Law school graduates typically spend over $1,000 to take the bar exam. However, this fall, they have an opportunity to profit from their study efforts. The National Conference of Bar Examiners will pay law grads $1,500 to test-drive the first full-length prototype of its NextGen Bar exam, the revamped version set to debut in July 2026.
The organization aims to recruit about 2,200 of the 46,000 people taking the 2024 bar exam this week to participate in a trial run of the new exam in October. Researchers will compare the results of the prototype test to the current exam to develop a new national score scale, explained Rosemary Reshetar, the national conference’s director of psychometrics and operations. Additionally, the prototype exam will assess the effectiveness of individual questions and help individual jurisdictions set their own passing scores, which vary from state to state.
The national conference has previously conducted several shorter pilot tests of NextGen questions but has not yet asked law graduates to take the full exam. The new test will take nine hours: six on the first day and three on the second, compared to the current exam’s 12 hours over two days. The national conference began developing the new bar exam in 2021 in response to criticism that the existing test doesn’t reflect the actual practice of law. The new exam aims to be more skills-oriented and rely less on the memorization of laws.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons, pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in U.S. court in Chicago after a dramatic operation to arrest him.
In addition to being a half-day shorter than the current bar exam, the NextGen test will be administered on computers instead of paper. So far, 21 jurisdictions have committed to switching to the new bar exam, with start dates ranging from July 2026 to July 2028, when the national conference will stop offering the current exam.
The prototype test will take place in 32 states either on October 18 and 19 or October 25 and 26. The sign-up period runs from August 19 to 29. The national conference is seeking graduates of both American Bar Association-accredited law schools and non-ABA-accredited law schools. It also invites both first-time and repeat bar takers to participate.
