The NextGen Bar Exam: Every State’s Switch Date, Passing Score and First Results

What is the NextGen bar exam?

The National Conference of Bar Examiners spent more than seven years building NextGen. A practice analysis that surveyed over 14,000 lawyers shaped the content, a field test with more than 2,000 participants ran in 2024, and a beta test with about 1,500 examinees ran in January 2026. NCBE now calls the old exam the “legacy UBE.”

The biggest change is philosophy. The legacy UBE leaned on memorizing rules across roughly a dozen subjects and writing essays from memory. NextGen narrows the memorized law and asks you to do the work a new lawyer does: read supplied statutes and cases, research, draft, counsel a client and spot issues in a realistic file. If you are a law student or recent graduate, the question is no longer only “what do I know,” it is “what can I do with the law in front of me.”

How did the first NextGen exam go?

July 2026 NextGen pass rates

National results across the ten launch jurisdictions, released September 25, 2026

All examinees

72.7%

First time takers

85.2%

Repeat takers

41.0%

Source: NCBE, Inaugural NextGen UBE results. “First time” now means a candidate’s first bar exam anywhere.

NCBE noted that the 72.7% overall rate sits within 4.3 percentage points of every July national pass rate from 2021 through 2025, so the new exam did not produce a dramatic drop. The gap between first time and repeat takers, more than 44 points, is the number that matters most for anyone who has already failed a bar exam: repeat takers need a different plan, not more of the same one.

The launch was not smooth everywhere. In Washington, NCBE says a venue specific infrastructure problem at the Yakima Convention Center affected most of the roughly 700 scheduled applicants and the exam was cancelled for them. The Washington Supreme Court offered first time applicants a makeup exam or admission by court order without the exam. Missouri had delayed starts on day one and finished some sessions the next day, and one Maryland site started about 45 minutes late. NCBE’s analysis found no consistent pattern showing that disrupted examinees scored differently.

When does every state switch? (all 56 jurisdictions)

NextGen rollout by first exam date

Number of U.S. jurisdictions giving their first NextGen exam in each window

July 2026

10

July 2027

12

February 2028

4

July 2028

25

Adopted, no date

1

No announcement

4

Source: NCBE, NextGen UBE Decisions by Jurisdiction (updated September 25, 2026). ConnectPrep count.

Each jurisdiction name links to its official NCBE jurisdiction page. Highlighted rows are ConnectPrep’s tri-state home market. Source: NCBE NextGen UBE Decisions by Jurisdiction and Minimum Passing Scores pages, plus the Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and California court and board notices listed under Sources. Verified October 2, 2026. Jurisdictions update these decisions often, so confirm with your board before filing.

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What score do you need to pass?

Announced NextGen passing scores

Number of jurisdictions at each passing score (Oregon counted at 620, its standard after July 2026)

610

5

612

2

614

1

615

1

616

6

620

10

610: IA, MO, NM, ND, WA. 612: Guam, Palau. 614: IN. 615: Northern Mariana Islands. 616: CT, DC, ID, KY, MD, USVI. 620: IL, ME, MA, NE, NH, NC, OH, OR, PA, VT. Source: NCBE Minimum Passing Scores page.

NCBE set its recommended range after a concordance study linking the two exams, and says 610 to 620 maps to the legacy UBE passing range of 260 to 270. That is a range mapping, not a conversion chart. You will see blog posts claiming “620 is the new 270” or “616 equals 266.” Those line up with NCBE’s range, but NCBE has not published an official point by point table and cautions that the scores “should not be compared directly.”

One practical wrinkle: the score a jurisdiction requires to pass on its own exam can differ from the score it accepts on a transferred score. Minnesota, for example, has not set its own NextGen passing score yet, but its court has said applicants with a 620 or higher do not need to wait. Always read both columns in the table above.

Connecticut, New York and New Jersey

How the exam is built and scored

How a NextGen score is built

Share of the total score by question type

49%

21%

30%

Multiple choice

Integrated question sets

Performance tasks

Source: NCBE NextGen UBE Examinees’ Guide (July 2026 to February 2027 blueprint) and NCBE blueprint release.

Source: NCBE NextGen UBE Examinees’ Guide.

The exam is fully computer based. You bring your own laptop, install NCBE’s secure browser, and work with on screen tools: highlighting, a notepad (which is not graded), spell check, split screen, and tabs holding the statutes, cases and file materials. NCBE’s free software tutorial is worth an hour of your time well before exam week.

Scores are equated across administrations and jurisdictions, so a 625 in Missouri in July 2026 means the same thing as a 625 in Connecticut in February 2027. There are no separate component scores like the legacy MBE, MEE and MPT. You receive one number.

What is tested, and what was dropped

Source: NCBE NextGen content scope and NCBE update on NextGen content.

NCBE’s seven Foundational Lawyering Skills are legal research; legal writing; issue spotting and analysis; investigation and evaluation; client counseling and advising; negotiation and dispute resolution; and client relationship and management. They show up most heavily in the integrated sets and performance tasks, where the law is supplied and the grade depends on how well you apply it.

NextGen vs the legacy UBE

Sources: NCBE exam structure announcement, Examinees’ Guide and score pages.

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Can you transfer a NextGen score?

Each receiving jurisdiction decides whether it accepts a transferred NextGen score and at what minimum, and NCBE charges $30 for each official score transcript you send. Score transfers can start about two weeks after you receive your score. NCBE’s portability page does not list score age limits for NextGen transfers, so check the receiving jurisdiction’s rule on how old a score can be.

Several jurisdictions, including California, Delaware, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Wisconsin, list their transfer policy as to be announced. If you plan to practice in more than one state, map out where each score will be accepted before you choose where to sit.

Key dates for 2026 and 2027

NCBE requires every NextGen examinee to finish the candidate agreement, pay the $149 technology fee, install the secure browser and complete the tutorial no later than 72 hours before exam day. Filing deadlines for July 2027 outside Connecticut and New York were not yet posted when we checked.

How to prepare for NextGen

At ConnectPrep our approach to every exam is the same: simplify it and deconstruct it. NextGen rewards that approach more than any bar exam before it, because so much of the score depends on process. Here is how we break it down:

• Diagnose first. Take one NCBE practice set (40 multiple choice, 2 integrated sets, 1 performance task) under real timing before you buy anything else. The pattern of your misses tells you where the points are.
• Learn the eight subjects to an application level. NextGen asks fewer pure recall questions, so outlines matter less than practice applying rules to facts.
• Build a performance task routine. Read the task memo first, sort the library, outline before you write, and practice finishing inside the time limit. Three tasks are 30% of your score.
• Drill the legal research task. It is new for everyone, and the research questions reward a repeatable method more than talent.
• Rehearse on your own laptop. Use NCBE’s free tutorial and practice with the on screen tools until the interface disappears.
• Repeat takers: change the plan. A 41% repeat pass rate says more of the same rarely works. Find the question type that sank the last attempt and attack it directly.

Source: NCBE NextGen study aids. Prices verified October 2, 2026.

NextGen bar exam tutoring with ConnectPrep

ConnectPrep offers one on one NextGen bar exam tutoring online, built around the exam’s three question types rather than a generic lecture course. Your tutor starts with an official practice set, finds the question types costing you points, and builds a weekly plan around them. It works on its own or alongside a commercial course you have already paid for.

We work with first time takers who want structure and accountability, and with repeat takers who need a different approach than the one that did not work.

• Diagnostic on an official NCBE practice set with a written score breakdown
• Performance task and integrated set writing practice with line by line feedback
• Doctrine review targeted to your weakest foundational subjects
• A legal research task method you can repeat under time pressure
• Timed full session rehearsals on your own laptop
• Flexible online scheduling around work or a commercial course

Book a free NextGen consultationSee law school test prep

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Sources

1. NCBE: NextGen UBE Decisions by Jurisdiction
2. NCBE: NextGen minimum passing scores
3. NCBE: Inaugural NextGen UBE results (September 25, 2026)
4. NCBE: Statement on the July 2026 NextGen administration
5. NCBE: Bar pass rates by jurisdiction
6. NCBE: Recommended passing score range guidance
7. NCBE: NextGen UBE scores and score portability
8. NCBE: NextGen content scope
9. NCBE: Update on NextGen exam content
10. NCBE: NextGen UBE Examinees’ Guide
11. NCBE: Length and structure of the NextGen UBE
12. NCBE: Registering for the NextGen UBE
13. NCBE: NextGen study aids
14. NCBE: MPRE
15. Connecticut Bar Examining Committee: application information
16. New York State Board of Law Examiners
17. New Jersey Courts: Supreme Court adopts NextGen, first administration July 2028
18. California Courts: Supreme Court approves adoption of NextGen
19. Washington State Bar Association: July bar exam canceled
20. ABA Journal: Pass rates for inaugural NextGen UBE administration