $875. Add the $250 law student non-registration fee if you never registered as a law student, plus any NCBE fee for applicants who applied elsewhere first.
The Admissions Office must receive your application by February 1. The July window opens January 1, and there is no late deadline and no late fee for missing it.
Every applicant must have registered as a law student in the first 60 days of law school or pay the fee, and Alabama charges it to everyone who did not register, including out-of-state graduates who never planned to practice there. It is $250 and is added to the application fee.
Yes. You must score 75 on the MPRE, finish an eight-module online course on Alabama law, and win approval from the Character & Fitness Committee, all within 25 months of the exam you passed.
Twenty-five jurisdictions: Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Lawyers from other states may still apply with a Certificate of Jurisdictional Reciprocity.
33.33% overall (106 of 318 examinees), and 52.13% for first-time examinees, according to the Alabama State Bar's combined statistics sheet.
Compare other state bar exam guides: Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut
Source: NCBE Comprehensive Guide: Alabama ↗ · reviewed August 21, 2026.