TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jun 5, 2025

Bar exam officials have released details about the structure and scoring of the new national test set to debut in July 2026, Reuters reports. The NextGen UBE will be significantly shorter than the current Uniform Bar Exam, according to a new test blueprint issued by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. It also will place greater scoring weight on the performance task portion of the test than the existing exam in an effort to rely more on practical legal skills and less on the memorization of laws. The testing time will be shortened from 12 to nine hours comprised of three testing sessions: three hours for 120 multiple choice questions, three hours for integrated questions and three hours for performance tasks. So far, 41 states and territories across the country have announced plans to transition to the new exam. Tennessee will implement it in July 2027.