2026 New Bar Exam – Designed to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice, the exam will. The application filing period for the february 2025 bar examination opens on tuesday, october 1, 2024. Madison, wisconsin, february 27, 2025—idaho has announced that it intends to administer the nextgen bar exam beginning in july 2026. As a result, jurisdictions could begin administering the nextgen exam as soon as july 2026 or stay with the ube through the february 2028.
The nextgen bar exam will first be made available to us jurisdictions with the july 2026 bar exam. The new exam will balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice and will reflect many of the key changes that law schools are making to their own curricula, building. Jurisdictions may elect to adopt the nextgen bar exam starting in july 2026. The national conference of bar examiners (ncbe®) has announced that a new next generation (nextgen) bar exam will replace the current bar exam in july of 2026.
2026 New Bar Exam
2026 New Bar Exam
We will walk you through the specifics of when, why, and how the bar exam is undergoing changes. Connecticut, guam, idaho, maryland, missouri, northern mariana islands, oregon, virgin islands, washington Set to debut 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.
With this new, more efficient bar exam design, ncbe is able to reduce the total exam time from 12 hours to 9 hours. With a new bar exam set to debut in july 2026, the national conference of bar examiners on thursday unveiled what the overhauled test will cover. As jurisdictions announce whether they intend to first administer the new exam in july 2026, february or july 2027, or february or july 2028, ncbe will update its list of participating jurisdictions to reflect these announcements.
The following jurisdictions have announced their adoption of the nextgen exam starting with the dates listed below.
Implementation Timeline NCBE
The Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands has announced that it intends to administer the NextGen bar exam beginning in July 2026. Thirtysix jurisdictions have now announced plans to adopt the NextGen
A new bar exam is coming. Here's what it will test. Reuters
National Conference of Bar Examiners Idaho is the latest jurisdiction to adopt the NextGen bar exam! The Gem State will begin administering the new exam in July 2026 and raises the
What We Do and Don't Know about the New “NextGen” Bar Exam
National Conference of Bar Examiners The NextGen bar exam is set to debut in July 2026! Want a preview of the exam format and questions? Check out our NextGen sample questions
National Conference of Bar Examiners on LinkedIn The NextGen bar exam will first be administered in July 2026! Get ready…
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