Kentucky bar exam: dates, fees and scores

Kentucky's postmark deadlines and fees by applicant type

Kentucky sets three postmark deadlines per exam and charges different fees to non-attorneys and attorneys. Regular filing is October 1 for the February exam and February 1 for July, at $875 for a non-attorney and $1,200 for an attorney. Late filing is November 10 or March 10, at $1,125 and $1,450. The extended late deadline is December 10 or May 10, at $1,375 and $1,700. Under SCR 2.022 and 2.023, these are postmark dates.

The office no longer accepts checks or money orders and takes payment online only, and it will not accept an application until the fee is paid. A reapplicant, meaning anyone who submitted a prior application with the fees, has a deadline of November 10 for February or May 10 for July, and pays $150 if the exam was not previously taken, $325 if it was taken and failed, and $200 for recertification.

Source: Fees and Deadlines ↗

Kentucky's supplemental-items deadlines

Supplemental items are due on a schedule that depends on when the application was filed. An application filed by the October 1 or February 1 regular deadline has items due November 10 or March 10. One filed by the late deadline has items due December 20 or April 20, and one filed by the extended deadline has items due January 10 or June 10. A reapplication filed by its deadline has items due December 20 or June 10.

The office strongly suggests requesting all supplemental items right away, because some agencies take up to two months to process a request such as a criminal history record, and missing a deadline can lead to the application being withdrawn.

Kentucky's 266 passing score and UBE transfer rules

Kentucky Supreme Court Rule 2.010 adopted the UBE. Kentucky requires a UBE score of 266 or higher for admission, and the MBE counts for 50%, the MEE 30% and the MPT 20% on the 400-point scale. Kentucky law is not tested on the exam. An applicant cannot bank a prior essay or MBE score, so an MBE score earned in another jurisdiction cannot be used, and the entire UBE must be taken to earn a score that can move to another UBE state.

A UBE score of 266 or higher from another jurisdiction may be transferred within five years of the application date. The fee for admission by transferred UBE score is $875 if the score was earned within one year and $1,200 otherwise. The FAQ notes that the lowest passing score in any UBE jurisdiction is 260, so a Kentucky applicant who earns 260 to 265 may use it elsewhere. October 2020 Remote Exam scores of 264 or higher were used for Kentucky admission for five years.

Source: Kentucky UBE FAQ ↗

Kentucky's own bar exam results, 2020 to 2024: 1,486 of 2,193 passed

The Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions posts a statistics page for each year, and each lists the number who passed, the number who failed and the total tested for every exam. Adding the ten exams from February 2020 to July 2024 gives 1,486 passers out of 2,193 examinees, about 67.8%. The five February exams together passed 317 of 606 (52.3%), and the five summer or October exams passed 1,169 of 1,587 (73.7%).

The gap between the two sittings is the pattern in this record. No February exam in these five years passed more than 59% of examinees, while no July or October exam passed fewer than 68%. The February groups are also much smaller, from 87 to 181 examinees against 274 to 366 in summer. The lowest single result was February 2022 at 45% (49 of 109), and the highest was July 2024 at 76.78% (281 of 366), which was also the largest group of the ten.

The Office's pages give overall figures only, with no split for first-timers and repeaters, and its statistics index stops at 2024. For the exams since, use NCBE's table above and the Office's own pass lists. The October 2020 exam was the remote exam that year, so it is not directly comparable to the others.

Source: Kentucky Office of Bar Admissions: Bar Exam Statistics, 2020 to 2024 (one page per year) ↗