Bar Exam Results 2026: Release Dates by State

July 2026 bar exam results have started coming out: nine jurisdictions, including North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and West Virginia, have already released, and the remaining jurisdictions post between mid-September and mid-November. Colorado releases to examinees on September 17, Florida and Georgia on Friday, September 18, Minnesota and Missouri on October 2, Virginia and Washington on October 9, Ohio on October 23, and California on November 6. New York, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey have not announced a date and are running on their usual autumn patterns. Results are posted to your applicant portal first; most boards publish a public pass list the same day or shortly after.

What has been released so far (as of September 5, 2026)

NCBE's bar exam results by jurisdiction table (updated September 4, 2026) lists nine jurisdictions with July 2026 results out: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The four we track in detail, per the boards' own sites:

• West Virginia released August 28, 2026. The Board of Law Examiners posted an unofficial pass/fail list by seat number on courtswv.gov and mailed official score notices; NCBE lists a 62% overall pass rate.
• Arkansas released August 31, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. The pass list is on arcourts.gov; NCBE lists a 65% overall pass rate.
• Wisconsin released September 1, 2026, a day ahead of the Board's tentative September 2 date. This was Wisconsin's first Uniform Bar Examination, and NCBE lists a 53% overall pass rate against a 260 passing score.
• North Carolina released September 2, 2026, in line with the Board's five-week policy. Results were posted to applicants' secure portal accounts; NCBE lists a 76% overall pass rate.

Every other jurisdiction in the table below is still pending. The next releases are Colorado on September 17 and Florida and Georgia on September 18.

The table below covers the largest jurisdictions plus every other state whose board had posted a July 2026 date when we last checked, in order of release. Where a board has published an official date, it is marked as announced; where results are out, the row says so. Where a board has not announced, the row gives the historical window and the site to watch, because no board guarantees a date until it posts one.

July 2026 bar exam results by state

Jurisdiction	July 2026 release	Status	Where results appear
Wisconsin	Released September 1, 2026	Released; 53% overall pass rate per NCBE's jurisdiction table	Email notice, then the electronic application account (wicourts.gov)
North Carolina	Released September 2, 2026	Released; 76% overall pass rate per NCBE's jurisdiction table	Applicant secure portal (ncble.org)
Colorado	September 17, 2026 (released to examinees only); pass list September 24	Announced on the Important Bar Exam Dates page (coloradolegalregulation.com); answer packets for unsuccessful examinees October 1, swearing-in October 19	Examinee notification first, then the public pass list
Florida	Friday, September 18, 2026	Announced (floridabarexam.org: "scheduled to be released on Friday, September 18, 2026")	Applicant portal; Supreme Court of Florida posts results for 30 days
Georgia	Friday, September 18, 2026	Announced (gabaradmissions.org: "We plan to release scores on Friday, September 18, 2026")	Email, likely before noon, when results post to your homepage; full pass list on gabaradmissions.org around noon
Minnesota	October 2, 2026	Announced (ble.mn.gov, July 2026 Exam page)	Minnesota State Board of Law Examiners, ble.mn.gov
Missouri	October 2, 2026	Announced (mble.org): notices to applicant homepages in the morning, names of successful candidates after 1:00 p.m.; enrollment ceremony October 16	Applicant user homepage, then the Announcements section on mble.org
Virginia	October 9, 2026	Announced on barexam.virginia.gov	Applicant portal notification; passing names posted on barexam.virginia.gov
Washington	October 9, 2026, for both the July exam and the September 1-2 make-up exam	Announced (admissions.wsba.org July 2026 update). Network problems at the Yakima test site led WSBA to cancel the July exam; a make-up exam was scheduled for September 1-2 at UW Tacoma, and applicants who could not complete the July exam and had no prior bar exam failures were offered a waiver of the exam requirement by court order	Applicant user home page; new-admittee process also starts October 9
Illinois	First half of October (July 2025 results came out October 1, 2025)	Historical pattern	Check ilbaradmissions.org
Pennsylvania	Mid-October (July 2025 results released October 10, 2025)	Board states "mid-October"	Press-release pass list, then detailed results in the Online Bar Application account
Oregon	By October 16, 2026, "or earlier if possible"	Anticipated, per Oregon State Bar Admissions (osbar.org/admissions)	Oregon State Bar Admissions
Michigan	Mid-to-late October (July 2025 results released October 17, 2025)	Historical pattern	Mailed letter; results posted by seat number on the Board of Law Examiners site the same day
Ohio	October 23, 2026, 8 a.m.	Announced (1,028 registered, 829 first-time takers, per the Supreme Court of Ohio)	Pass list on supremecourt.ohio.gov; result letter and score report in your Bar Admissions Portal account
New York	Last week of October (July 2025 results posted October 23, 2025)	Historical pattern; no date posted on nybarexam.org as of September 5	Candidate BOLE account in the Applicant Services Portal; public pass list the next day
Texas	Late October to early November (July 2025 results arrived in time for a November 3, 2025 induction)	Historical pattern; no date posted on ble.texas.gov as of September 5	Secure link emailed to your ATLAS account; pass list at ble.texas.gov/pass-list
California	November 6, 2026	Announced (calbar.ca.gov); time of day to be announced	Applicant Portal; pass list posted several days later
New Jersey	Mid-November	Historical pattern; the Board's FAQ says it does not set a date and July results have historically come in mid-November	User Home Page on njbarexams.org

Two cautions. "Announced" dates can still move; Georgia phrases its date as a plan, and Wisconsin released a day before its tentative date. And historical patterns are only patterns: the exam fell on July 28-29 this year, a day earlier than 2025, so last year's weekday may shift.

How results are actually released

Almost every board follows the same sequence.

1. Your portal updates first. New York posts to your BOLE account, California to the Applicant Portal, Ohio to your Bar Admissions account, Virginia under the Admission Documents tab. Texas emails a secure link tied to your ATLAS account. Michigan is the outlier among the large states and still mails a paper letter, posting results by seat number online the same day the letters go out.
2. The public pass list follows. New York published its July 2025 list the morning after candidate results; California posts its list several days after portal release; Georgia and Ohio post the list at a stated hour on release day. Pass lists show names of passers only, so an absent name is not the same as a fail: applicants with pending character and fitness, MPRE, or law school certification issues are often withheld from the list even if they passed.
3. Score reports and statistics come last. Component breakdowns sit in the portal with your result; jurisdiction-wide pass rates usually follow in a press release within a week.

No board gives results by phone, and Virginia and Michigan explicitly ask examinees, families, and employers not to call. Make sure the address and email on file are current now.

UBE score transfers after results

If you sat the Uniform Bar Examination, your score is portable to the other UBE jurisdictions. A few rules matter for anyone planning to transfer:

• Your score only exists once your testing jurisdiction releases it. NCBE will not place a score on a transcript until the testing jurisdiction has announced results and authorized release. You cannot pre-order a transfer to get an early look.
• Transcripts cost $30 each through NCBE Score Services, payable online, and requests are ordinarily processed the next business day after payment. Refunds are not given for any reason.
• The receiving jurisdiction's passing score controls. A UBE jurisdiction accepts a transferred score that meets its own cut score, whether or not it met the standard where you sat. The reverse is also true: a pass in a 266 state does not transfer into a 270 state.
• Score age is set per jurisdiction. Each UBE state decides how old a transferred score may be, so check the receiving board's rule before assuming a score earned this July stays usable for a later move.
• Character and fitness does not transfer. You go through it again in every jurisdiction where you seek admission.

One transition note: July 2026 was the first administration in which some jurisdictions gave the NextGen UBE while most, including New York and Illinois, still gave the legacy UBE. New York has said it will not accept NextGen transfer scores from administrations before July 2028. If you are transferring between a legacy and a NextGen state, confirm the receiving board's policy before paying for a transcript.

If you did not pass

A failing result leaves a tight but workable runway. Under NCBE's schedule, the February 2027 UBE is scheduled for February 23-24, 2027, roughly fifteen to twenty-two weeks after most large states release. Three practical points:

• Application deadlines arrive fast. Several boards open February registration before July results are out, and late-filing windows close in autumn with escalating fees. Check your board's deadline page the day you get results, not the following week.
• Read the score report before changing anything. Most portals give a component breakdown. A candidate a few points short with a strong written score and a weak MBE needs a very different plan than the reverse. Decide what to fix from the numbers, not from how the exam felt in July.
• Check whether your jurisdiction is switching to NextGen in February 2027. Between July 2026 and July 2028 most jurisdictions move from the legacy UBE to the NextGen UBE. If yours switches next administration, your outline and practice materials change with it. NCBE's NextGen decisions page lists each jurisdiction's first NextGen date.

The retake is usually a shorter, more targeted block than the first attempt, because you already have complete outlines. Working professionals rarely can repeat a full-time summer program in winter, so compress: load your own outlines, essay feedback, and subject notes into a workspace where you can generate practice exams on the subjects your score report flagged, and use the study schedule generator to fit the plan around a job. The guide to studying for the bar exam with AI walks through how to set that up from source materials rather than starting from a blank outline.

How to use the waiting period

Most July takers have a job, a clerkship, or a start date, and the weeks before results are easy to waste on forum refreshing. A few things are worth doing now, whichever way the result goes:

• Finish the non-exam admission requirements. If your MPRE score, character and fitness application, or state-specific component (Michigan's Law Component, for example) is still outstanding, you will receive only an unofficial result and stay off the pass list until it is resolved. North Carolina issues licenses about four weeks after results to applicants who have everything else complete; clearing the paperwork now is the difference between being sworn in this autumn and waiting into the new year.
• Confirm how your employer handles both outcomes. Many firms and agencies have written policies on retake leave and conditional start dates; know them before release day.
• Keep your materials organized, not active. Do not study, but keep your outlines, practice essays, and score-tracking sheet where you can find them. If you pass, some will be useful in practice; if you do not, you want a day-one starting point. Turning those files into notes and summaries preserves the work without touching it until you need it.

If the result means a February retake, our comparison of the best AI tools for certification exam prep is a good place to choose a study setup. Tracking a different licensure exam? Our guide to how long FE and PE results take covers the NCEES timeline.

The bottom line

If you sat in July 2026, your result lands between late August and mid-November: North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas, West Virginia, and five smaller jurisdictions are already out; Colorado follows on September 17, Florida and Georgia on September 18, Virginia and Washington on October 9, Ohio on October 23, California on November 6, and the other large states on their usual autumn patterns unless the board announces otherwise. Results hit your portal first, the pass list second. Use the wait to clear every non-exam admission requirement, so whichever letter you get, the next step is already obvious.