The 2028 change: NextGen Uniform Bar Exam

• Format, subject list and the 1,390 passing score do not change for 2027 or February 2028. No Court or State Bar document alters them (Grading; Scope).
• The Court ordered that the NextGen passing score be "equivalent to the current total scaled passing score of 1390 or better out of 2000 points" (order PDF). The numeric NextGen score, on a 500 to 750 scale, is not set. NCBE lists it as "TBA", and its November 11, 2025 guidance suggests 610 to 620, but each jurisdiction decides (NCBE California summary; NCBE guidance).

• Length and structure. Nine hours over 1.5 days. Each session has about 40 multiple-choice questions, two integrated question sets and one performance task (Notices page; NCBE NextGen).
• Subjects. NCBE's eight foundational subjects: Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property and Torts, plus Family Law from July 2028. Trusts and Estates appears only with provided resources. Professional Responsibility appears only as listed ABA rules inside skills questions (NCBE Content Scope).
• Law tested. National (multistate) law, not California law; Evidence and Civil Procedure are tested under the FRE and FRCP only. The essay-only California subjects, Community Property, Wills, Trusts, Remedies and stand-alone Professional Responsibility, drop out of the national exam after February 2028. They return, if at all, only in the 2029 California component.
• Delivery. In person at State Bar sites, on applicants' laptops, using NCBE's ITS software (State Bar notice).
• Portability. California accepts no transferred NextGen, UBE or MBE scores and has no admission on motion (NCBE California summary).
• Scale. 24 jurisdictions, California included, start NextGen in July 2028; 52 have adopted it in total (NCBE NextGen; NCBE, July 27, 2026).

The order tells the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) to submit, by February 26, 2027, a recommendation for a California component "beginning in July 2029 and thereafter". It would test California law, "may include" current subjects plus California employment law and family law, and "will also constitute the Attorneys' Examination" (order PDF). The State Bar's statutory notice goes further and says the component "will also test employment law and family law" (State Bar notice). On August 21, 2026 the CBE adopted guiding principles, and it held a stakeholder forum on September 16, 2026 (Notices page). Lists of "seven content areas" circulating online are not in the order and are unverified. Because state law requires two years' notice for substantial changes, July 2029 is the earliest possible date and could slip (SB 253).

Lawyers licensed in another U.S. jurisdiction for four or more years are told to take the one-day Attorneys' Exam "no later than February 2028". The State Bar says there "may be no Attorneys' Exam administered in July 2028 and February 2029". Attorney applicants "will likely be required to take the NextGen UBE" until the California component becomes the Attorneys' Exam in July 2029 (State Bar notice). Foreign-admitted lawyers are not affected by this gap, because they already take the General Bar Exam (Eligibility for foreign-trained lawyers).

• July 2020. The Court lowers the passing score from 1,440 to 1,390, first applied in October 2020 (Impact Fund summary).
• August 9, 2024. The State Bar signs a five-year, $8.25 million contract with Kaplan to write its own multiple-choice questions instead of using the NCBE's MBE (State Bar release).
• February 24–25, 2025. The one and only hybrid remote exam, delivered by Meazure Learning with Kaplan questions. About 4,200 sat it and "a significant portion" hit crashes, lag and lost answers; 3,886 completed it (State Auditor report 2025-051).
• May 2, 2025. The Court lowers the February 2025 raw passing score to 534 and orders score imputation. It also orders the NCBE MBE back for July 2025, citing "the previously undisclosed use of artificial intelligence" (2025 notices page). The Auditor later found that 29 of the 200 questions had been drafted with AI (Auditor).
• July 29–30, 2025. The in-person exam returns, with ExamSoft and nine test sites (Board release, April 2025).
• October 2025. New laws and rules. AB 484 requires a CBE report on a uniform exam by November 30, 2026. SB 253 requires two years' notice for substantial changes and 18 months for a multiple-choice vendor change. It also requires two years' notice before any remote administration, and notice whenever AI is used to write or grade questions (AB 484; SB 253). Rules of Court 9.4 to 9.6 now make the CBE review every question (Supreme Court release).
• April 17 and May 14–15, 2026. The CBE, then the Board, recommend NextGen from July 2028 (CBE release; Board release).
• July 9–10, 2026. The State Auditor finds the 2025 experiment cost at least $5.1 million plus at least $4 million in lost revenue and produced no savings (Auditor).
• July 13, 2026. Meazure settles with the State Bar for $5.25 million plus a waived $1.36 million invoice (State Bar release).
• July 15, 2026. The Court's order, and the State Bar's statutory notice the same day (order PDF; State Bar notice).
• July 27, 2026. NCBE confirms California as its 52nd NextGen jurisdiction (NCBE).

1. Sitting in 2027 or February 2028? Prepare for the current format. Everything on AntCABar, the textbook, the MBE bank, the essays and the performance tests, targets it. Start with the subject list.
2. Repeating? Failing February 2028 means facing a different exam, score scale and subject list in July 2028. Failing July 2027 leaves exactly one more attempt in this format (State Bar notice).
3. Sitting July 2028 or later? Expect an integrated, skills-based exam on national-law subjects, with no California-only subjects until the 2029 component. We will publish a NextGen track as NCBE and the State Bar finalize the details.
4. Next milestones. November 6, 2026 (July 2026 results); November 30, 2026 (AB 484 report); February 26, 2027 (California component recommendation); then the Court's decision on it, date unknown (Board action, July 16, 2026).