The Format of the New Bar Exam

The Format of the New Bar Exam

In case you missed it, the bar exam is going to look a little different in the next few years. The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) recently announced that it would be administering a “new” bar exam beginning in 2024 or 2025. More information will be coming soon. Some preliminary information is as follows.

A New “Integrated” Format

Right now, the bar exam has three separate components — the multiple-choice component, the essay component, and the performance test component. The new bar exam format will essentially mash all of these into one. So, there will be a fact pattern and then a combination of multiple-choice questions and essay prompts which focus on legal skills. The multistate performance test was considered to be the best part of the old bar exam, so the skills tested on that exam (writing, issue-spotting and analysis, using the law to analyze the facts and write in a persuasive or objective manner, etc.) will be more heavily tested.

Subjects Tested on the New Bar Exam

The new bar exam will test fewer subjects. It will stick to the current seven subjects currently tested on the multistate bar exam. However, it will also test Business Associations, including Agency. A full list of the subjects tested on the new bar exam is below:

• Civil Procedure (including constitutional protections and proceedings before administrative agencies)
• Contract Law (including Art. 2 of the UCC)
• Evidence
• Torts
• Business Associations (including Agency)
• Constitutional Law (excluding principles covered under Civil Procedure and Criminal Law)
• Criminal Law and Constitutional Protections Impacting Criminal Proceedings (excluding coverage of criminal procedure beyond constitutional protections)
• Real Property

Note that the new bar exam will be administered online. However, it appears as though it will be administered in testing centers, rather than remotely.

We’ll be posting a lot more about the new bar exam as information becomes available. You can read more about the new bar exam on the NCBE site here.

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