NextGen Bar Exam: Everything You Need to Know

By Adam Balinski
Updated: July 10, 2026

Latest updates

7/10/26

NCBE has published new detail on how the NextGen UBE is structured on exam day and how it is scored—see the new “Exam day format” section below. NCBE has also begun publishing jurisdiction-specific minimum passing scores and score-portability decisions for the ten jurisdictions administering the exam this July. Confirmed so far: the Oregon Supreme Court set Oregon’s July 2026 passing score at 615 (rising to 620 for later administrations); Minnesota has not yet set its passing score but will retroactively honor July 2026 scores of 620 or higher once it does; Florida and New York will not accept transferred NextGen scores from any administration before July 2028; and Texas plans to accept July 2026 scores, subject to a policy update. Check NCBE’s Minimum Passing Scores and Decisions by Jurisdiction pages for updates specific to your jurisdiction.

4/3/26

The NextGen UBE debuts this July in ten jurisdictions: Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, the Virgin Islands, and Washington. If you are sitting for the bar in one of these jurisdictions in July 2026, see our NextGen supplements below. More jurisdictions follow in July 2027, and the phased rollout continues through 2028.

Per the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the legacy UBE and its component parts—the MBE, MEE, and MPT—are expected to be phased out in jurisdictions adopting the NextGen exam, though the final sunset timeline remains subject to change. Check the NCBE’s jurisdiction page for the latest.

12/16/24

Virginia and South Dakota announced plans to adopt the NextGen bar exam. South Dakota will roll out the new format in July 2027, followed by Virginia in July 2028.

11/26/24

The NCBE released the family law subject matter outline for the NextGen bar exam, detailing the topics to be tested starting in July 2028. The Alaska Supreme Court also confirmed it will administer the NextGen bar exam beginning July 2028.

10/25/24

The NCBE published a research brief on January 2024 field testing for the NextGen bar exam.

Field testing summary

Over 4,000 law students and recent graduates from 88 U.S. law schools participated, helping assess new question types, exam timing, and question performance across different groups, as well as the impact on jurisdiction graders. A full-length prototype test was administered in 32 jurisdictions to about 2,300 July 2024 bar exam participants, providing data to guide passing score decisions for the new exam.

NextGen Bar Exam rollout schedule

Per the NCBE as of April 2026, the following jurisdictions have announced plans to adopt the NextGen UBE:

• July 2026: Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, Virgin Islands, Washington
• July 2027: Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming
• February 2028: Delaware, D.C., Illinois
• July 2028: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin
• No announcement yet: Arkansas, Montana

As of July 2026, NCBE’s Decisions by Jurisdiction page and Minimum Passing Scores page show jurisdictions beginning to finalize their NextGen passing scores and score-portability rules. Oregon’s pass score is set at 615 for the July 2026 exam and 620 thereafter; Minnesota will retroactively credit July 2026 scores of 620 or higher once its own score is finalized; Florida and New York will not accept transferred NextGen scores from any administration before July 2028; Texas plans to accept July 2026 scores pending a final policy decision; and Virginia will accept transferred scores beginning in 2028, from administrations meeting a passing standard yet to be announced. Check your jurisdiction’s page directly, as this is still evolving.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is replacing the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) with what it calls the “NextGen UBE.” Unlike the traditional bar exam (which focuses predominantly on memorization and multiple-choice questions), the NextGen UBE aims to focus more heavily on skills and application. As former Chief Strategy Officer for the NCBE, Kellie Early, stated, “One of the goals is to make [the bar exam] more realistic to what lawyers do in practice.” Some have criticized the update as “dumbing down” the bar exam.

The NextGen UBE debuted in July 2026 in a limited number of jurisdictions and will expand through a phased rollout ending in July 2028. The legacy UBE and its component parts—the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), and Multistate Performance Test (MPT)—are expected to be phased out in jurisdictions that adopt the NextGen exam, though the final timeline remains subject to change.

More than 40 U.S. jurisdictions have adopted the UBE and will be directly impacted, but so will non-UBE jurisdictions that administer the MBE, such as California and many others (though a small number of jurisdictions, including Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and Nevada, do not use the MBE).

This may cause some MBE jurisdictions to adopt the NextGen exam to avoid having to replace the 200-question MBE component. Other jurisdictions may instead develop their own alternatives.

As the rollout progresses, jurisdictions still using the legacy UBE or its component parts will need to make decisions about their path forward. Jurisdictions that have not announced NextGen adoption should be watched closely, as the legacy exam’s eventual sunset—while still tentative—will require a response from every jurisdiction.

Brief history of the Uniform Bar Exam

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)—a 200-question, closed-book, multiple-choice, six-hour exam—has been a rite of passage for the vast majority of law school graduates since 1972. Most jurisdictions adopted the MBE, typically supplementing it with essays and performance tests of some kind.

In 1988, the NCBE began offering the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)—a three-hour, closed-book, six-essay exam.

In 1997, the NCBE began offering the Multistate Performance Test (MPT)—a three-hour, open but limited library, two-task performance exam.

In 2011, the NCBE bundled the MBE, MEE, and MPT together into the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), which was first administered in North Dakota and Missouri.

Per NCBE, effective with the July 2026 bar exam, the following areas will no longer be tested on the MEE portion of the legacy UBE: conflict of laws, family law, trusts and estates, and secured transactions. This change aligns the legacy exam’s subject matter with the NextGen UBE, which drops these four areas as standalone doctrinal subjects as well (family law and trusts and estates instead appear on performance tasks, with legal resources provided, as noted below). Family law and trusts and estates may still appear on the legacy exam’s Multistate Performance Test (MPT).

How will the NextGen UBE look

While the NextGen UBE is built from the ground up, it won’t be completely unrecognizable. Despite replacing the MBE, MEE, and MPT, most core doctrinal areas from the current exam remain, though they are tested in a more integrated, skills-based format:

• civil procedure
• contract law
• evidence
• torts
• business associations
• constitutional law
• criminal law and constitutional protections of accused persons
• real property
• *family law and trusts and estates will have temporary performance-task-style inclusion through at least February 2028

Most tested subjects overlap with traditional MBE subjects, but the NextGen exam does not preserve the same structure or subject silos. Topics that were previously tested primarily on the MEE—such as conflict of laws and secured transactions—are no longer tested as standalone doctrinal subjects.

The NextGen UBE is also administered digitally on examinees’ own laptops using secure testing software, replacing pen and paper entirely.

Exam day format

Per NCBE, the NextGen UBE is administered over one and a half days: two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two, for nine total hours of testing—down from the legacy UBE’s 12 hours over two full days. Jurisdictions that administer their own local law component may extend day two to accommodate it.

Each session blends three question types, which together make up the following shares of exam time and of the overall score:

• Standalone multiple-choice questions – about 40% of exam time and 49% of the overall score. Questions offer either four answer options (one correct) or six answer options (two correct); early administrations closely resemble Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) questions before more question-type variety is phased in.
• Integrated question sets (IQS) – just over a quarter of exam time and 21% of the overall score. Each set is built around a shared fact scenario, may include legal resources or supplemental documents, and mixes multiple-choice, medium-answer, and short-answer questions—some focused on drafting or editing a legal document, others on counseling or dispute resolution.
• Performance tasks – about a third of exam time and 30% of the overall score. There are two formats: standard performance tasks (PTs), each with a client file, a library of legal resources, and one extended-response writing assignment; and legal research performance tasks (LRPTs), which pair multiple-choice and short-answer research questions with a medium-length writing assignment.

Scoring and grading are shared between NCBE and the jurisdictions: NCBE scores the multiple-choice components, jurisdiction-appointed graders score the written responses (IQS and performance tasks) using uniform NCBE rubrics, and NCBE performs all final scaling and equating. See NCBE’s Scores & Score Portability page for more detail.

Keeping you current with the latest NextGen updates

The NCBE hosted a webcast that Crushendo’s founder attended. With permission, we have shared the webcast recording on our YouTube channel. You can learn more about the NextGen UBE by watching that recording here.

Crushendo’s commitment to your success

At Crushendo, we are actively developing NextGen-specific content to align with the evolving exam administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE).

If you are sitting for the legacy UBE in the meantime, our existing UBE packages remain highly relevant. The core doctrinal subjects continue to carry over substantially into the NextGen exam, even as the format evolves.

As the transition progresses, we will continue refining our materials to ensure they align with the latest developments. Stay tuned for updates as our NextGen offerings become available.