Texas bar exam: Legacy or current exam until July 2028; NextGen afterward.
Choosing a course? See the best bar prep for Texas and the BARBRI vs. Themis comparison.
| July exam | Feb. 1, late filing Apr. 1 / May 1 |
| February exam | Sept. 1, late filing Nov. 1 / Dec. 1 |
| Fees | First-time $450 / $640 / $1,290; attorney $1,190 / $1,290; repeater $545; laptop $140 |
| MPRE minimum | 85 |
Dates can change. Check the board’s site before you pay.
Before filing in Texas, check the current NCBE profile ↗.
| Rule | Texas Rules Governing Admission to the Bar, Rule 23: Temporary License for Military Service Member or Military Spouse |
| Accommodation | Temporary license without character-and-fitness exam; must complete the Texas law component and an ethics course within 6 months; State Bar dues apply unless waived |
| Duration | 3-year temporary license; terminates earlier on transfer from the Texas duty station, end of the marriage, or the spouse's service ending |
| Supervision | Not required (a Texas law course and ethics course substitute for supervision) |
| Adopted | 2019 |
Confirm current status directly with Texas's bar admission authority ↗: this area of law shifted federally in December 2024 and states are still catching up.
For the February exam, registration opens June 30 and the timely deadline is September 1. Filing after that costs a $150 late fee through November 1, and a $300 late fee through the final deadline of December 1. For the July exam, registration opens December 4, the timely deadline is February 1, the $150 late period runs to April 1, and the final $300 deadline is May 1. Requests for testing accommodations must come in with the application and no later than the late filing deadline.
Someone still waiting on results from the most recent Texas exam gets a special deadline with no late fee: December 1 for the February exam and June 1 for the July exam. That deadline does not help anyone who withdrew, skipped the exam, or missed a segment. A filing is timely if the Board receives a substantially complete application, the certification, the authorization and release, and every fee by 11:59 p.m. Central on the deadline. Material sent through ATLAS counts as received when it is transmitted, and mail counts on its postmark date.
The minimum passing UBE score in Texas is 270. The Texas Law Component is a separate licensing requirement, satisfied by completing the Texas Law Course, a series of video presentations on Texas law by Texas attorneys. The course costs nothing, but it has to be taken through a TexasBarCLE account.
The MPRE requirement is a scaled score of 85 or higher. Results for the February exam are released in mid-April and results for the July exam in mid-October. After results, a passing candidate must register with the State Bar of Texas, pay bar dues and a licensing fee, and take the oath. If that registration is not completed within five years of grade release, the bar exam results become void. Any person authorized to administer oaths, including a notary public, may swear a new lawyer in, and may do it remotely.
A qualifying UBE score is 270 or higher and was earned within the five years immediately before the application is filed, with no practice-time requirement. The Supreme Court of Texas set that standard in a February 15, 2022 amendment to Rule 13 section 1. A score counts as earned on the last day of the exam administration, and scores more than five years old cannot be transferred. The applicant files with the Board and separately asks NCBE to send the score.
The character and fitness investigation for a transfer can take up to nine months. The Board's fee table for a UBE transfer totals $300 for a Texas law student who filed a Declaration of Intent to Study Law, $490 for an out-of-state law student, $1,040 for an attorney, and $1,140 for a foreign-trained attorney. A re-application for transfer totals $320.
Texas admits some lawyers without an exam. An applicant must be currently authorized to practice in a U.S. state, meet Texas's educational requirements, and have been actively and substantially engaged in the lawful practice of law as a primary business or occupation for at least 5 of the last 7 years. The MPRE score of 85 and the Texas Law Course still apply.
Texas also offers a courtesy seat to a candidate who wants to sit for the Texas exam only to use the score in another UBE jurisdiction. The candidate has to check whether that other jurisdiction accepts a courtesy-seat score. A courtesy-seat filing follows the same deadlines and late fees, and a candidate who wants a Texas license should file the ordinary bar exam application instead. If a candidate does not sit, Texas refunds nothing and cannot move the fee to a later exam (Rule 18).
First-semester students at Texas law schools must file this declaration under Rule 6(b): October 1 for fall entrants, May 1 for regular spring entrants, June 1 for spring entrants at quarter-hour schools such as Baylor, and September 15 for summer entrants. A student who transfers in from an out-of-state school has 60 days from matriculation. Late filing carries a fee, and a late declarant may file at any time before or with the in-state application.
The Texas Board of Law Examiners publishes a results sheet after each exam that splits first-time takers and repeaters by the school they graduated from. For February 2026 it lists 1,000 first-time takers and repeaters, of whom 462 passed, an overall pass rate of 46.20%. The 469 first-timers passed at 59.49% and the 531 repeaters at 34.46%. Twelve more people sat under courtesy seating and are not counted in those figures, because Texas lets people sit solely to earn a UBE score to transfer elsewhere.
Graduates of Texas law schools who took the exam for the first time passed at 71.56% (161 of 225), against 43.70% for out-of-state ABA graduates (52 of 119) and 37.66% for foreign-educated applicants under Rule 13 (29 of 77). Attorneys licensed in another jurisdiction passed at 77.08% (37 of 48).
Source: Texas Board of Law Examiners: February 2026 statistics ↗
July is Texas's big exam. The Board's sheet for July 2025 counts 3,112 first-time takers and repeaters, and 2,341 passed, an overall 75.22%. First-time takers passed at 84.11% (2,138 of 2,542) and repeaters at 35.61% (203 of 570). Courtesy seating added 33 more examinees, counted separately.
Texas law school graduates taking the exam for the first time passed at 90.67% (1,438 of 1,586). SMU's 98.52% (200 of 203) was the highest of the ten Texas schools, and Texas Southern's 66.33% (65 of 98) the lowest. Out-of-state ABA graduates passed at 80.18% (611 of 762), and foreign-educated applicants under Rule 13 at 35.54% (43 of 121). As with the February sheet, the source is an image scan with no text layer, and the figures were read from it by eye on September 23, 2026 and checked for internal consistency.
Source: Texas Board of Law Examiners: July 2025 statistics ↗
The minimum passing UBE score in Texas is 270. That is also the floor for transferring a UBE score into Texas, and the score has to have been earned within five years before you file.
The timely deadline is February 1, with registration opening December 4. Filing through April 1 adds a $150 late fee, and the final deadline of May 1 adds $300.
Yes. A late filing costs $150 and a final-deadline filing costs $300. The one exception is the special filing deadline for applicants awaiting results from the most recent Texas exam: December 1 for February and June 1 for July, with no late fee.
Yes, if it is 270 or higher and was earned within the five years before you file. You also ask NCBE to send the score, finish the Texas Law Course, document an MPRE score of 85, and clear character and fitness, which can take up to nine months.
Yes. The Texas Law Component is satisfied by the Texas Law Course, a free set of video presentations on Texas law, taken through a TexasBarCLE account.
You need a scaled score of 85 or higher. Applicants for admission without examination and applicants transferring a UBE score must document the same score.
Mid-April for the February exam and mid-October for the July exam. After results you register with the State Bar of Texas and pay dues and a licensing fee, and you have five years from grade release to do it before the results void.
No. Rule 18 allows neither a refund nor a transfer of fees to a later exam.
Yes, through admission without examination. You must hold a current license in a U.S. state, meet Texas's educational requirements, and have practiced law as your primary occupation for at least 5 of the last 7 years.
75.22% overall (2,341 of 3,112 first-time takers and repeaters), and 84.11% for first-time takers, according to the Board of Law Examiners.
SMU at 98.52%, with 200 of 203 first-time takers passing, followed by Baylor at 96.59% and the University of Texas at 96.00%.
No. Examinees who sit only to get a UBE score to transfer elsewhere are counted separately: 33 in July 2025 and 12 in February 2026.
Compare other state bar exam guides: Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin
Source: NCBE Comprehensive Guide: Texas ↗ · reviewed August 21, 2026.