California Bar Exam changes 2027, 2028 and 2029: what is changing and when

Short answer. The California Bar Exam keeps its current two-day format for three more sittings: February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028. From July 2028 it is replaced by the NCBE's NextGen Uniform Bar Exam (NextGen UBE), under a California Supreme Court order dated July 15, 2026 (order PDF). A separate California component is proposed, not approved, for July 2029 at the earliest (State Bar notice, July 15, 2026). Below: the dated timeline, a before-and-after table, the February 2025 failure and a decision guide. For a shorter overview, see our NextGen reform page.

Applies to the February 2027, July 2027, February 2028 and July 2028 sittings. Every fact was checked on September 24, 2026 against the page linked in the same sentence. Inferences and projections are marked as such. The one press report and the one secondary source are labelled.

Which exam will you take? The answer by sitting

Which multiple-choice test will February 2027 use? No State Bar page names the supplier yet. The NCBE MBE is the working assumption. NCBE keeps the MBE available through February 2028 (NCBE, October 2023). The CBE says the MBE will be "phased out as a standalone option after the February 2028 administration" (CBE release, April 17, 2026).

Do not mix study materials for the two exams: NextGen has a different question style, score scale and subject list. See the exam overview and the subject list for the current exam.

The current exam, through February 2028

Format and scoring

The current exam is the General Bar Exam (GBX): two days, in person only, at State Bar test sites in California, with no remote option (July 2026 exam page).

• Day 1 (Tuesday): 5 essays, one hour each, plus one 90-minute Performance Test (PT). In July 2026 answers were typed in ExamSoft's Examplify or handwritten (July 2026 exam page; Laptops page).
• Day 2 (Wednesday): in July 2026, the NCBE's Multistate Bar Examination (MBE): 200 multiple-choice questions in two three-hour sessions, 175 scored and 25 unscored pretest items, answered on a paper Scantron sheet (July 2026 exam page).
• Subjects: 13 essay subjects. Seven are also MBE subjects. Six are essay-only: Business Associations, Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Remedies, Trusts and Wills. Unless a question asks for California law, you answer under general principles (Scope page).
• Scoring: the written day and the MBE each count 50% on a 2000-point scale. The passing score is 1390. Below 1350 fails; 1350 to 1389 gets a full second read, and the average must reach 1390 (Grading page). This standard has applied since October 2020. No Court order or State Bar notice changes it for 2027 or February 2028 (State Bar notice).

Who takes which exam

Lawyers whose license in another U.S. jurisdiction has been active and in good standing for at least four years immediately before the exam may take the one-day Attorneys' Exam (Day 1 only) (Attorney Applicants page; Rule 4.3(C), Title 4). Foreign-licensed lawyers cannot take it; they take the full two-day General Bar Exam (February 2026 statistics, footnotes; State Bar knowledge base). They pay attorney-applicant fees (Appendix A) and need no U.S. law degree. LL.M. graduates not licensed anywhere pay general-applicant fees (Foreign Education page). See our foreign-lawyer guide.

Fees and deadlines for February 2027

The current Appendix A schedule of the State Bar rules is in force. The page carries no year; the Board adopted these fees for 2026 in November 2025 (Appendix A; Board, November 2025). No separate 2027 fees are posted. Prep sites still quoting $850 or $1,500 are out of date. The State Bar's 2025 Annual Report projects a shortfall of about $2.8 million, which could lead to another fee change (2025 Annual Report). If you plan to sit in July 2027, re-check the fees when applications open (expected March 1, 2027). Full breakdown: our fees post.

Source: Appendix A.

The February 2027 deadlines are posted (Dates and Deadlines). Every date is also in our dates and deadlines post.

July 2027 deadlines are not posted. By Rule 4.61 and Appendix A, expect: applications open March 1, 2027; timely deadline April 1; $50 late window April 2–30; $250 late window May 1 to June 1 (Rule 4.61, Title 4; Appendix A). Filing steps are in How to apply.

The July 15, 2026 Supreme Court order

On July 15, 2026 the California Supreme Court issued Administrative Order 2026-07-15-01 in case S296951, granting the State Bar's request filed June 5, 2026. The key terms, all in the order PDF:

• The NextGen UBE replaces the General Bar Exam beginning with the July 2028 administration.
• The Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) must submit, by February 26, 2027, a recommendation for a California component "beginning in July 2029 and thereafter."
• That component "will also constitute the Attorneys' Examination" and "may include" the current subjects plus California employment law and California family law.
• The exam stays on the last Tuesday of February and of July.
• The passing score must be "equivalent to the current total scaled passing score of 1390 or better out of 2000 points."
• It supersedes the Court's October 10, 2024 order "insofar as" that order required an exam "entirely developed in California."

The same day the State Bar published the two-year notice required by Business and Professions Code section 6046.6 (State Bar notice). It adds:

• NextGen runs on NCBE's testing platform, in person at State Bar sites, as the Court's release also says.
• There is no California component in July 2028 or February 2029; the component comes "no earlier than July 2029."
• The component "will also test employment law and family law," stronger than the order's "may include." Nothing about it is approved yet.
• U.S.-licensed attorneys should take the one-day Attorneys' Exam "no later than February 2028." "There may be no Attorneys' Exam administered in July 2028 and February 2029." Attorneys without a passing score by then "will likely be required to take the NextGen UBE."

The CBE recommended NextGen on April 17, 2026 (CBE release). The Board of Trustees agreed unanimously on May 14–15, 2026 and asked for a California component "as soon as practicable" (Board release). NCBE confirmed California as its 52nd NextGen jurisdiction on July 27, 2026 (NCBE).

Before and after: current exam vs NextGen

Sources: order PDF; State Bar notice; Notices page; NCBE NextGen content scope; NCBE passing-score guidance, November 11, 2025; NCBE California sheet.

What this means for foreign-trained candidates

Two changes matter most. First, Community Property and the California-specific rules in Wills, Trusts and Professional Responsibility drop out of the national exam after February 2028. On NextGen, Trusts and Estates appear only with provided materials, Professional Responsibility only through listed ABA rules, and Remedies only inside Contracts and Torts. California law returns only if the Court approves the 2029 component (NCBE NextGen content scope). Second, each NextGen session has about 40 multiple-choice questions, two integrated question sets and one performance task, instead of five one-hour essays and a 90-minute PT (Notices page). Fast, accurate reading of legal English matters on both exams, so train it now.

The proposed California component (July 2029)

Nothing about the component is final. On the record:

• The Court wants a CBE recommendation by February 26, 2027 for a component "beginning in July 2029 and thereafter," which would also serve as the Attorneys' Exam (order PDF).
• The order says it "may include" current subjects plus California employment law and family law; the State Bar notice says it "will also test employment law and family law" (State Bar notice).
• The CBE's guiding principles of August 21, 2026 say the component "must be reliable and secure" and should give California licensees "relative parity" with other states; a stakeholder forum followed on September 16, 2026 (Notices page).
• The CBE's notices page refers to "seven content areas identified by the Supreme Court" but does not list them, and the order lists no seven areas. Subject lists circulating online are unverified (Notices page).

Under SB 253 (2025), a change requiring "substantial modification" of exam preparation needs two years' notice (SB 253). A July 2029 start therefore needs notice by about July 2027. If the notice slips, the component slips too.

What happened in February 2025, and how it was unwound

The plan and the exam

In August 2024 the State Bar signed a five-year, $8.25 million contract with Kaplan Exam Services to replace the MBE with its own multiple-choice questions (State Bar release, August 13, 2024). On October 22, 2024 the Supreme Court approved Kaplan questions and hybrid remote or test-center delivery through Meazure Learning for February 2025 (Court release, October 22, 2024).

About 4,200 people sat the hybrid exam on February 24–25, 2025 through Meazure's ProctorU platform; 3,886 completed it (Auditor Report 2025-051; February 2025 results). Applicants reported crashes, lag, lost text and proctor problems, and filed a class action against the vendor on February 27, 2025 (Auditor). The Board had already voted on February 21, 2025 to give a free July 2025 retake to anyone who withdrew or failed, budgeted at $3.1 million (State Bar release, February 21, 2025). Of the 200 multiple-choice questions, 117 came from Kaplan, 54 from the First-Year Law Students' Exam and 29 were drafted with AI assistance by ACS Ventures, the State Bar's psychometric consultant. Scoring later dropped 29 of the 200, leaving 171. Not all of the dropped questions were the AI-drafted ones: the Auditor found that 21% of the AI-drafted questions were removed (Auditor; CBE release, April 21, 2025).

The unwinding: March to August 2025

The State Auditor's findings (July 2026)

SB 47, signed October 1, 2025, ordered a State Auditor review (SB 47). Report 2025-051, published July 9, 2026, found (Auditor Report 2025-051):

• A two-month contracting delay left six months to develop questions, and the Kaplan contract did not specify topics.
• ACS Ventures filled gaps with 29 AI-drafted questions; nobody escalated this to the Executive Director, the CBE or the Board. 45% of those questions were flagged and 21% removed from scoring.
• One subject-matter expert reviewed all 200 questions; 23 questions got no review.
• Meazure was hired without business requirements or performance metrics.
• No savings: direct cost "at least $5.1 million," plus "at least $4 million in lost revenue."

The State Bar accepted every recommendation (State Bar response).

Settlements and new guardrails

On July 13, 2026 the State Bar settled with Meazure Learning: Meazure pays $5.25 million and waives a $1.36 million invoice, and the case is dismissed with prejudice after payment (settlement release). The applicants' class action has a reported proposed settlement of $1.35 million, which would refund each claimant at least the $153 laptop fee. A preliminary-approval hearing is expected in January 2027. These terms come from press reports, not a court order (ABA Journal, September 21, 2026).

Three rules followed:

• Rules of Court 9.4 to 9.6 (effective October 1, 2025): the CBE reviews every question, sets public standards for experts and vendors, and regains subpoena power and admissions-budget oversight (Supreme Court release).
• SB 253 (signed October 6, 2025): two years' notice for substantial exam changes and before any remote administration, 18 months for a multiple-choice vendor change and 120 days for user-experience changes. Notice is also required whenever AI writes questions or grades (SB 253).
• December 18, 2025: stricter standards for subject-matter experts, validators and score-setting panelists (Courts Newsroom).

The two-year notice rule is also why the NextGen decision had to be final by July 2026 for a July 2028 start (State Bar, January 23, 2026).

Dated timeline, 2020 to 2029

Decision guide: February 2027, July 2027, February 2028 or July 2028?

Only three sittings of the current exam remain, and anyone who fails the last one, in February 2028, next faces a different exam.

What the pass-rate data says

February sittings have lower pass rates, and far more February takers are repeaters. July 2025: 7,362 completed, 54.8% passed, first-timers 69.7%, repeaters 12.4% (July 2025 results). February 2026: 3,931 completed, 30.8% passed, first-timers 43.9%, repeaters 23.1% (February 2026 results). The passing score is 1390 in both months. First-time takers were 67 to 74 percent of July sittings but only 29 to 37 percent of February sittings (GBX pass-rate summary, November 7, 2025; February 2026 statistics for the 37% upper bound).

Foreign-trained candidates passed at lower rates in every recent sitting: foreign-licensed attorneys 18.2% in July 2025 and 22.2% in February 2026; LL.M.-route candidates 13.4% and 17.8% (July 2025 statistics; February 2026 statistics). In normal administrations of recent years, foreign-trained pass rates ranged from 13 to 26 percent (exam statistics). More detail is in our pass-rates post. Plan for the possibility of two attempts.

If you are a foreign-licensed lawyer or an LL.M. graduate

You take the two-day General Bar Exam (Foreign Education page). Aim for February 2027 or July 2027. Both leave at least one more attempt in the current format if you fail. If you can be ready for a February 2027 exam, file by the November 2, 2026 timely deadline; otherwise target July 2027 (projected timely deadline April 1, 2027). A first attempt in February 2028 is the riskiest choice. February results come in early May (May 1 in 2026, per the February 2026 results), so a fail leaves less than three months to switch to NextGen for July 2028. By then the July 2028 timely filing deadline will have passed (projected April 3, 2028, because April 1 is a Saturday), so expect the $50 or $250 late fees (Rule 4.61, Title 4).

If you are licensed in another U.S. state (4+ years)

Take the one-day Attorneys' Exam no later than February 2028 (State Bar notice): there "may be no Attorneys' Exam" in July 2028 or February 2029, and NextGen would "likely" apply instead. Pass rates were 43.4% in July 2025 (378 completed) and 57.0% in February 2026 (477 completed) (Attorneys' Exam summary, November 7, 2025; February 2026 statistics).

If you are a repeater, or cannot be ready before mid-2028

Repeaters should try to pass before the current format ends, because their essay, PT and MBE practice is built for it. First-time February 2025 takers who failed or withdrew should check the Provisional Licensure Program, which runs through December 31, 2027 (PLP page). If you cannot be ready before mid-2028, prepare for NextGen from the start and do not buy legacy essay materials. Watch February 26, 2027 (the component recommendation), the Court's decision on it, and California's NextGen passing score, which NCBE lists as "TBA" (NCBE California sheet).

Decision table

AntCABar's textbooks cover the current format for the February 2027, July 2027 and February 2028 sittings. NextGen content for July 2028 comes from March 2027; see the pricing page.