New bar exam catches on in five states 

[November 01, 2023]  By Karen Sloan(Reuters) -

Three states say they will start administering the new bar exam in July 2026, and two others say they are committed to making the switch in the future, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE).

Maryland, Missouri and Oregon are the first three states to say they will use the new version of the bar exam when it debuts in July 2026, the NCBE said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Wyoming has opted to move to the Next Gen bar exam in July 2027, and bar exam officials in Connecticut have decided to adopt the new test but have not finalized the date for that change, the NCBE said.

The announcement signals that the Next Gen bar exam is slowing gaining traction after facing early setbacks in several key states.

Florida announced in July that it would not give the Next Gen exam when it becomes available in July 2026, and Pennsylvania followed suit in October. Florida had the third-highest number of bar examinees last year, while Pennsylvania had the eighth highest.

The Next Gen test is the first major overhaul of the national bar exam in 25 years, according to the NCBE — which designs the national bar exam and began developing the new version in 2021.

The Next Gen bar exam is meant to emphasize legal skills and rely less on the memorization of laws, and it does away with the three separate components of the current exam — the 200-mutliple-choice question Multistate Bar Exam, the Multistate Essay Exam, and the Multistate Performance Test. The Next Gen exam will also be shorter at nine hours, compared with the current 12-hour test.

Courts and bar examiners in individual states decide what bar exam to give in their jurisdictions. NCBE officials have spent the past year trying to educate states about its revamped exam. The pressure is on to decide the format of the July 2026 exam, since many first-year law students who began their studies this fall will take that test. Law schools and bar examiners have said its important for students to know which exam to prepare for.

The NCBE initially said it would stop offering the current Uniform Bar Exam in July 2027, giving jurisdictions one year to decide between the two exams. But it changed course on Oct. 25 and said it will offer both exams through February 2028 in order to give states more time to transition to the Next Gen test. The NCBE also said it would restore family law to the list of subjects tested on the Next Gen exam, though not until July 2028.

“This model will ensure that new Oregon attorneys are practice-ready when they join our bar,” said Oregon State Bar President Lee Ann Donaldson in the Wednesday announcement.

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