Kansas Bar Exam Information

Dates, Cost & Location

As the geographic center of the United States and the heart of the Great Plains, it should be no surprise that Kansas is home to some of the best lawyers in America. If you want to join them in using your legal education to make a difference, we’re here to help you pass the bar exam!

Like in every other American jurisdiction, Kansas offers the bar exam in February and July. The February exam will take place from February 24–25, 2026. The July exam will take place from July 28–29, 2026. Although the deadline for the February 2026 bar exam has lapsed, you can still apply for the July 2026 exam. The deadline to apply for the July exam is March 1, 2026, with an application fee of $700, but you may apply by the later deadline of April 1 for an additional fee of $200.

Kansas uses the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). This means that if you pass the Kansas Bar Exam, you’ll be able to transfer your score to another jurisdiction that uses the UBE, and you can practice law there if your score meets that state’s requirements. On the first day of the UBE, you’ll answer six thirty-minute Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) essay questions and two ninety-minute Multistate Performance Test (MPT) essay questions. On the second day, you’ll spend another six hours answering two hundred multiple-choice questions for the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE).

In July 2028, Kansas will introduce an updated version of the bar exam called NextGen. The following subjects won’t be tested anymore once NextGen is administered in July 2028: Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Secured Transactions, and Trusts & Estates. NextGen will have new types of questions that look to test your everyday lawyering skills, such as legal research and navigating client relationships.

What subjects will you be tested on?
Although the MEE is worth only 30% of your total score, it covers the widest variety of legal subjects on the exam. Any of the following legal topics may appear on the MEE: Business Associations (including Agency, Partnerships, and Corporations), Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, Contracts and Sales, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Real Property, Secured Transactions (including Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code), Torts, and Wills & Estates. Not all of these subjects will necessarily be tested on exam day, but we recommend studying all of them so you’re fully prepared to pass the bar.

The MPT doesn’t focus on testing your knowledge of substantive law. Instead, your job will be showcasing your legal writing and analysis skills through either a memorandum or a legal brief in response to the question. The relevant laws that apply to the question will be given to you in the prompt.

Most of the MBE subjects overlap with the MEE: Constitutional Law, Contracts and Sales, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Federal Civil Procedure, Real Property, and Torts.

What’s the minimum score for the MPRE?
To pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) in Kansas, you must receive a scaled score of at least 80 within one hundred and eighty days of taking the bar exam.

How is the exam scored?
To pass, you must achieve a combined scaled score of 266 out of 400. The three sections of the exam add up to one scaled score, but the sections are weighed differently. The MPT makes up 20% of your score, and the MEE is worth 30%. The MBE is worth half your score. This doesn’t mean that you’ll fail if you underperform on the MBE. If you don’t get as many points as you can on the MBE, you can still pass the bar if you score highly on the MEE and the MPT. Likewise, if you don’t score very highly on the essays, you can make up enough points on the MBE to pass the bar exam.

When are the results released?
Test takers should expect to receive their results eight to nine weeks after the exam administration, but there’s no guaranteed date for when the scores are released.

Can I transfer my MBE scores from another jurisdiction?
Yes, so long as you’ve taken the UBE.

What about reciprocity across states?
Lawyers who aren’t already licensed in Kansas may apply for admission on motion if they have practiced law for five of the previous seven years, graduated from an ABA-accredited law school, and passed the UBE. They can’t have failed the bar exam in Kansas within five years of applying for reciprocity. Furthermore, they need to be in good standing in their other jurisdiction(s), and they can’t be subject to attorney discipline in another jurisdiction. They can’t have lost their license in another jurisdiction, and they need to meet Kansas’ character and fitness requirements.