The Colorado Supreme Court Reduces its UBE Bar Exam’s Passing Score of 276 to 270 Effective For the February 2023 Bar Exam
The Colorado Supreme Court announced that starting in 2023, the minimum passing score on the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) required for admission to practice law in Colorado shall be lowered from 276 to 270. This change is prospective and shall become applicable to candidates for admission beginning with the February 2023 administration of the UBE as well as to candidates who seek to transfer their scores to Colorado from the February 2023 administration of the UBE in other jurisdictions.
Colorado’s current cut score of 276 was first instituted in 1985, at a time when Colorado administered its own bar examination. According to the Colorado, it cut score had become an anomaly; it was currently the second-highest cut score in the nation among the 41 UBE jurisdictions. Only Alaska uses a higher cut score (280), and only four other UBE jurisdictions use cut scores above 270 (Alaska (280), Arizona (273), Idaho (272) and Pennsylvania (272)).
Five states have since lowered their cut scores after initial adoption. In 2016, Montana lowered its score from 270 to 266. In 2017, Idaho lowered its score from 280 to 272. In 2020, Maine lowered its score from 276 to 270. In 2021, Rhode Island did the same. Oregon lowered its score twice: in 2018, it lowered the score from 284 to 274, and last year, it lowered the score a second time to 270. The net result of these changes is that Colorado remains virtually alone in maintaining its unusually high cut score.
Although the 41 UBE jurisdictions have cut scores ranging from 260 to 280, the largest cluster of jurisdictions have settled at 270. These sixteen jurisdictions include the neighbor states of Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as other western states such as Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
Colorado has joined the sixteen other UBE jurisdictions that have adopted a cut score of 270.
This new cut score is great news for repeat takers. Bar Professors works with repeat takers to give them an opportunity to change their methodology and pass the bar exam. If you have failed the bar exam we will help you. We have developed our virtual programs for all students who will take the February or July bar exam. We are a one-on-one tutoring program that is remotely based, by telephone, by facetime, by Skype, by Zoom. We can help all repeat takers pass the bar exam.
