Puerto Rico bar exam: Jurisdiction-specific examination. Current state-drafted essay and performance specifications, not a uniform-exam format. Puerto Rico does not administer the MBE, MEE, or MPT and has no UBE score to report or transfer: NCBE lists it among its non-uniform examination jurisdictions. Exam questions are written in Spanish; candidates may answer in either Spanish or English.
| July exam | TBA |
| February exam | TBA |
| Fees | First-time $250; attorney $250; repeater $250; laptop , |
| MPRE minimum | Not required |
Dates can change. Check the board’s site before you pay.
Before filing in Puerto Rico, check the current NCBE profile ↗.
Puerto Rico does not administer the MBE, MEE, or MPT and has no UBE score to report or transfer: NCBE lists it among its non-uniform examination jurisdictions. Exam questions are written in Spanish; candidates may answer in either Spanish or English.
Puerto Rico does not use the UBE. To practice law an applicant must be over 21, hold a law degree from a school approved by the American Bar Association or by the Court, be a person of good reputation, and pass the Reválida General, an exam prepared, administered and graded by the Junta Examinadora itself. The applicant must also have earned a bachelor's degree before entering law school if the studies were in the United States or Puerto Rico, or an equivalent university program approved under the Council of Higher Education's standards or by the Court.
A foreign-educated applicant must validate the studies and earn a degree from a law school approved by the ABA and by the Court, then file evidence of it with the exam application. Notarial practice is separate: a person must already be admitted and sworn in as a lawyer and also pass the Reválida Notarial, which the Junta administers.
Each person has a maximum of six opportunities to take the Reválida General and the Reválida Notarial, counted from September 1983. If an applicant is admitted to an exam and does not appear, the absence does not count as one of the six; only an exam that is begun and not finished is counted as taken, under Rule 5.8.2. Admission to the Reválida General costs $250 and the Reválida Notarial $200, and internal revenue stamps are cancelled when the application is received, so an applicant who misses an exam pays again when applying for a later date. The current rules set no time limit for taking the Notarial exam after passing the General.
The applications are filed through the Electronic Admission Application system on the date announced by public notice, and they must be kept truthful: an applicant must update any relevant change until taking the lawyer's oath. To sit for the Reválida Notarial, an applicant needs satisfactory grades (A, B, C or equivalent) in at least three credits each of substantive notarial law, succession law, mortgage law, family law and obligations and contracts, plus five credits of practical notarial law. Students who started law school before August 2021 need a notarial law course, and the applicant must also file the certificate of admission issued after the oath.
Source: Exámenes de reválida ↗
Rule 6.2 requires criminal record certificates from places where the applicant lived, and the six-month period of residence outside Puerto Rico is not interrupted by vacation visits or personal or family trips made without an intention to stay in Puerto Rico or the place visited. An applicant who cannot get a required document for reasons outside the applicant's control must tell the Junta and show the efforts made to get it, and one who lacks a diploma or record certificates files proof of those efforts and the diploma copy as soon as it is issued.
The Junta Examinadora publishes the numbers for each sitting in a press release from its executive director. The general-law exam, which is the exam for admission to the bar, was taken by 299 aspirants in March 2024, of whom 119 passed (40%); by 444 in September 2024, of whom 214 passed (48%); by 506 in September 2025, of whom 264 passed (52%); and by 337 in March 2026, of whom 150 passed (45%).
Across those four sittings 1,586 aspirants took the exam and 747 passed, about 47.1%. In 2024 the September sitting was larger than March (444 against 299) and passed at a higher rate (48% against 40%). The notarial exam is separate and has its own figures: 163 of 193 passed in March 2024 (84%), 85 of 114 in September 2024 (75%), 105 of 161 in September 2025 (65%), and 188 of 214 in March 2026 (88%). Aspirants see their scores in the Junta's electronic admission system.
On June 9, 2022 the Puerto Rico Supreme Court unanimously lowered the minimum score for the general-law reválida from 596 adjusted points to 569, after a special commission reviewed the passing score. The 596 figure had been set in 1994 on the basis of a 1985 study. The court also accepted the commission's recommendation that minimum scores be reviewed about every 10 years where possible.
The change applied from the exams given in March 2022, and the court said that 72 more aspirants passed under it, for a total of 154, which was a 42% pass rate for that sitting. Two psychometric studies fed the decision. One found the reválidas valid and reliable, and the other found that the 2020 examinees were not equally prepared compared with earlier years' examinees.
No. Puerto Rico requires applicants to pass the Reválida General, an exam prepared, administered and evaluated by its own Junta Examinadora, and NCBE lists it among non-uniform exam jurisdictions.
Six times in total for the Reválida General and Reválida Notarial, counted from September 1983. An admitted applicant who does not appear does not use up an attempt.
$250 for admission to the Reválida General and $200 for the Reválida Notarial. If you miss an exam you pay again when you apply for a later date.
Over 21, with a degree from an ABA-approved or Court-approved law school, good reputation, and a passing grade on the Reválida General.
The separate exam for practicing as a notary. You must already be admitted and sworn in as a lawyer in Puerto Rico and have completed the required notarial, succession, mortgage, family and contracts credits.
No. The current rules set no time limit for taking and passing the Reválida Notarial after you pass the Reválida General.
Only after validating the studies and earning a degree from a law school approved by the ABA and by the Court, and filing evidence of it with your exam application.
Yes. The duty to update is continuing, and it lasts until you take the lawyer's oath, so file any relevant change through the electronic system.
45%: the Junta Examinadora reported that 150 of 337 aspirants passed the general-law reválida given in March 2026.
569 adjusted points on the general-law reválida. The Supreme Court lowered it from 596 in June 2022, effective for the March 2022 exams.
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Source: NCBE Comprehensive Guide: Puerto Rico ↗ · reviewed August 21, 2026.