Official, target and estimated score release dates explained

The four types of dates

Testing organizations handle score release in very different ways. Some publish a calendar a year ahead. Some publish a rule, such as "within five weeks." Some leave the date to a separate licensing board. Putting all of them in one calendar only works if each date says what kind of date it is, so every date on ScoreCalendar carries one of these labels.

Official dates

An official date is the most certain kind. LSAC publishes a score release date for every LSAT administration, and AAMC publishes one for every MCAT test date. These dates are set well in advance.

Bar exam dates become official once a board announces them. For July 2026, for example, the State Bar of California set its results date as November 6, 2026. You can see every announced bar date in the July 2026 bar results tracker.

Target dates

AICPA calls its CPA Exam dates target dates. Its schedule says the dates "can be subject to change," and a Core section score depends on AICPA receiving your exam data by a deadline. A target date is still the best date to plan around, but it is a plan, not a promise. Our guide on how CPA Core and Discipline dates work shows how to match your exam to its date.

Estimated dates

Many organizations publish a timing rule instead of dates. CFA Institute says results arrive within 5 to 9 weeks after the exam window closes. NCBE says MPRE scores are typically released within five weeks. USMLE says results are typically available within four weeks and advises allowing at least eight.

We turn each rule into a date or window by applying it to the exam date, and we label the result Estimated. The rule itself is official; the date is our arithmetic. Results can come earlier or later than an estimate, which is why the calculators always quote the official wording next to the result.

Awaiting an official date

Some results are expected in a season but have no date yet. This is common with bar exams, where each board announces its own date, sometimes only weeks ahead. Instead of guessing, we list these as awaiting an official date. Where it helps, we add the date from the previous year as reference, clearly labeled as such.

Praxis is a different case. ETS sets a reporting date for each test and test date, and publishes it in its own lookup tool, so the Praxis page points you to that tool instead of listing one date.

When a date becomes "Released"

A date passing does not prove scores came out. We mark a release as Released only when the official source confirms it, for example a board posting its pass list or an organization announcing results. Until then, a past date shows as "Date passed." Every confirmation and every change is recorded in the update log.