North Carolina bar exam: Legacy or current exam until July 2028; NextGen afterward.
| July exam | Jan. 6, late filing Mar. 3 |
| February exam | Oct. 6, late filing Nov. 3 |
| Fees | First-time $850; attorney $1,650; repeater $400; laptop $125 |
| MPRE minimum | 80 |
Dates can change. Check the board’s site before you pay.
Before filing in North Carolina, check the current NCBE profile ↗.
| Rule | 27 NCAC Ch. 3, Rule .0503, Requirements for Military Spouse Comity Applicants |
| Accommodation | Admission without written exam for a relocated military spouse comity applicant who has practiced actively 4 of the last 8 years; application fee waived as of the 2023 amendment |
| Duration | Permanent admission by comity, not a temporary or military-contingent license |
| Supervision | Not required (full comity admission, not supervised practice) |
| Adopted | 2016 (fee waived 2023) |
Confirm current status directly with North Carolina's bar admission authority ↗: this area of law shifted federally in December 2024 and states are still catching up.
The North Carolina exam is given twice a year, in February and July, on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of the month. The passing score is 270 points. The February 2027 exam is February 23 and 24 at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds and the Jane S. McKimmon Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, the same two sites used for July 2026.
Since February 2023 the Board has required examinees to use a laptop for the exam, and the only exception is an applicant who must handwrite the essays under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Board says it works to make the laptop option function smoothly, and it posts ExamSoft instructions and a registration page. It also lists a scholarship assistance program for laptop fees for applicants graduating from a North Carolina law school.
An application counts as filed only when the Board receives, by the filing deadline, hard copies of every item: a check or money order for the full fee including any late fee, made out and signed to the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners; two double-sided copies of the application, signed and notarized; two signed and notarized Authorization and Release forms; a signed and notarized signature page; and a completed handwriting sample. These must be postmarked or received by the deadline.
An application is returned if it is not signed and notarized, lacks the fee or the two release forms, is not double-sided, or leaves a question unanswered, including the handwriting sample. The Board requires two sets of clear physical fingerprints with a fingerprint release form, does not accept digital fingerprints, and will take physical cards from another state or organization. An uploaded photo must be a color image file, taken against a plain white background, showing a current full-face view.
An applicant cannot ask for the exam to be re-graded. Rule .1005 provides that examination answers cannot be re-graded once UBE scores have been released, and the Board notes that the State Bar's regrading rule for legal specialization exams does not apply. The subjects tested are listed in Rule .0903 of the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law, and a clarification of Rule .0504(6) is posted for UBE transfer applicants.
The Board's score memo says the passing score is 270 out of a possible 400. The MBE has 200 multiple-choice questions, of which 175 are scored and 25 are unscored trial questions, and each scored question answered correctly earns one raw point. Raw MBE scores are equated across jurisdictions to adjust for difficulty and reported on a 200-point scale.
The MEE has six essays and the MPT has two tasks, each scored 0 to 6 on a relative basis with no pass or fail score for any one answer. The written raw score gives the MEE answers 60% of the weight and the MPT items 40%, not a simple sum of eight scores. That written score is then scaled to the MBE and added to the MBE scaled score, so the two halves count equally, and the total is rounded to the nearest whole number.
The Board's grading page says answers are not regraded. Results are posted to the applicant's secure portal account about five weeks after the exam, and, if the applicant has met every requirement, a license issues about four weeks after the results notice. The Board's July 2026 results page says its list of successful applicants includes only those who have met all requirements as of the latest update, including a passing MPRE score, so a passer who has not yet passed the MPRE is not on it.
Source: North Carolina Board of Law Examiners: Understanding your Examination Score ↗
270 points. The Board states it for both the July 2026 and February 2027 exams.
In Raleigh, at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds and the Jane S. McKimmon Center at North Carolina State University. The February 2027 exam is February 23-24.
Yes, since February 2023. The only exception is an applicant required to handwrite the essays under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
No. Rule .1005 says answers cannot be re-graded once UBE scores have been released.
Hard copies of the full fee, two notarized double-sided copies of the application, two notarized release forms, a notarized signature page and a handwriting sample, postmarked or received by the deadline.
No. You submit two sets of clear physical fingerprints with a fingerprint release form, and cards from another state or organization are acceptable.
If it is not signed and notarized, lacks the fee or the two release forms, is not double-sided, or leaves any question unanswered, including the handwriting sample.
In Rule .0903 of the Rules Governing Admission to the Practice of Law in North Carolina, linked from the Board's website.
175 of the 200. The other 25 are unscored questions being tried out for future exams, and the MBE scaled score is added to the written scaled score at equal weight to reach the 270 needed to pass.
About five weeks, posted to your secure portal account. If you have met every requirement, the license follows about four weeks after the results notice.
Compare other state bar exam guides: North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island
Source: NCBE Comprehensive Guide: North Carolina ↗ · reviewed August 21, 2026.