Nine hours of testing over a day and a half, split into three 3-hour sections. In every section: 40 standalone multiple-choice questions, then two integrated question sets, then one performance task. Across the exam that's 120 multiple-choice questions, six question sets and three performance tasks, scored as one number on a 500–750 scale — multiple-choice 49% of it, question sets 21%, performance tasks 30%.
That is the NextGen bar exam format, and the rest of this post is the detail behind each of those numbers: the schedule, the clock per item, the two kinds of each question type, what the screen gives you, and how the first cohort in July 2026 said the three hours actually felt. Every figure comes from NCBE's Official Examinees' Guide to the NextGen UBE (July 2026–February 2027 edition) and its NextGen UBE Blueprint, cross-checked against NCBE's exam pages on September 20, 2026.
How long is the NextGen bar exam?
Nine hours over one and a half days. The exam runs on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July — the Wednesday is the second day, the Tuesday the first — as two 3-hour sections on Tuesday (morning and afternoon) and one 3-hour section on Wednesday morning. Jurisdictions set the reporting times and run the sites; NCBE's test-day policies tell you to arrive at least 90 minutes before the scheduled start, and every section has to be taken on its scheduled day — late starts aren't permitted.
For comparison, the legacy UBE was twelve hours over two full days. NextGen dropped a quarter of the seat time without dropping the third day of recovery everyone actually needed: your last section ends Wednesday around midday. Candidates with extended-time accommodations follow a schedule their jurisdiction sets — see accommodations in the NextGen era.
The next sittings are February 23–24 and July 27–28, 2027, then February 22–23 and July 25–26, 2028.
How many questions are on the NextGen bar exam?
| Question type | Per section | Whole exam | Unscored pretest items | Share of score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone multiple-choice | 40 | 120 | 20 of the 120 | 49% |
| Integrated question sets | 2 | 6 | 1 of the 6 | 21% |
| Performance tasks | 1 | 3 | none (pretested separately) | 30% |
The pretest items matter more than they look. Twenty multiple-choice questions and one whole question set on your exam don't count — but NCBE says they're indistinguishable from scored items, so you can't skip them and shouldn't try to spot them. Treat every item as live; the equating that produces your scaled score is built on that assumption. The multiple-choice questions test the eight doctrinal subjects in roughly equal numbers and are independent of one another — no question's answer depends on another's.
What happens inside a three-hour section
NCBE's Blueprint draws every section the same way:
| Order | Block | NCBE's expected time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 standalone multiple-choice questions | ~72 minutes (about 1.8 minutes each) |
| 2 | Two integrated question sets | ~48 minutes (about 24 each) |
| 3 | One performance task | ~60 minutes |
Those times are expectations "based on research to date," not enforced limits. The three hours are one pool: NCBE says questions within a section may be answered in any order, the navigation tool lets you jump to any item, and nothing stops you spending 75 minutes on the performance task if you've banked the minutes elsewhere. What you can't do is cross a section boundary — once a section ends, it's closed — or carry time forward. The five-minute warning from the section timer is the only hard signal you get.
Two practical consequences. First, the performance task is the last thing in the section and the largest single item, so any overrun earlier lands on it. Second, the multiple-choice block is where minutes are most easily won or lost: at 1.8 minutes each, 40 questions is 72 minutes, and a habit of 2.2 minutes per question costs you sixteen minutes of writing time. The 60-minute performance task method and the question set walkthrough both start from that arithmetic.
The three question types, and the two kinds of each
Standalone multiple-choice questions come in two formats: select one of four options, or select two of six, with partial credit available on the select-two items. They look like MBE questions, and many are — but a good share hand you the governing rule inside the question and test whether you can apply it precisely. The four question types post covers the strategy; the sample questions post shows one of each, answered.
Integrated question sets are built on a shared fact scenario with materials — a statute excerpt, a judicial opinion, a police report, a deposition — and come in two formats. Counseling sets mix multiple-choice questions with short-answer fields; drafting sets ask for a single medium-length written answer. They can reach beyond the eight doctrinal subjects into areas where the exam supplies the law, which is how Family Law and Trusts & Estates appear through February 2028.
Performance tasks also come in two formats. A standard performance task is one extended writing assignment from a case file and a library, the descendant of the MPT. A legal research performance task opens with several multiple-choice and short-answer questions about the authorities — what binds, what's persuasive, what a source actually holds — and then asks for a medium-length written piece. Each is budgeted at about an hour, and partial credit is available on every written response.
How the exam is scored
One number, 500 to 750, with multiple-choice questions at 49% of the total, question sets at 21% and performance tasks at 30%. NCBE scores the multiple-choice items; your jurisdiction's graders score the written responses against NCBE's rubrics with NCBE's grader training, and your jurisdiction reports the result on its own date. NCBE's recommended passing range is 610–620, and each jurisdiction picks its number — most so far have chosen 616 or 620, tracked on the passing scores by state page. The scale, equating and what "one number" hides are in the scoring guide.
What's on it
Eight Foundational Concepts and Principles — Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law (with constitutional protections of accused persons), Evidence, Real Property and Torts — tested from memory in the multiple-choice block and throughout. Family Law and Trusts & Estates appear on every exam through February 2028 in skills questions with the law provided; from July 2028, Family Law becomes a ninth fully tested subject. And seven Foundational Skills — legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management — which is what the question sets and performance tasks are really grading. The subject-by-subject breakdown has the topic lists and which ones are starred for memorization.
What the screen looks like
NextGen is delivered on your own laptop through NCBE's secure testing browser, at an in-person site your jurisdiction proctors. The Blueprint lists what the platform gives you, and it's worth knowing before the tutorial:
- For every question: a section countdown timer with a five-minute warning (you can hide the timer until the warning), a navigation panel showing which questions are answered, partially answered, unanswered or marked for review, highlighting in four colors, light/dark color schemes, zoom, and mark-for-review.
- For multiple-choice: answer-choice strike-through.
- For written responses: a split screen with the question and your answer side by side (the divider slides), an ungraded notepad, spell check, copy-paste out of the provided documents into your answer, undo/redo, and basic formatting — bulleted and numbered lists, bold, italics, underline. Legal resources — the library and case file — sit in tabs on screen.
Before any of that, three administrative facts. NCBE charges a $149 technology fee through your NCBE account. The system check and exam tutorial must be done on the same laptop you'll bring, and every readiness step must be finished at least 72 hours before exam day or you don't sit. At the desk you get your laptop and charger, a government photo ID and a wired mouse; the exam-day checklist has the rest.
The clock, as the first cohort experienced it
The first NextGen administration on July 28–29, 2026 produced one consistent report from takers: the format was manageable item by item and tight as a whole. In one r/barexam thread on timing, candidates described finishing with seconds left or not finishing at all — on questions that, read individually, hadn't seemed hard. That's the arithmetic above showing up in real life: 1.8 minutes per multiple-choice question and 24 minutes per question set are averages, and a section with two long question sets and a research-type performance task is longer in practice than one with two drafting sets and a standard task.
The training implication is simple to state and tedious to do: practice each format under its own clock, then practice full three-hour sections in the Blueprint's order, so the transition from the multiple-choice block into the written blocks — the moment most people lose their pace — is rehearsed rather than met for the first time on Tuesday morning. Our practice-score benchmarks are built around timed sets for exactly that reason.
NextGen vs the legacy UBE, format only
| Legacy UBE | NextGen UBE | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 12 hours over 2 days | 9 hours over 1.5 days |
| Components | MBE (200 multiple-choice), MEE (6 essays), MPT (2 tasks) | 120 multiple-choice, 6 integrated question sets, 3 performance tasks |
| Delivery | Paper answer sheets for multiple-choice; laptops for writing | Fully computer-based on your own laptop, NCBE secure browser |
| Exam software fee | Typically $90–$150 | $149 |
| Score | 400-point scale | 500–750 scale |
The full comparison covers subjects dropped and added, score transfer and which exam your state gives when.
What to do with this
Read the sample questions so the three item types are pictures rather than definitions, take the ten-question diagnostic under the 1.8-minute clock, and when your prep starts, let the free study plan allocate the written formats the weight they carry — just over half the score — instead of the sliver most legacy-era schedules gave them.
