The changeover

Two Bar Exams Exist. You Only Sit One.

The profession is midway through replacing the Uniform Bar Examination with the NextGen bar exam. Which one you take depends entirely on where you are admitted — and preparing for the wrong one is an expensive way to find that out.

AccelaStudy® AI Bar covers both tracks under one subscription.

Dates that matter

Where the Changeover Stands

These three dates are the whole story. Everything else is detail.

July 2026
Ten jurisdictions gave the NextGen bar exam for the first time. The first cohort sat an exam nobody had taken before, in a handful of states that moved early.
February 2028
The last legacy UBE administration. After this sitting, the Uniform Bar Examination is history everywhere.
July 2028
Roughly fifty jurisdictions on NextGen. By this point the transition is essentially complete and the NextGen track is the only one that matters.

In the meantime, both exams are real. If you are sitting between now and February 2028, your jurisdiction is on one side of that line or the other, and the difference is not cosmetic. That is why this course has two tracks rather than one course with a NextGen chapter bolted on.

Track one

The Legacy UBE, in Plain English

Three separate components, given over two days, scored and weighted separately. Most candidates who fail do not fail on knowledge — they fail on the two written components, where the clock and the page do the damage.

MBE

Multistate Bar Examination

The multiple-choice component. Seven subjects, tested by fact patterns that are usually short and almost never simple. The scoring is unforgiving of pace: fall behind and the last questions get answered by reflex.

Subjects

Civil Procedure · Constitutional Law · Contracts · Criminal Law and Procedure · Evidence · Real Property · Torts

How we train it →

MEE

Multistate Essay Examination

Written answers to fact patterns, under timing. Graders are looking for issues raised, rules stated correctly, and application to the facts — in that order. Beautiful prose that misses an issue scores below plain prose that catches it.

Adds beyond the MBE seven

Business Associations · Conflict of Laws · Family Law · Trusts and Estates · Secured Transactions

How we grade it →

MPT

Multistate Performance Test

A closed-universe lawyering task on a 90-minute clock. You are handed a File and a Library and told to produce something — a memo, a brief, a client letter. No outside law, no memorised rules. It is the one component you can pass on skill alone.

Graded on

Following the task instructions · Quality and organisation of the analysis · Use of the File and Library

The workspace →

Track two

NextGen, in Plain English

Same profession, same competence being measured — assembled differently. The headline change is that knowledge and lawyering are no longer tested in separate rooms.

What actually changes

Integration. Rather than a multiple-choice day and a writing day, NextGen builds question sets that move between selected-response, short written answers, and applied tasks around a shared set of facts.
A narrower core of subjects. NCBE has published the foundational subjects NextGen tests, and it is a shorter list than the combined MBE-plus-MEE spread.
Named lawyering skills. Alongside doctrine, NextGen explicitly tests the skills a new lawyer uses — issue spotting, legal research and analysis, written communication, client counselling and advocacy.
Performance tasks stay. Applied, closed-universe tasks remain central, which is why the same graded workspace serves both tracks.

What that means for how you study

A course that teaches doctrine in one place and writing in another is preparing you for the exam that is being retired. On the NextGen track, doctrine arrives attached to the task it serves, and your written work is graded from the first week rather than in a “essay module” at the end.

The NextGen track is built to NCBE’s published content scope — not the legacy course with a chapter added. It is the same engine, pointed at a different exam.

How to choose

Pick Your Jurisdiction. Get the Right Course.

It takes about two minutes and one authoritative source.

How do I find out which exam my jurisdiction gives?

Two places, and they agree: your jurisdiction’s board of bar examiners, and NCBE’s public list of NextGen adopting jurisdictions and their first administration dates. Use the board’s page as the authority — it is the body that will actually seat you.

I’m sitting before February 2028 in a state that hasn’t converted. What do I take?

The legacy UBE track. Your exam is still the MBE, MEE, and MPT, and preparing for NextGen instead would leave you short on subjects the UBE still tests.

My jurisdiction converts between now and my exam date. Now what?

Switch tracks inside the same subscription, at no additional cost. Both tracks are included — there is no upgrade to buy and no second course to purchase. What you have already proven carries across; the engine does not make you re-earn it.

I haven’t decided where I’m sitting yet.

Start anyway. The foundational doctrine is shared, and rule-statement drills, issue spotting, and written work all count on either exam. Choose the track when your jurisdiction is settled — nothing you do before then is wasted.

Does either track cover my state’s own law component?

No. Some jurisdictions add a state-specific component or a separate state law exam alongside the national one, and those are set locally. This course prepares you for the national exam — check your board for anything on top of it.

One Subscription. Both Tracks.

Legacy UBE and NextGen, included together, with free switching if your jurisdiction’s date moves. Launching December 2026 at $299/mo.

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