Studying for the NextGen bar exam is not studying for the UBE with new labels. The subjects are fewer, the memorization is narrower, the writing is half the score and appears in every section, and the clock — according to the people who sat the first administration in July 2026 — is the exam. The plan below is seven steps in the order they should happen, each pointing to the deeper guide on this site where the details live. Every number in it comes from NCBE's published materials or the first cohort's reports; nothing here is a prep-company slogan.
Step 1 — Diagnose before you plan
Start with a timed measurement, not an outline. The free 10-question diagnostic runs both multiple-choice formats at the real 1.8-minute pace and scores you by subject in ten minutes; it tells you which of the eight subjects will need rebuilding and whether select-two questions are already a problem. If you've sat the exam before, your score report's "Percent Below" indicators by format and subject do the same job with real data — how to read them. A plan built on a guess about your weaknesses wastes its first month.
Step 2 — Learn the exam's shape, then its list
Twenty minutes with the format guide buys the frame everything else hangs on: three 3-hour sections over a day and a half, each running 40 multiple-choice questions, then two integrated question sets, then one performance task; 120 multiple-choice items (20 unscored), six sets (one unscored), three tasks; multiple-choice 49% of the score, sets 21%, tasks 30%; one 500–750 scaled score against a state passing score of 610–620.
Then the list. Eight doctrinal subjects — Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Evidence, Real Property, Torts — with Family Law and Trusts & Estates appearing through February 2028 only with the law provided, and Family Law joining as a ninth subject from July 2028. Within each subject, NCBE stars the topics you must know from memory; unstarred topics may come with resources attached. The subject guide has every topic and the starred list is the memorization map. Knowing which topics are starred is the single biggest efficiency in NextGen prep, because it tells you what not to memorize.
Step 3 — Build a schedule weighted like the score
The build is roughly 400–500 hours. Full-time, that's 8–12 weeks at 40–50 hours a week — a graduating 3L starting around mid-May for a July exam, or early December for February. Working or part-time, it's 16 weeks or more at 20–25 hours, starting around April for July or October for February. The study-hours guide shows the arithmetic, the 8-, 10- and 12-week schedules lay the weeks out, and the cohort timelines say when yours should begin.
The one rule that separates a NextGen schedule from a legacy one: written formats get time proportional to their score from the start. The MBE-era plan — grind multiple choice, treat writing as a formality for the last fortnight — is miscalibrated by half the exam. From mid-prep, about half of practice time belongs to timed question sets and performance tasks. The free planner builds the calendar that way from your exam date and your real weekly hours.
Step 4 — Drill every format on its own clock, from week one
NCBE's expectations are about 1.8 minutes per multiple-choice question, 24 minutes per question set and 60 minutes per performance task. Those are the clocks to practice under, separately, from the first week — not because the numbers are enforced (a section is one three-hour pool) but because the first cohort's dominant report was time, and a habit of 2.2 minutes per question costs sixteen minutes of writing time per section.
Two multiple-choice habits matter specifically. Select-two-of-six questions resist elimination tactics — killing two obvious losers still leaves six possible pairs — so practice them as their own format and take the partial credit when one pick is certain. And practice items that hand you a statute or rule and test whether you apply its words; answering from memory is the reliable way to lose those points. The question-types guide covers the tactics and the sample questions show one of each format, answered. Keep a small daily floor on starred rules with flashcards so recall doesn't decay while you work on formats.
Step 5 — Grade your writing the way graders will
There are no essays. Written work is short answers inside counseling sets, a medium-length drafting answer in drafting sets, and the performance task — each graded against fixed scoring guides by two graders, with an issue-by-issue rubric for tasks scored 0–4 for rules and 0–4 for application. That makes written practice unusually teachable: you can grade yourself against the same scales. Do it strictly — an issue you skipped is a zero, a rule stated but never applied is half — and do it every time, because a written answer can feel complete while missing the two things the guide pays for. How written answers are graded sets out the scales and NCBE's own tips; the question-set walkthrough and the 60-minute performance-task method cover the technique.
Step 6 — Sit full sections in NCBE's order before exam week
A drill is a block; a practice test is a section — 40 questions, two sets, one task, three hours, in that order, with the join between the multiple-choice block and the written work rehearsed rather than met for the first time on a Tuesday morning. From four to five weeks out, sit one full section a week, and use NCBE's official Simulated Exams — the only full-length NextGen tests built from NCBE's own items — in the final three weeks as your calibration score. The practice-test guide lists what's free, what NCBE sells, and a week-by-week calendar; the practice-score benchmarks say what "on track" looks like, labeled as the heuristic it is.
Step 7 — Clear the readiness steps, then protect the last three days
NCBE's pre-exam requirements have teeth: the candidate agreement, the $149 technology fee, the secure browser on the laptop you'll actually bring, and the exam tutorial with its system check — every step complete at least 72 hours before exam day, or you don't sit. For February 23–24, 2027 that's Saturday, February 20 at the latest, and your board may set an earlier date. The exam-day checklist has the rules, what to bring, and what July 2026 taught about venues. Then stop testing: the last three days are for starred-rule review, logistics and sleep. Three 3-hour sections reward being rested more than one more pass through an outline.
What to buy, if anything
Nothing on this list requires a course. It requires NCBE's free materials, a bank of practice in every format with explanations and rubrics, and a clock. If you need a schedule imposed from outside and a human reading your written work, a course is what sells those — the four main NextGen courses compared run from about $1,200 to $3,300 as of September 2026. If you don't, a $99 lifetime bank with 2,900+ questions in both formats, 30 sets and 15 tasks with model answers and rubrics, plus the free planner, is the whole kit; the self-study guide is honest about who it suits and who it doesn't.
The plan on one line
Measure first; learn the shape and the starred list; schedule the written half like half; drill every format on its clock from week one; grade writing against rubrics; sit whole sections in NCBE's order; clear the readiness steps and rest. The first cohort learned the seventh and fourth steps the hard way. You don't have to.
