A new era for the American bar exam officially began in July 2026. The NextGen Uniform Bar Examination made its operational debut across 10 jurisdictions, replacing long blocks of traditional testing with an exam built around legal analysis, research, writing, client counseling, and other skills associated with early legal practice.
About 2,640 examinees successfully completed the inaugural administration, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Ohio law students will have to watch from the sidelines for a little longer. The Supreme Court of Ohio intends to begin administering NextGen in July 2028. Ohio will continue using the legacy Uniform Bar Examination through February 2028.
For students whose graduation date lands near that dividing line, two years can make a major difference in how they prepare.
What Actually Changes With the NextGen Bar Exam?
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NextGen grew from a basic question: what knowledge and skills should a newly licensed lawyer be expected to demonstrate?
The answer has produced a noticeably different examination.
The legacy UBE combines the Multistate Bar Examination, Multistate Essay Examination, and Multistate Performance Test. Its familiar format places substantial weight on multiple-choice doctrinal questions, with the MBE accounting for 50% of the total score.
NextGen integrates doctrine and practical work more deliberately. The new exam format assesses legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship management.
Candidates also spend less time in the testing room.
| Feature | Legacy UBE | NextGen UBE |
| Testing time | About 12 hours | 9 hours |
| Schedule | 2 full days | 1.5 days |
| Score scale | 400-point scale | 500 to 750 |
| Main approach | MBE, essays, performance tasks | Multiple choice, integrated sets, performance tasks |
| Skills emphasis | Strongest in performance tests | Spread throughout the exam |
NextGen devotes roughly 40% of testing time to standalone multiple-choice questions. Just over a quarter goes to integrated question sets, while about one-third is devoted to performance tasks, according to NCBE’s sample-question guidance.
Some multiple-choice questions even require candidates to choose two correct answers from six options. A student trained to hunt for one perfect choice may need a small mental reset.
Why Is Ohio Waiting Until July 2028?
Ohio’s later adoption date is deliberate.
An advisory committee created to examine the transition recommended July 2028 partly to give Ohio law schools enough time to prepare students.
Committee members also raised concerns while NextGen was still being developed, including questions about rigor, the amount of traditional legal writing on the exam, and subjects left outside its initial foundational doctrine list. The details appear in Ohio’s NextGen advisory report.
Trusts and estates drew particular attention.
Family law will become a NextGen foundational subject beginning with the July 2028 administration, while trusts and estates are absent from the core list. NCBE currently identifies business associations, civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, evidence, real property, and torts as foundational concepts tested before family law joins the group.
Ohio’s planned response involves keeping a meaningful state-specific component alongside NextGen.
The existing Ohio Law Component is an open-book, 25-question multiple-choice examination covering Ohio-specific legal principles and the state’s judicial system. Applicants must pass it before admission.
Ohio’s NextGen advisory committee recommended replacing that model with a more substantive state component covering gaps left by the national exam, potentially including wills and trusts, Ohio constitutional law, and the structure of Ohio’s court system. The precise future format remains subject to development.
Which Exam Will Ohio Students Take?
The dividing line is fairly simple under the schedule currently published.
Candidates sitting for the Ohio bar through February 2028 should expect the legacy UBE. Candidates sitting in Ohio beginning in July 2028 should expect NextGen.
NCBE’s Ohio admissions profile lists February 2028 as the state’s final legacy UBE administration and July 2028 as its first NextGen administration.
The timing matters especially for students who began law school in fall 2025. A traditional three-year J.D. path puts many members of that class on track to graduate in spring 2028, making them part of Ohio’s first likely cohort to encounter NextGen.
For prospective students, the path to that graduation date is changing too. Those wondering Can you get your JD online? can now look to programs such as Cleveland State University’s online J.D., which offers another route through law school.
A student graduating a semester earlier could face an entirely different test.
Preparation companies and law schools therefore have an unusual transitional problem. Two students sitting in adjacent classrooms during law school could eventually study for substantially different licensing exams simply because their graduation schedules differ by several months.
Ohio Can Accept a NextGen Score Before Hosting the Exam
A less obvious detail makes Ohio’s transition more interesting.
Ohio may not administer NextGen until July 2028, but an applicant can potentially arrive with a NextGen score earned in another jurisdiction earlier.
Ohio will accept transferred NextGen UBE scores beginning in November 2026. The listed minimum transferable NextGen score is 620, and the maximum age of an accepted score is five years. Applicants still have to meet Ohio’s other admission requirements.
Ohio’s own first NextGen administration also carries a minimum passing score of 620. Jurisdictions establish their individual thresholds, and NCBE’s passing-score list shows approved thresholds ranging from 610 to 620 among states and territories that have announced them.
Score portability therefore remains a major feature of the new system, much as it has been under the UBE.
The First NextGen Exam Also Produced a Real-World Stress Test
Any major testing overhaul eventually meets something no prototype can perfectly recreate: exam day.
The July 2026 launch largely proceeded as scheduled, but problems at several sites offered an early reminder of how much a computer-based licensing exam depends on local infrastructure.
Washington experienced the most serious disruption. About 700 applicants had been scheduled to test there, and a venue-specific infrastructure problem at the Yakima Convention Center led the Washington State Bar Association to cancel testing for affected applicants. NCBE later reported that 645 examinees were unable to complete the administration there, according to its July exam statement.
Across the full inaugural rollout, 2,640 candidates successfully completed NextGen at 16 testing locations in 10 jurisdictions. NCBE said the testing platform performed as designed and that most sites finished without significant incident.
Ohio’s later start suddenly looks less like simple hesitation and a little more like an opportunity to observe two years of real operational experience.
How Should Ohio Law Students Prepare for the Transition?
Graduation timing should drive the strategy.
Students expecting to take the Ohio exam before July 2028 still need preparation built around the MBE, MEE, and MPT. Treating NextGen materials as a substitute for legacy UBE preparation would leave important gaps.
Students targeting July 2028 or later have a different job. They should become comfortable applying doctrine inside practical scenarios rather than relying heavily on isolated rule memorization. Legal research, concise writing, document analysis, counseling, and fact evaluation carry visible weight under the new format.
Practicing with integrated question sets may be particularly valuable. A single problem can present a factual scenario, legal authorities, deposition material, or another document, followed by several question types.
The exercise resembles the messy bundle of information a young associate might receive on an ordinary workday far more closely than a page of unrelated multiple-choice questions.
Ohio students in the first NextGen class should also keep an eye on state announcements. Details of the future Ohio-specific component remain an important part of the transition, and additional information is expected as implementation moves closer.
A Two-Year Wait With a Clear Endpoint
NextGen is no longer a hypothetical redesign. Thousands of candidates have now taken the operational exam, and the national transition is moving ahead.
Ohio has chosen the far end of that transition window. Its final legacy UBE is scheduled for February 2028, followed by the first Ohio NextGen administration in July.
For law students, the calendar matters almost as much as the curriculum. A few months can determine whether bar preparation revolves around a familiar 12-hour UBE or a nine-hour exam built around a broader mix of doctrine and practical legal work.
By summer 2028, the phrase “next generation” will sound considerably less futuristic in Ohio. It will simply describe the bar exam.
