NextGen Bar Exam States

You probably noticed the trend already, but many of the US states are ditching the traditional state-specific bar exam and the  Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) for the NCBE’s new ‘NextGen Bar Exam.’

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The UBE

The UBE saw the bar examiners shifting away from state-specific exams towards national standardization. Rather than each state developing their own questions, a single test was applied across all participating states to promote conformity. The states still varied in many ways: choosing their own passing scores, implementing additional exam requirements, and controlling the standards for accepting transferred scores from other states.

The UBE built on the similarities between state exams and included the standard MBE, MEE, and MPT formatted portions, administered over two (2) days and four (4) sessions.

• MBE (50%)
• MEE (30%)
• MPT (20%)

Examinees were graded out of 400 possible points with most scores falling between 270 and 260. To transfer UBE scores, the examinee had to take the entire exam in a single testing period in a current UBE state.

Score	% Equivalent
260	65%
264	66%
266	66.5%
270	67.5%
272	68%
273	68.25%
276	69%
280	70%

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The NextGen Bar Exam

The NextGen Bar exam will launch in July 2026 in the states of Oregon, Missouri, Maryland, and Connecticut as of March 2024 though more states are expected to adopt the exam in the interim. You can find the most up to date list of participating jurisdictions on the NCBEX website. The UBE Exam will no longer be administered after February 2028; the only option will be the NextGen exam.

The exam is designed to test a combination of legal skills and fundamental legal concepts and principles.

Legal Skills	– Legal Research – Legal Writing – Issue Spotting & Analysis – Investigation & Evaluation – Client Counseling – Advising, Negotiations, and Alternative Dispute Resolution – Client Relationship & Management
Legal Concepts & Principles	– Civil Procedure – Contract Law – Evidence – Torts – Business Associations – Constitutional Law – Criminal Law – Real Property – Family Law (starting July 2028)

Each state will administer and grade the NextGen exam individually; though the NCBE will supply the technology and platforms necessary to handing the grading.

The Exam will take approximately two days and includes two (2) separate three-hour sessions on the first day with one (1) three-hour session on the second day. The new exam is now three hours shorter than before with a total of nine hours rather than the current twelve. As with the UBE, states can still administer state-specific exams in addition to the NextGen exam; it is possible these will be added to the second portion of the final day.

It appears that the essay portion of the bar exam is being removed in favor of short-answer alternatives. There are three general types of questions to be added to the test:

Question Type	Time Allocated	Notes
Multiple-Choice	~ 40%	Multiple choice or multiple select questions with 4-6 possible answers. These are initially designed to be similar to the MBE questions but the variet of question types will begin to increase.
Integrated Questions	~ 25%	Integrated questions include a common fact scenario (potentially with various legal tools or additional documents) followed by a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. It appears to be combining (to some extent) the MBE + MEE + MPT
Performance Tasks	~ 35%	Three performance tasks similar to the current MPT requiring the examinees to use legal skills in realistic scenarios and to handling tasks new lawyers would be expected to be able to handle. One question will include several multiple choice questions and short answered followed by a longer assignment. This will include areas of law not covered in the previous portions or in the list of ‘fundamental concepts and principles’ (e.g., Intellectual Property)

Examinees will bring their own laptops to a secure testing location where proctors will administer the test. The NCBE has announced that it will no longer be using ExamSoft, which has historically been fraught with issues; instead they will be using Surpass Assessment (Source). It is unclear to what extent examinees will be allowed to select a written version of the exam outside of testing accommodations.

While the states transition between the UBE and the NextGen exam, the states accepting the UBE will begin to accept scores from either exam.

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