The MPRE: The Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (“MPRE”) is an ethics based exam that is required to be passed for a bar applicant to be able to practice law in the United States. It is administered by the  ACT, Inc., with full endorsement of the  National Conference of Bar Examiners (“NCBE”). The MPRE tests the standards and rules of professional responsibility and an outline can be found on the NCBE website with sample questions added in MPRE Outline.

Every jurisdiction except Maryland and Wisconsin require the MPRE ethics exam to be passed. The purpose of the exam is to make certain that the bar applicant understands the basic rules of professional responsibility.  Generally, the MPRE is conducted three times a year (Late March or Early April, August, and November) Please see our Bar Reciprocity Page for states that require a bar applicant pass the MPRE ethics exam for Admission on Motion.

The MPRE ethics exam tests bar applicants on the following rules and regulations:

Schedule and Deadlines (Actual days may vary)

MPRE Test Date Registration Deadline  Late Application Receipt Deadline (Fee Doubles)
March 19-20 Jan. 28 Feb. 4-5
August 13-14 June 23 June 30
November 5 Sep. 15 Sep. 22-23

Also all applications are generally done online.  You will generally be assigned to the closest testing center, however if the center is filled up you will be pointed to the next closets center. Thus, it is important to sign up early. Changing a test center is also difficult to do. Moreover, most of the fees are generally non-refundable. If you miss the MPRE ethics exam or fail it you must reapply and pay the full fee again.

Fees & Additional Score Reports & MPRE Score Transfers

Currently, the fee to register is $95. Failure to register by that deadline means that a bar applicant will have to file for the late deadline which is about $190. The fee allows the bar applicant to take the test and also allows them to send their score to one jurisdiction. The score will be delivered to the jurisdiction within 5 weeks of the test being taken. For additional jurisdictions it will cost $25 per MPRE Unofficial Score Transcript and $50 per MPRE Score Verification. You can access NCBE to do so. In addition, MPRE ethics exam scores must be transferred to a new jurisdiction for any applicants attempting to transfer via Admission on Motion (<-we provide info on how to do so) or UBE transfer through an additional score report.

 

Scoring: The Most Important Thing

Like the Bar Exam  the MPRE ethics exam relies upon a scaled score. The bar applicants raw score (0-50) is how many questions they have answered correctly and then the score is scaled. The score can range anywhere from 50-150 after being scaled.  Also like the Bar Exam each state also has its own minimum passing score required. States generally have a range of 75-86 for minimum scores

Below are the minimum MPRE passing scores for each state:

Alabama (75) Idaho (85) Montana (80) Pennsylvania (75)
Alaska (80) Illinois (80) Nebraska (85) Republic of Palau (75)
Arizona (85) Indiana (80) Nevada (85) Rhode Island (80)
Arkansas (85) Iowa (80) New Hampshire (79) South Carolina (77)
California (86) Kansas (80) New Jersey (75) South Dakota (75)
Colorado (85) Kentucky (75) New Mexico (75) Tennessee (75)
Connecticut (80) Louisiana (80) New York (85) Texas (85)
Delaware (85) Maine (80) North Carolina (80) Utah (86)
District of Columbia (75) Massachusetts (80) North Dakota (85) Vermont (80)
Florida (80) Michigan (85) N. Mariana (75) Virginia (85)
Georgia (75) Minnesota (85) Ohio (85) Virgin Islands (75)
Guam (80) Mississippi (75) Oklahoma (75) West Virginia (75)
Hawaii (85) Missouri (80) Oregon (85) Wyoming (85

For additional information regarding how each state determines their MPRE ethics exam score and how to prepare, select your region from the map below. Then you will select your state on the following page.

ME NY PA VA WV AL GA FL KY TN MS SC NC MN WI MI IL IN OH TX NM OK AR LA NE IA KS MO ND SD MT WY UT CO CA NV AZ AK ID OR WA

 

 

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