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NextGen vs UBE, in one line: twelve hours becomes nine, the six MEE essays disappear entirely, 200 multiple-choice questions become 120, and the 400-point scale becomes 500 to 750. Conflict of laws and secured transactions are dropped. Legal research becomes a directly tested skill rather than an assumed one.
Duration, structure, question types and scale all change at once, which is why a side-by-side is more useful than a narrative.
The short version: twelve hours becomes nine, two full days becomes one and a half, 200 multiple-choice questions become 120, and a 400-point scale becomes a 500 to 750 scale.
The deeper change is that the UBE tested three separate instruments on separate days and NextGen tests one integrated instrument in which every session mixes all three question types (https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Blueprint.pdf).
Legacy UBENextGen UBETotal time12 hours9 hoursDaysTwo full daysOne and a half daysSessionsFour, by componentThree, each mixing all question typesMultiple-choice200 MBE items, 175 scored120 items, 100 scoredEssaysSix 30-minute MEE essaysNone; six integrated question sets insteadPerformance tasksTwo 90-minute MPT itemsThree tasks, about one hour eachWeightingMBE 50, MEE 30, MPT 20MCQ 49, integrated sets 21, performance tasks 30Score scale0 to 400500 to 750DeliveryPrinted materials and ScantronsOwn laptop, NCBE secure testing browser
UBE structure and weighting from NCBE (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/ube); NextGen structure from the Blueprint (https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Blueprint.pdf) and the scoring page (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/nextgen-ube-scores-score-portability). Verified July 27, 2026.
The six 30-minute MEE essays are eliminated entirely and replaced by integrated question sets (https://www.ncbex.org/news-resources/ncbe-announces-nextgen-exam-structure-sunset-current-bar-exam). That is the change most examinees feel first.
Two subjects are dropped as memorized doctrine with no announced return: conflict of laws, and secured transactions under UCC Article 9 (https://www.ncbex.org/news-resources/update-nextgen-exam-content-extends-availability).
Two more subjects move to a resource-provided model rather than disappearing. Family law and trusts and estates appear embedded in skills questions with the statutes and case law supplied (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/content-scope).
And one specific doctrine is named as not tested at all. The rule against perpetuities is explicitly excluded from NextGen (https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE%20NextGen%20UBE%20Content%20Scope-Aug%202025.pdf).
Integrated question sets, which have no legacy analogue at all. A shared fact pattern carries multiple-choice, medium-answer and short-answer questions together (https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2026-01/NCBE_NextGen_UBE_Constructed_Response_Guide.pdf).
Legal Research Performance Tasks, which assess legal research as a directly tested skill rather than an assumed competence (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/sample-questions).
A new multiple-choice format, select two of six options, alongside the familiar select one of four. And double grading, meaning two independent graders on every constructed response.
Four skills are newly named with no legacy analogue: client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management, and investigation and evaluation (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/content-scope).
Score weighting and time weighting are different numbers, published on different NCBE pages, and conflating them will mis-plan your preparation.
Score weights are 49 percent standalone multiple-choice, 21 percent integrated question sets and 30 percent performance tasks (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/nextgen-ube-scores-score-portability).
Time runs roughly 40 percent multiple-choice, just over a quarter integrated sets, and about a third performance tasks (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/sample-questions).
Read those two together and performance tasks are the highest-leverage minutes on the exam, at 30 percent of the score for about a third of the time, while integrated sets carry 21 percent of the score for a quarter of the time.
One framing point that governs this whole page. The first NextGen administration was July 28 and 29, 2026 (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen), so at the time of writing no NextGen exam had been sat anywhere in the world and no results existed. There is no NextGen pass rate, no score distribution, no repeater data and no retrospective on how it went, and anyone offering you one is inventing it.
That also means no one can tell you whether NextGen is easier or harder than the UBE. The structural comparison above is publishable; a difficulty comparison is not.
NCBE has not published a NextGen mean or standard deviation either. The figures are absent from the Guidance Brief, the Examinees' Guide, the Blueprint and every scoring page (https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/FOR%20RELEASE%20NCBE%20NextGen%20Guidance%20Brief-Recommended%20Passing%20Score%20Range-2.pdf), which is worth knowing before you read anyone's confident claim about difficulty.
This page is one spoke of a cluster. The hub is our NextGen bar exam pillar, which carries the whole transition in one place and links every spoke including this one.
The two most closely related pages here are what is the nextgen bar exam and what is the uniform bar exam.
Everything across the cluster is drawn from the same verified fact set and carries the same verified-as-of date, so the numbers agree with each other by construction rather than by coincidence.
Every fact here was read on NCBE's own pages or the jurisdiction's own board or supreme court pages on July 27, 2026. No prep company, no aggregator, no forum and no news summary was used as a source for anything.
Where a jurisdiction's own site was unreachable, robots-blocked or JavaScript-gated, we say the fact rests on NCBE alone rather than presenting it as confirmed. That happened more often than you would expect and it is named on the page each time.
Where two official sources disagree, we publish the conflict and name which one we treat as operational. We do not pick quietly and we do not average them.
Where nothing is published, the page says not yet published by the board. It never says a number we worked out ourselves, because an estimate that looks like a disclosure is worse than a gap.
It cannot tell you what your own board will do. Jurisdictions set their own dates, fees, cut scores, deadlines and admission rules, and NCBE compiles those decisions rather than making them.
It cannot substitute for reading your jurisdiction's rule text. Compilation charts are an index into the rules, not the rules, and every material decision should be checked against the authority itself.
The first is adoption. Supreme courts issue orders on their own schedule and NCBE's compilation pages lag them, which is exactly what happened with California in July 2026.
The second is the calendar. Most jurisdictions had not posted 2027 dates or 2027 fees at verification, and several were serving prior-cycle pages without saying so.
The third is cut scores. NCBE states on its own page that jurisdictions are currently evaluating its recommended NextGen range (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/minimum-passing-scores), so that list grows month by month.
None of those three settles before autumn. Treat September as the re-check point for anything on this page that carries a date or a number.
Start at NCBE's jurisdiction index (https://www.ncbex.org/jurisdictions) to find the name of your admitting authority, which is often not the state bar association and is sometimes a board sitting under the supreme court.
Then go to that authority's own site and look for a dated page. A page with no cycle label is the warning sign, not the exception; several boards serve prior-cycle information with no year on it anywhere.
Cross-check the deadlines page against the program page, because they disagree more often than they should. We found boards contradicting themselves on dates in the same week.
If the two disagree and you cannot tell which is current, email the board and keep the reply. A dated email from the board is better evidence than any table, including this one.
Open your own jurisdiction's board page and confirm every date and number on this page against it.
Where this page says not yet published, check again in September, which is when most boards refresh.
If your plan turns on a figure here, get it from the board in writing rather than from any table.
Everything on this page about the NextGen and UBE comparison was read on the source pages listed inline on July 27, 2026, and the date is on the page rather than buried in a footer because this material moves faster than anything else we publish.
Three separate clocks are running against it. Supreme courts issue adoption orders and NCBE's own pages lag them.
Most jurisdictions had not posted 2027 dates or fees. NextGen passing scores are being set jurisdiction by jurisdiction right now, and NCBE says so on its own page (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/minimum-passing-scores).
Re-check your own jurisdiction's board before you rely on any date or number here, including ours. A figure quoted anywhere without a cycle label and a date attached is unverified by definition.
Twelve hours over two days becomes nine over one and a half, 200 multiple-choice becomes 120, the six MEE essays are gone, weighting moves from 50/30/20 to 49/21/30, and the scale moves from 400 points to 500 to 750.
The six MEE essays entirely, plus conflict of laws and secured transactions as memorized subjects. Family law and trusts and estates move to a resource-provided model. The rule against perpetuities is not tested.
Integrated question sets, Legal Research Performance Tasks, a select-two-of-six multiple-choice format, double grading, and four newly named skills including counseling, negotiation, client management and investigation.
Unknown. The first administration was July 28 and 29, 2026, so no NextGen results, pass rates or score distributions existed when this page was written.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026