Easiest Bar Exam: Which State Bar Should You Take If You Just Want to Pass and Get It Over With?

All right, so you just want to pass the easiest bar exam in the easiest state and get it over with.

No honor, no warrior spirit, or any of that shit—just gimme the bar card! This is especially true if you plan to practice in a state that accepts UBE scores (or MBE scores). You may be able to transfer your UBE score from an “easier” state.

You also want to avoid the hardest bar exams, naturally. Why waste a good six months torturing yourself again just because you missed a few points?

No judgment from me. You’re here to move on with your life and forget I ever existed. That’s cool.

So what are we going to look at to figure out the easiest bar exams to pass?

• Recent pass rates by state
• Minimum passing UBE scores
• Number of applicants by state
• Score portability and transferability
• The verdict – a shortlist of three states to consider, and states to avoid

Bar exam pass rates by state

I looked at the 2019 pass rates in each of the 50 states (excluding Puerto Rico, Guam, Palau, etc.) and sorted them from highest to lowest. The pass rate gives you a ROUGH indication of how difficult the exam might be in that state going forward.

I say ROUGH because pass rate percentages have no bearing on YOUR OWN chances of passing. Maybe the grading is more forgiving. Maybe the students are better. Maybe there aren’t enough applicants to give you a precise number.

If you succeed, you succeed. It’s still up to you to know how to use and apply the material.

That said, pass rates are the lowest-hanging fruit and one of the first factors to consider if you just wanna fuckin’ pass. Also, by now (2023 March as of this edit), this data is outdated. The assumption is that pass rates haven’t changed much and that trends apply across the board.

I sorted data in July and then February and the full year combined, sorted by the highest pass rates by state first.

July first because it feels most representative of the exam with more people taking it and fewer repeaters taking it (scroll right to see the other columns):

The below table shows the composite pass rates based on the number of bar takers who passed relative to total takers in February and July:

Based on pass rates alone, we might narrow the list down to these four states that rank highest in pass rates:

• Kansas (UBE)
• Montana (UBE)
• Utah (UBE)
• South Dakota

Of the four, Kansas is at the top every time.

The above is true whether you look at July alone, February alone, or both together. We ARE in Kansas now, baby. Let’s look at some other factors, too.

Minimum passing UBE (Uniform Bar Exam) scores

You still want to make it easier to score high enough to pass. The lower the score requirement, the better, assuming grading is as lenient across the board.

This is simple to compare for UBE states. Below are the UBE bar exam passing scores by state:

Passing UBE Score	Jurisdiction
260	Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota
264	Oklahoma
266	Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Virgin Islands
270	Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming
272	Idaho, Pennsylvania
273	Arizona

Kansas from the earlier list needs 266 points out of 400 to pass. So does Montana. Utah requires 270 to pass.

Do you want to consider the states that only need 260 points, the lowest pass score? (Alabama, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota)

Let’s refer back to our composite table above and pull out these states and their total pass rates:

Alabama	52%
Minnesota	70%
Missouri	73%
New Mexico	68%
North Dakota	66%

Btw, why are we even comparing these pass rates when the UBE is uniform? It’s all the same test, right? Right, but the leniency of graders may be different.

To that end, from the above five states, we find that Missouri has the highest composite pass rate at 73%. That’s among the top 10 states in terms of highest pass rate—not bad!

This means Missouri has a low cut score and a high pass rate (that is, probably easier grading). So let’s keep Kansas, Montana, and Missouri in mind as we continue.

Note that these are all UBE states and that most of these pass rates are similar. So you can also consider balancing the differences of a few percentage points with ease of travel from where you live, how familiar you are with the state, transferability and portability (see below), and any preference you have about where you’d want to practice after you pass.

Number of applicants in each state

Statistically, the lower the sample size, the less precise the data derived becomes, with a higher margin of error.

To illustrate, if we look at a hypothetical jurisdiction with 10 applicants with 3 of them failing one year, how precise is the 70% pass rate? What if there were 5 applicants with 2 failing (60%)? Compare that 100 applicants with 25 failing (75%). All similar percentages—but we’re most confident with the last one.

That’s why I want to consider the number of applicants to see how much weight to give to the pass rates. On the other hand, I’d conjecture that the fewer applicants there are, the laxer the state bar would be in administering the exam (e.g., faster results, more lenient grading).

Luckily, all the states we’ve picked out above have at least 100 applicants per year. Moreover, they all have fewer than 1,000 applicants a year.

So the states we’ve picked out so far (Kansas, Montana, Missouri) all have decent pass rates at decent confidence levels. These states also likely offer a relatively lenient and simple administration of the exam.

UBE score transfer and portability

First off, the NCBE allows you to transfer your score to other UBE jurisdictions…even if you didn’t pass in the state you took it in!

The NCBE says:

• “Examinees who take the UBE earn a portable score that can be transferred to seek admission in other UBE jurisdictions.”

• “UBE jurisdictions will accept transferred scores that meet their own passing standards whether or not the score met the passing standard in the testing jurisdiction, assuming all other admission requirements of the jurisdiction are met.”

In other words, you can apply for admission in any UBE state as long as the score you got is high enough for your target state (see the passing UBE score table above). This includes Texas, which adopted the UBE in 2021 and requires a passing score of 270.

Since our shortlist of Kansas, Montana, and Missouri are all UBE states, you’d be able to take the bar in any of these states and transfer your score to another UBE jurisdiction (including Texas assuming the score hasn’t expired).

If you pass in Kansas or Montana (which are 266 jurisdictions), you’d be able to practice in at least 15 other jurisdictions that need a score of 266 or below. More if your score is high enough. Talk about flexibility!

You’d also be able to transfer your MBE score to a jurisdiction that accepts transferred MBE scores:

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• District of Columbia
• Florida (non-UBE)
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana (non-UBE)
• Kansas
• Kentucky (non-UBE)
• Michigan (non-UBE)
• Minnesota
• Mississippi (non-UBE)
• Missouri
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota (non-UBE)
• Virginia (non-UBE)
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin (non-UBE)

So which state bar is the easiest to pass these days (even in 2023 and beyond)?

Based on the above, here’s a shortlist of three states to consider which have the easiest bar exams: Kansas, Missouri, Montana.

Going purely by recent pass rate data, the winner is Kansas. Missouri is another contender because of its relatively high pass rate and lowest minimum UBE score of 260. Also consider Montana for its low minimum passing UBE score of 266 and high pass rate.

Interestingly, “Passachusetts” (nickname for Massachusetts because it was considered easy) doesn’t qualify as the easiest bar exam here—at least according to recent data. It has a 65% total pass rate and a 270 minimum UBE score. Not the hardest but nowhere near the easiest.

Caveats and things to be aware of

The biggest pain may be getting fingerprinted as an out-of-state resident, but you can’t avoid this with any of the jurisdictions. Also, there’s a fee for the admission process (called admission without examination or admission on motion), which can cost you around $1,000-2,500 (for example, it’s $1,250 for Kansas, $2,500 for Montana, and $1,240 for Missouri).

Another caveat is that some of these states do not have reciprocity agreements with some states, including some UBE states. Kansas, for example, “does not have a reciprocal agreement with California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.”

But at the end of the day, the scores you earn in any of these states are portable to many other jurisdictions.

Even if you don’t earn a score high enough to transfer to your desired state, at least you will have passed the bar and be able to do law somewhere! That’s what you’re looking for, right?

So if you plan to practice in a UBE state (or even one of the non-UBE states listed above), look into Kansas, Montana, and Missouri for a relatively easy experience. But make sure that the state you eventually want to practice in will take your score from one of these states.

Which bar exam is the hardest?

My answer is two-fold. Part 1 of this answer:

California is likely the hardest bar exam.

Since I’m biased and Californians think the world revolves around them, I have to default to California.

There are reasons why California has a low pass rate, such as its deluge of unaccredited law schools, overpopulation leading to ruthless culling of fresh admissions to the bar (can you guys please leave so that they stop jacking up my rent), and people not finding MTYLT (the website you’re on) soon enough.

Regardless of the reasons, California boasts some of the lowest pass rates. For example, California had the lowest composite pass rate of 43% in 2019 (31% in February, 50% in July). It has five one-hour-long essays. The essay grading is notoriously inconsistent and tough. Having thousands of people taking the California Bar Exam means you’ll be crammed in large, crowded spaces, making logistics another challenge.

In addition, even if you pass the California Bar Exam, your pass status is NOT transferrable to any other state, nor does California take other jurisdictions, making the fruits of your endeavor limited to within California. No one else will know your struggle.

Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to be in California, it would behoove you to avoid taking the California Bar Exam on purpose. Some of my readers wanted to move to California to be with their fiancée or expand a practice to California. Sure, if you’re one of those people who can find happiness here, go ahead by all means.

If you’re already a practicing lawyer in another U.S. state, you can take the California Attorneys’ Examination, which is only one day and consists of five essays and a performance test (PT). Read this post to see if you should take the Attorney’s Exam or the full two-day General Bar Exam.

Part 2 of this answer:

All bar exams are difficult, but there are states to avoid if you can help it.

The bar exam is a professional licensing exam, so by its very nature, it isn’t a breeze in the park.

If we take a look at the tables again, there are other states with low passage rates with unique grading systems and non-transferable scores… Florida, Georgia, Nevada to name a few. Like with California, no need to go out of your way to take these exams unless you have a reason to.

If you want more flexibility and a more reasonable likelihood of passing, consider the “easiest” bar exams we discussed above.

Where are you going to take your bar exam? Leave a comment below if people still do that these days 👇🏻 (I usually get emails about this article)