Virginia bar exam: Legacy or current exam until July 2028; NextGen afterward.
Choosing a course? See the best bar prep for Virginia and the BARBRI vs. Themis comparison.
| July exam | May 10 |
| February exam | Dec. 15 |
| Fees | First-time $1,150; attorney $1,150; repeater $575 to $1,150; laptop $175 |
| MPRE minimum | 85 |
Dates can change. Check the board’s site before you pay.
Before filing in Virginia, check the current NCBE profile ↗.
| Rule | Va. Sup. Ct. R. 1A:8: Military Spouse Provisional Admission (VBBE program) |
| Accommodation | Provisional membership without exam for the dependent spouse of an active-duty service member stationed in Virginia; MPRE required |
| Duration | Renewed annually by July 31; terminates within 12 months of spouse's discharge/reassignment or dependency ending |
| Supervision | Not required |
| Adopted | 2014 (Rule 1A:8 originally promulgated by order dated May 16, 2014) |
Confirm current status directly with Virginia's bar admission authority ↗: this area of law shifted federally in December 2024 and states are still catching up.
Virginia does not give the UBE. Its current exam has two components: the MBE from NCBE and a Virginia-specific essay exam. For Options 1, 2A and 2B, meaning applicants who sit for the Virginia essay and either sit for the MBE at the same administration or use a prior MBE score, the minimum passing score is a combined weighted total of 140. The Board reaches that total by combining 60% of the Virginia essay scaled score with 40% of the MBE scaled score.
For Option 3, licensed attorneys, the score rests solely on the Virginia essay, and a minimum of 64 raw points out of 100 passes. A passing Virginia score is valid for five years from the exam date. An applicant may take the Virginia exam five times, and the Board has discretion to permit more under the statute, but says permission is not routinely granted and very seldom after a sixth attempt (Va. Code section 54.1-3930).
The deadline for the February exam is December 15 and for the July exam is May 10. There is no late filing deadline, because the filing deadline is set by statute and the Board has no authority to waive or extend it. An application not received in accordance with Va. Code section 54.1-3925 is denied.
Virginia requires an MPRE scaled score of 85 or higher. It can be earned at any time before taking the bar exam or before a passing Virginia score expires, and it must be met before licensing. Within the first year after admission, every new lawyer must complete a professionalism course run by the Virginia State Bar. The MPRE is given in March, August and November.
NCBE will discontinue the MBE after February 2028, and the Board adopted the NextGen UBE, to be administered in Virginia for the first time in July 2028, so that law students, law schools and others have time to adjust. From July 2028 the NextGen UBE will test business associations, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law, evidence, family law, real property and torts, along with lawyering skills such as legal research and writing, issue spotting, client counseling, negotiation and client relationship management.
The NextGen exam is 9 hours long over one and a half days, 6 hours on day one and 3 hours on day two, given in three-hour segments with a lunch break between the two segments on day one. It mixes multiple-choice, short-answer and constructed-response questions, with NCBE scoring what a machine can score and graders scoring the essays and performance tasks.
The Board of Bar Examiners' statistics page gives a first-time and an overall pass rate for every exam, and it does not print head counts. Across the ten exams in the table below, Virginia's overall rate ran from 61.11% in February 2025 to 79.54% in July 2025, and the first-time rate from 67.86% (February 2025) to 84.85% (July 2025).
The two sittings behave differently. Every July overall rate in the table is at least 73.90%, and no February overall rate is above 66.08%. First-time takers also pass more often than everyone combined at every exam listed, by 2.3 to 14.8 points. The page also carries a longer year-by-year list back to 1999, and it reports pass rates by option, which includes the Law Reader Program.
The same page breaks Virginia's eight law schools out for each exam, again as percentages without counts. That matters in February, when a school may send only a handful of graduates: the University of Richmond's 62.50% first-time and 43.75% overall in February 2026 sat next to 90.63% and 84.72% in July 2025.
In July 2025 the University of Virginia's first-time rate was 100.00% and its overall rate 95.00%, and Regent's first-time rate was 97.06%. In February 2026 the first-time rate was 100.00% at Appalachian, George Mason and Liberty and 57.14% at Washington and Lee, and Washington and Lee's overall rate of 60.00% was higher than its first-time rate. Because the Board does not print how many took each exam, do not compare a February percentage to a July one.
No. Virginia gives the MBE plus a Virginia-specific essay exam, and it plans to adopt the NextGen UBE for the first time in July 2028.
A combined weighted total of 140, made of 60% of the Virginia essay scaled score and 40% of the MBE scaled score. A licensed attorney under Option 3 needs 64 raw points out of 100 on the essay alone.
December 15 for the February exam and May 10 for the July exam. The deadline is statutory, there is no late period, and the Board cannot waive it.
Five times. The Board may allow more under Va. Code section 54.1-3930, but says permission is not routinely granted and very seldom after a sixth attempt.
An 85 or higher, earned before the bar exam or before a passing Virginia score expires. It must be met before you can be licensed.
Five years from the date of the exam. Your MPRE requirement can be met at any time before that score expires.
July 2028. NCBE discontinues the MBE after February 2028, which prompted the Board to adopt the NextGen UBE.
9 hours over one and a half days: 6 hours on day one and 3 hours on day two, in three-hour segments with a lunch break on day one.
62.64% overall, and 77.44% for first-time takers, by the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners' statistics page.
By the Board's own rates, yes: among the ten exams from July 2021 to February 2026 every July overall rate was at least 73.90% and no February overall rate was above 66.08%.
Compare other state bar exam guides: Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming · Guam · Northern Mariana Islands
Source: NCBE Comprehensive Guide: Virginia ↗ · reviewed August 21, 2026.