Legal educators raise concerns with NextGen bar exam: ‘I’d rather not be first’

It’s almost here.

Less than a year from now, applicants in Maryland will be among the first to sit for the NextGen Bar Exam, a new exam by the National Conference of Bar Examiners meant to test practical lawyering skills. But law professors whose students will take the exam during its first wave say students have had limited time to prepare for the test, fewer practice materials are available to them than in past exam administrations and they could ultimately benefit from the exam being postponed.

The professors agree that NCBE’s focus on testing applicants’ foundational lawyering skills and moving away from a memorization-based exam is a positive, but many are concerned with the amount of information available to applicants and law instructors alike.

Maryland announced its decision to adopt the NextGen exam in November 2023, with the NextGen replacing the Uniform Bar Exam as the basis for score portability between participating jurisdictions. In a precautionary move, the Maryland Supreme Court in June issued an administrative order limiting the number of seats available for the July 2026 NextGen exam, citing concerns raised by the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners surrounding a potential flood of applicants.

‘I’d rather not be first’

Neal Kempler, director of bar success at the University of Baltimore School of Law, said he is concerned about the lack of practice materials available for NextGen applicants, and particularly Maryland being one of the first jurisdictions to administer the new exam.

“My concern is there’s going to be a lack of maturity of the bar vendors’ programs in July 2026 compared to July 2028,” Kempler said, adding that the rolling adoption dates of the NextGen exam give him pause. “It just doesn’t seem fair that there would be a very small handful of jurisdictions up first as sort of these guinea pigs.”

NCBE released its first official study aides last year that included six hours of exam content, with six additional hours of study materials to be released on Tuesday, according to Sophie Martin, director of communications for NCBE. By late January or early February next year, Martin says NCBE will release 70 stand-alone multiple-choice questions — amounting to more than two hours of focused multiple-choice practice — in addition to nine integrated question sets totaling more than three and a half hours of focused integrated question set practice.

Marilyn Wellington, chief strategy and operations officer for NCBE, said all information will be released “well in advance” of the July 2026 exam, but NCBE will also be releasing new content later, as the organization has done in the past.

“I’m confident that what we’re providing jurisdictions really has provided an enormous amount of information to help them with this,” Wellington said. “We have been out to dozens and dozens of law schools.”

Both of Maryland’s law schools participated in field testing for the NextGen exam hosted in Maryland in 2023. Since then, legal educators say the exam has changed.

Micah Yarbrough, director of bar programs for the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, said the NCBE made some changes to the NextGen exam after receiving feedback from those who took the field test, but could not elaborate on specific comments from exam takers. Kempler said the NCBE in just March of this year changed the computer-based testing platform applicants would use to take the exam after using a different computer platform during field testing.

Maryland is one of six states and 10 jurisdictions set to administer the NextGen exam in July 2026, according to the NCBE. Additional jurisdictions will administer the exam in July 2027 and February 2028, with 39 states having administered the new exam by the completion of the July 2028 administration.

“I’d rather not be first; I’d rather be last,” Kempler said. “If the board (of law examiners) and the court were to find some middle ground and (suggest) July 2027, that would be better, but… I think every jurisdiction should be July 2028.”

Marsha Griggs, associate professor of law at Saint Louis University School of Law and a nationally recognized expert in bar exam reform, said “it’s a risk” for jurisdictions administering the NextGen exam in July 2026.

“I respect the processes (NCBE and states are) going through to vet this exam, but it is my experience and professional opinion that they are rushing it,” Griggs said. “It is, in my opinion, a disservice to everyone to push onto law graduates an exam that the people prepping those students for the exam haven’t had a chance to see or be exposed to.”

The NCBE has not yet released a full NextGen practice test, but Martin said Tuesday’s release of six additional hours of study materials will complete the materials needed for a full practice test.

‘As much possibility of disaster as progress’

Legal educators in neighboring jurisdictions to those in the first wave of the NextGen exam administration have also expressed concerns about the exam.

Michael Frisch, ethics counsel and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center said changes to the bar exam must be made thoughtfully and after much study, which he said he has not seen.

“I’m not confident that the National Conference of Bar Examiners can do this competently and that a change is going to really be progress,” Frisch said. “I foresee as much possibility of disaster as progress.”

Frisch added that while he views the UBE as a “great change” that recognized the mobility of the practice of law and is in favor of moving to a more practical model such as the NextGen exam, he is concerned the development and adoption of the NextGen was done “hastily.”

Rachel Gordon, interim assistant dean of academic excellence at American University Washington College of Law, said that while she supports the NextGen exam’s testing of practical skills, she’s concerned that Maryland adopted the NextGen exam without considering its portability and transferability to other jurisdictions.

“I think the biggest thing is that it feels like these decisions are happening very quickly without consultation of any of the stakeholders who are experts in these topics,” Gordon said. “The students certainly feel the uncertainty, and it does not feel good to not be able to have answers when they come to us.”

Jeffrey Shipley, director of the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners, said in an email that the board is in close contact with the NCBE to ensure those taking the NextGen exam have access to the information and materials necessary to prepare fully for the exam.

“The Board is confident that the NCBE will continue to make additional materials available that will allow examinees to appropriately prepare for the NextGen UBE,” Shipley said.

Through a Maryland Judiciary spokesperson, the Maryland Supreme Court, which has the ultimate authority on Maryland bar admissions and whether and when to adopt the NextGen exam, said it has confidence in the Maryland Board of Law Examiners to successfully administer the NextGen exam as planned.

‘The tail wagging the dog’

Maryland’s adoption process for the NextGen exam looks markedly different from its decision to adopt the UBE in 2019.

In considering whether to adopt the UBE, Maryland formed an advisory committee comprised of more than a dozen Maryland legal professionals and stakeholders that studied the portability, quality control, scoring, subject testing and other components of the UBE. The committee’s yearlong work culminated in a 13-page report plus dozens more pages of research into the UBE and its expected impact, amounting to 82 pages in total.

When considering adoption of the NextGen exam, the Maryland Board of Law Examiners crafted a 6-page report that relied seemingly entirely on the NCBE’s own study of whether jurisdictions should adopt its own exam. The document included a fact sheet on the NextGen exam and sample questions to total 21 pages, but the current version of the NextGen differs from what was initially presented to the Maryland Supreme Court, such as the inclusion of family law as a test area.

Griggs described the widespread adoption of the NextGen exam as a shift in power dynamics between the NCBE and jurisdictions administering the uniform exams — “the tail wagging the dog,” she says. While Griggs says she trusts the deliberative process of the state supreme courts ultimately deciding whether their states adopt the exam, she has reservations.

“The NCBE has decided what we needed. The descriptions sound great — it does sound like what we needed — but psychometricians aren’t practicing attorneys, and if it turns out that this actual exam content is their version of testing practice competency and not actual attorneys’ version of testing practice competencies, we have a disconnect that will be difficult to reconcile because of its’ broad adoption,” Griggs said.

Preparing for the exam

Law professors, meanwhile, have been adjusting their curriculum to help prepare students for the NextGen exam.

Keri Foster, director of academic success and bar preparation at Howard University School of Law, said Howard has conducted faculty workshops in preparing for the NextGen exam and this year plans to hold a NextGen bootcamp for 3L students planning to sit for the exam in Maryland. Foster said Howard Law students have expressed curiosity about the new exam more so than concern.

At the University of Baltimore School of Law, legal writing courses have been restructured to better align with the NextGen exam’s emphasis on practical skills. Even with the major curriculum reform, Kempler said he’s concerned his school’s students are at a structural disadvantage compared to states delaying adoption of the NextGen exam, citing UB’s high percentage of first-generation students.

Yarbrough said the NextGen exam is at the forefront of everyone’s minds, but he feels confident Maryland Carey Law has remained focused on preparing students for the exam. He said the law school’s multi-year contract with Barbri, a commercial bar preparation provider, gives students access to the latest developmental materials. Still, Yarbrough admits he’s cautious.

“I know that the first administration of the exam is not going to be picture perfect,” Yarbrough said. “This is going to be something that is going to evolve over time and… it doesn’t mean that we can’t be critical of the content, the exam itself, the impact of the exam, but it doesn’t mean that we abandon everything because we don’t know all the answers to everything before it gets administered.”