You can take the bar exam in Texas up to five times. The cap comes from Rule 11(f) of the Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Texas, and the same rule lets the Texas Board of Law Examiners waive that limit for good cause.1Texas Board of Law Examiners. Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Texas After five, you cannot register again unless the Board grants a waiver on a petition you file.
The rule itself is short: “An Applicant may take no more than five (5) examinations. However, for good cause shown, the Board at its discretion may waive this limitation upon such conditions as the Board may prescribe.”1Texas Board of Law Examiners. Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Texas Two things to notice. The number is a hard ceiling absent Board action. And any waiver can come with conditions attached.
What Counts as an Attempt
An attempt starts the moment you sit for any part of the exam. If you walk in on Day 1, write for a few hours, and leave at lunch without ever returning for Day 2, that still burns one of your five chances. It makes no difference whether you got through the Multistate Essay Examination, the Multistate Performance Test, or the Multistate Bar Examination. Showing up and beginning any component is enough.
Registering and then withdrawing before the exam begins is a different matter. The count is tied to sitting, not to applying. If you know you are not ready, pulling out before test day protects an attempt.
When You Can Retake and What It Costs
Texas offers the bar exam twice a year, in February and July.2Texas Board of Law Examiners. Examination Dates The soonest you can retake after a failed attempt is roughly six months later. Nothing in the rules forces you to sit for the very next administration, so skipping a cycle to study longer is allowed and does not count against your five.
As of early 2026, the re-examination fee for repeat takers is $545, plus a $140 laptop fee if you type your answers.3NCBE. Uniform Bar Examination Jurisdictions – Bar Examination Information Chart Starting with the July 2026 administration, application fees are rising by $150 and re-application fees are rising by an additional $75 on top of that.4Texas Board of Law Examiners. Texas Board of Law Examiners – Home Across multiple sittings, re-examination fees alone can run past $3,000 before you add laptop fees, bar review, and the cost of taking time away from work to study.
The passing score is 270 out of 400 on the Uniform Bar Examination.5NCBE. Texas Bar Exam – 2023 Standard-Setting Study If you are retaking, request your score breakdown from the TBLE before planning your prep. The three components (essays, performance tests, and multiple choice) are weighted and reported separately, and knowing where you lost points shapes the study plan.6Texas Board of Law Examiners. Scoring and Weighting the Texas Bar Exam (UBE)
Petitioning for a Sixth Attempt
Once you have used all five attempts, the only route to sit again is a formal waiver petition. The TBLE provides a form titled “Request for Waiver of Five-Time Limitation.” You file it electronically through the Board’s ATLAS account system with the required filing fee, and you submit a completed application or re-application for the next scheduled exam at the same time. The Board will hold that application and will not process it unless and until the waiver is granted.
Rule 11(f) does not spell out what counts as good cause.1Texas Board of Law Examiners. Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Texas In practice, a persuasive petition shows two things. First, something concrete interfered with your ability to pass on your earlier attempts. Second, your circumstances have materially changed since then.
For the first, the Board wants documented hardship: a serious medical condition affecting you or an immediate family member around the time of an exam, a personal crisis that disrupted your preparation, or a comparable situation that connects directly to specific exam performances. General statements about stress or workload do not usually carry weight. Supporting materials matter here, including medical records, treatment histories, and sworn statements from people with firsthand knowledge.
For the second, you need evidence that your legal knowledge has substantially improved. Completing another bar review course, enrolling in targeted skills workshops, or pursuing further legal study all help. The clearer the link between the weaknesses in your past exams and what you have done to fix them, the stronger the petition.
What the Board Weighs
The Board has full discretion, and nothing about a waiver is automatic. Several things tend to shape the decision:
- Your score trajectory. Five scores clustered near 270 and trending upward reads very differently from five scores well below passing. A personal best on your most recent attempt helps.
- The credibility of the hardship. A documented medical emergency tied to a specific administration is more persuasive than a long stretch of generalized difficulty.
- Evidence of a diagnostic approach to improvement. Signing up for another prep course is a start; working with a tutor on essay technique because essays were your weakness is stronger.
- Compliance with any conditions the Board set during earlier attempts.
The Board can also attach new conditions to a waiver, such as requiring a specific course before you sit again. A waiver is not simply permission to register. It is a set of expectations the Board will hold you to.
Transferring a UBE Score Instead
Because Texas uses the Uniform Bar Examination, a passing UBE score earned in another jurisdiction can be transferred to Texas without sitting here again, and a transfer does not count as one of your five Texas attempts. If you scored 270 or above on the UBE elsewhere, Texas will accept it. This matters if you took the exam in a state with a higher cut score, passed Texas’s threshold, but fell short of the receiving state’s. UBE scores stay valid for a limited time, and each jurisdiction sets its own acceptance window, so confirm the current rules with the TBLE before relying on this route.