The NGB Takes Center Stage as the UBE Exits Stage Right: What This Means for North Carolina
Photo: Courtesy of the National Conference of Bar Examiners
Is the NGB Really All It’s Cracked Up to Be?
The NextGen Bar Exam is on the horizon, leading test-takers and states to wonder: How is it better than the existing Uniform Bar Exam? Many states have utilized the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) for years; however, the administration of this exam is coming to an end. The NextGen Bar exam (NGB) will replace the UBE and represents a new approach on the traditional test. While the NGB promises to be better than the UBE, test-takers and states alike are concerned about its implications and question whether the NGB is truly an improvement. Will this new test drastically change the bar exam? Or is it truly the long-awaited update to the old UBE?
Reason for Change
After years of research from legal professionals, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) created the NGB to streamline the bar exam and focus on the skills most useful to lawyers. The new exam is designed to better reflect the evolving law and the daily tasks that lawyers face. The NCBE will not offer the UBE after 2028 and will only offer the NGB, forcing states to use the NGB or their own state-specific examination program. States have relied on the NCBE’s tests because the tests are supported by lawyers, are heavily researched, and generate generalizable scores. Recently, the NCBE turned its attention to the UBE’s effectiveness.
After several years of nationwide legal practice analysis, the NCBE determined that the UBE was outdated. The UBE had not seen a major change in about twenty-five years and did not test the skills most important to fledgling lawyers. The NCBE decided that it was time to make a change. In 2019, the NCBE’s Testing Task Force (TTF) assessed which skills were most important to newly licensed lawyers and consulted 15,000 attorneys, judges, justices, and legal educators. Its report was published in 2021. The TTF found that “a newly licensed lawyer secures a general license to practice law, suggesting that the bar exam should assess foundational knowledge and skills that are common to numerous practice areas.” To prepare newly licensed lawyers more effectively, the NGB targets litigation skills, transactional legal practice skills, and other practical skills. While the old UBE tested the test-taker’s ability to memorize the law, the new NGB will test their ability to use it.
Many legal professionals agree that the change is well worth the effort. Jeff Shipley, director of the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners, readily announced Maryland’s adoption of the NGB for the July 2026 administration. Shipley sees the NGB as a “valuable tool for helping ensure that every newly licensed attorney in Maryland is ready to begin practicing law.” Likewise, Cynthia Martin, a judge in the Western District of Missouri Court of Appeals and chair of the Implementation Steering Committee that implements the NGB, praised Missouri for continuing to “embrac[e] forward-thinking enhancements in attorney licensure.” Oregon State Bar President Lee Donaldson expresses a similar sentiment, claiming that the NGB “will ensure that new Oregon attorneys are practice-ready when they join our bar.” The NGB is the long-awaited culmination of lawyers’ and scholars’ work to update the outdated UBE.
How does the NGB Differ from the UBE?
The NGB will change the topics, questions, and examination style featured in the old UBE. The UBE is known to test memorization more than practical skills and is made up of three sections. First is the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), which consists of six 30-minute essay questions. The MEE portion assesses a test-taker’s knowledge of common subjects, like civil procedure and evidence, and their ability to write effectively. Second is the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), which consists of two 90-minute practical skills tasks. The MPT’s practical skills tasks include drafting an inter-office memorandum, a client letter, or articles of incorporation. Third is the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), which consists of 200 multiple-choice questions. The MBE aims to determine a test-taker’s ability to apply legal principles to given fact patterns. Throughout the different sections, UBE tests civil procedure, agency and partnerships, business associations, constitutional law, contracts and sales, secured transactions, criminal law, evidence, real property, torts, conflict of laws, family law, and trusts and estates.
The NGB moderately edits the style of the UBE to target practical skills. The exam is split into three sections, and each section can include one or a mixture of three types of questions. The first type is integrated questions, which include a mixture of multiple-choice and short-answer questions using fact scenarios to test doctrinal law, counseling skills, and drafting abilities. The second type is performance tasks, which are like the MPT portion of the UBE and ask test-takers to draft documents. The third type is multiple choice questions, which resemble MBE questions and assess a test-taker’s application of legal principles to fact scenarios. The NGB will assess these skills by testing fundamental legal concepts and principles needed to practice law today. Topics like business associations, civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, evidence, real property, torts, family law, and trusts and estates will remain tested.
The UBE is long, partially digital, and expensive. First, the UBE lasts 12 hours over the course of two days, with test-takers utilizing a paper question book and entering their answers via a computer. Switching from paper to computer can be frustrating, especially in a long exam. Fortunately, test-takers can receive testing accommodations if they qualify, which would lighten the load of the stressful exam. The exam is equally burdensome in its fees. In North Carolina, the exam costs $850 for individuals without a law license, but the fee rises to $1,650 for those who are licensed in another jurisdiction. Speaking of other jurisdictions, the UBE is uniformly administered, meaning a test-taker’s score can be transferred to forty-one other states or territories. The NGB addressed the UBE’s frustrating duration, administration, and expense, while still safeguarding the UBE’s helpful transferability.
The NGB is shorter, fully digital, and more affordable. Unlike the UBE, the NGB lasts nine hours over a day and a half and is completely digital, so test-takers will read and answer the test questions solely on their computer instead of switching back and forth. Additionally, test-takers can still receive accommodations if they qualify. Unfortunately, the NGB’s cost has not been determined, but the NGB promises to be affordable. Similar to the UBE, NGB scores are transferable to states that administer the UBE. Despite the differences, the NGB is similar enough to the UBE to not jar test-takers but different enough to examine the skills most critical to lawyers.
What States are Participating in the NGB?
The NGB will begin being administered in July 2026. The territories and states that will administer the test in its inaugural year are Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, the Virgin Islands, and Washington. In July 2027, Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming will administer the test. By 2028, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia will administer the test. Meanwhile, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Palau, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have not announced whether they will adopt the NGB.
Some of the states that have not expressly adopted the NGB – California, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Washington– are developing alternative pathways to bar licensure. The remainder of the states have yet to announce their plans for when the UBE is unavailable in 2028. Interestingly, some of the states that announced their adoption of the NGB – Arizona, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah – are also developing their own alternative pathways to bar licensure.
Pros and Cons of Participating in the NGB
The UBE is tried and true, but the NGB is still new. The UBE has been administered since 2011; therefore, test-takers are accustomed to the UBE. Meanwhile, the first time the NGB will be tested is in 2026. While test-takers have not yet seen the NGB, the NGB’s questions have been extensively pretested, and sample questions are available on the NCBE’s website. Of course, performance aids and practice questions for the UBE’s MEE, MPT, and MBE are available and have been thoroughly used by test-takers for years. Still, the NGB is new, so there are fewer resources available.
However, some individuals are apprehensive about the NGB since it is so new. The Association of Academic Support Educators warned against the NGB’s rushed implementation, stating that, “Only fractional information has been released about the exam, and there have been far too many substantial changes to that already fragmented information to allow academic support faculty and commercial bar review providers to effectively prepare current law students who will be in the first wave of NextGen examinees.” Meanwhile, Hemanth Gundavaram, associate dean at Northeastern University School of Law, remembers the memorization element of the UBE was “one of the hardest parts of the exam.” Law students may feel excited about a new exam that promises to address practical skills but may feel apprehensive because the NGB is not as thoroughly tested as the UBE. For North Carolina law students, the apprehension continues, as North Carolina has not officially accepted the exam change.
How Will North Carolina be Affected?
North Carolina has not agreed to administer the NGB, but it is likely to do so in the next few years. Currently, North Carolina will administer the UBE through February 2028, at which point the NCBE will no longer offer administration of the UBE. While North Carolina could choose to follow other states, which have implemented different testing systems entirely or have shifted away from testing, it has not proposed an alternative test.
If North Carolina does choose to create its own test, it will not be alone. For example, Nevada will not participate in the NGB and has decided to move forward with its own licensing process. The state is implementing a three-step bar licensure process called the “Nevada Plan.” The new process will feature a foundational law exam, which consists of a multiple-choice test; a one-day performance exam, which entails performance-based drafting tasks; and a supervised practice requirement, which requires 40-60 hours of monitored legal work. Nevada contends that its plan allows for flexibility and faster licensing when compared to the current and future uniform exams.
Likewise, other states have implemented their own alternative plans for licensure. Oregon has adopted a popular apprenticeship program instead of the bar exam. The program requires individuals to graduate from an accredited school and then complete a supervised apprenticeship. The Oregon Board of Bar Examiners assesses the work and, upon satisfactory completion, admits the applicant to the bar. Washington launched similar programs. Washington has three programs: a graduate apprenticeship, a law school experiential pathway, and an APR 6 apprenticeship. The graduate apprenticeship allows law school graduates to complete a 6-month supervised apprenticeship and complete the requisite coursework. The law school experiential pathway requires students to complete 12 qualifying skills credits and 500 hours of work as a legal intern, as shown by an accompanying portfolio. The APR 6 apprenticeship allows law clerks to complete additional educational requirements and the same 500 hours of work as an intern. These programs were designed to hone practical skills, address bar exam deficiencies, and reduce the barriers to becoming a lawyer.
States like California, Utah, South Dakota, and Minnesota are developing similar apprenticeship programs as alternatives to the bar exam. California requires applicants to complete 700-1,000 hours of work in a supervised apprenticeship and submit a portfolio for the State Bar to evaluate. Comparatively, Utah requires 240 practice hours under a supervising attorney. Likewise, South Dakota allows up to 10 law students from the University of South Dakota to complete 500 hours of public service, generating a portfolio for examiners to review, as a substitute for their fifth semester of law school. These students would receive academic credit, could still take the bar exam if they left the apprenticeship program, and would be sworn in upon successful completion of the apprenticeship program at graduation. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s program is in its early stages of development. The state supreme court issued an order creating a committee to research and develop alternate pathways to law licensure. The committee’s first report is due on July 1, 2026. Each state’s program illustrates the ease of circumventing the bar exam and the effectiveness of being creative in changing licensure requirements.
Some Campbell Law students state that they prefer having both the bar exam and an apprenticeship as prerequisites to licensure, since practicing lawyers must complete a certain amount of hours of continuing legal education (CLE) after they pass the bar. Other students contend that an apprenticeship alone would be sufficient. Still, North Carolina test-takers should plan to take the UBE until at least 2026, keeping in mind that North Carolina may not implement the NGB until 2028. As test-takers wait eagerly in anticipation of North Carolina’s decision, they should stay updated on the NCBE’s direction for states that have not adopted the NGB.
