Bar Exam Results 2026: Release Dates by State
When July 2026 bar exam results come out in NY, CA, TX, FL and other large states, how they are posted, UBE transfers, and what to do if you did not pass.
July 2026 bar exam results come out between mid-September and mid-November, depending on your jurisdiction. The earliest large states are North Carolina (about five weeks after the exam, so early September), Florida and Georgia (both pointing at Friday, September 18, 2026). New York has historically released in the last week of October, Ohio has announced October 23, 2026, and California has announced November 6, 2026. Results are posted to your applicant portal first; most boards publish a public pass list the same day or shortly after.
The table below covers the twelve largest jurisdictions. Where a board has published an official date, it is marked as announced. Where it has not, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | Approximately five weeks after the exam (early September) | Board policy, no fixed date | Applicant secure portal (ncble.org) |
| Florida | Friday, September 18, 2026 | Announced | Applicant portal; Supreme Court of Florida posts results for 30 days |
| Georgia | September 18, 2026, tentatively; finalized after initial scoring on September 1 | Tentative | Pass list on gabaradmissions.org by 4:00 p.m. on release day |
| Virginia | October 9, 2026 | Announced | Admission Documents tab in the applicant portal; passing names posted on barexam.virginia.gov |
| 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 |
| 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 | Pass list on supremecourt.ohio.gov; score report under "View Status" in your Bar Admissions account |
| New York | Last week of October (July 2025 results posted October 23, 2025) | Historical pattern | 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 | Secure link emailed to your ATLAS account; pass list at ble.texas.gov/pass-list |
| California | November 6, 2026 | Announced | Applicant Portal; pass list posted several days later |
| New Jersey | Mid-November | Historical pattern (no projected date published) | User Home Page on njbarexams.org |
Two cautions. "Announced" dates can still move; Georgia says outright it will finalize its date only after initial scoring. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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, which NCBE currently counts at 33. 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, 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.
The bottom line
If you sat in July 2026, your result lands between early September and mid-November: Florida and Georgia on September 18, Virginia 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.
