NextGen Bar Exam

From the National Conference of Bar Examiners – Set to debut in a limited number of US jurisdictions in July 2026, the NextGen bar exam will test a broad range of foundational lawyering skills, utilizing a focused set of clearly identified fundamental legal concepts and principles needed in today’s practice of law. Designed to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice, the exam will reflect many of the key changes that law schools are making today, building on the successes of clinical legal education programs, alternative dispute resolution programs, and legal writing and analysis programs.

The NextGen bar exam will be administered over one and a half days, with two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two. Jurisdictions that administer their own local law components may elect to extend day two for that purpose. Each three-hour session will include:

• 40 standalone multiple-choice questions;
Approximately 40% of the exam time will be devoted to stand-alone multiple-choice questions with between four and six answer options and one or more correct answers. Initially, many of these questions will closely resemble Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) questions; this will ensure stability between scores for the current and NextGen bar exams.
Sample Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

• Two Integrated Question Sets; and
Each of these sets is based on a common fact scenario and may include some legal resources (e.g., excerpts of statutes or judicial opinions) and/or supplemental documents (e.g., a police report or excerpt from a deposition) and include a mixture of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. In addition to testing doctrinal law, some integrated question sets will be focused on drafting or editing a legal document; other sets will be focused on counseling and/or dispute resolution.
Sample Integrated Question Set (IQS)

• One Performance Task.
These tasks, like current Multistate Performance Test (MPT) questions, will require examinees to demonstrate their ability to use fundamental lawyering skills in realistic situations, completing tasks that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish. These tasks may feature areas of doctrinal law, with accompanying legal resources, not included in the Foundational Concepts and Principles. These areas of doctrinal law might include, for example, Trusts and Estates, Intellectual Property, or Administrative Law. One of the longer performance tasks will include several multiple-choice questions and short constructed response questions focused on research skills, followed by a longer writing assignment.
Sample Performance Task (PT)

The NextGen Exam will be offered completely online and will be taken on examinees’ own laptops at in-person, proctored testing locations. As with the current Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), examinees may transfer their NextGen bar exam scores between jurisdictions that participate in the UBE portability program.

States can elect to adopt the NextGen Bar Exam beginning with the July 2026 administration. The last administration of the current Uniform Bar Exam will be February 2028, which means that all jurisdictions must either adopt the NextGen or build their own exam by July 2028. As of Fall 2024, approximately 25 jurisdictions have adopted the NextGen Bar Exam.

For the most up-to-date jurisdiction adoptions, please visit the National Council of Bar Examiners’ Website HERE

For detailed information on your jurisdiction, visit the website of its board of law examiners or supreme court.

The subjects listed below will be covered as foundational concepts in all question types on the NextGen Bar Exam. For specific coverage of each subject, refer to the NextGen Content Scope Outline.

• Civil Procedure
• Contract Law
• Evidence
• Torts
• Business Associations
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law
• Real Property
• Family Law*

*In October 2023, NCBE announced that Family Law would be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles starting with the July 2028 NextGen bar exam.

•Legal Research
• Legal Writing
• Issue Spotting and Analysis
• Investigation and Evaluation
• Client Counseling and Advising
• Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
• Client Relationship and ManagementFor more information on skills and how they will be tested, refer to the NextGen Content Scope Outline.

More information coming Fall 2024