Foundational Concepts and Principles will be tested on every administration of the NextGen bar exam. These are
Starting in July 2028, family law will be included in the Foundational Concepts and Principles tested on the NextGen bar exam. In addition, select American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct will be tested.
Throughout the exam, seven Foundational Skills, organized into four broad skills areas, will be assessed:
For outlines of testable legal doctrine and skills, please see the NextGen Bar Exam Content Scope.
The NextGen bar exam will feature three broad categories of question types:
The following sample questions provide a preview of some of the question types that will appear on the NextGen bar exam, which will launch in July 2026. Additional samples will be released by the NCBE throughout 2023 and 2024. Sign up here to be notified of future releases.
Multiple-Choice Questions
Approximately 40% of the exam time will be devoted to stand-alone multiple-choice questions with between four and six answer options and one or more correct answers. Initially, many of these questions will closely resemble Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) questions; this will ensure stability between scores for the current and NextGen bar exams. In future administrations, the variety of multiple-choice question types will increase. Note that some multiple-choice questions may also appear in the integrated question sets and longer writing tasks, which are described below. Sample Multiple-Choice Questions
Integrated Question Sets
Just under a quarter of the exam time will be devoted to integrated question sets. Each of these sets is based on a common fact scenario and may include some legal resources (e.g., excerpts of statutes or judicial opinions) and/or supplemental documents (e.g., a police report or excerpt from a deposition) and include a mixture of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. In addition to testing doctrinal law, some integrated question sets will be focused on drafting or editing a legal document; other sets will be focused on counseling and/or dispute resolution. Sample Integrated Question Sets
Performance Tasks
Approximately a third of the exam time will be devoted to three performance tasks. These tasks, like current Multistate Performance Test (MPT) questions, will require examinees to demonstrate their ability to use fundamental lawyering skills in realistic situations, completing tasks that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish. These tasks may feature areas of doctrinal law, with accompanying legal resources, not included in the Foundational Concepts and Principles. These areas of doctrinal law might include, for example, Trusts and Estates, Intellectual Property, or Administrative Law. One of the longer performance tasks will include several multiple-choice questions and short constructed response questions focused on research skills, followed by a longer writing assignment. Sample Performance Task
