NextGen UBE retake in Washington goes off without a hitch
The makeup exam earlier this week following the scrapped administration of the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination in Washington in July was successfully administered for 171 bar candidates, according to sources.
The University of Washington at Tacoma hosted the retake this week—on Tuesday and Wednesday— of the new skills-based exam, a shift from the legacy bar exam’s pencil-and-paper administration to candidates’ personal computers. It comes after the July administration at the Yakima Convention & Event Center, about two hours southeast of Seattle, was aborted after technical issues.
An order from the Washington Supreme Court allowed most candidates affected by the cancellation to take the makeup exam if they wanted a portable UBE score or accept a waiver to practice only in-state. According to the state bar, 447 candidates took the waiver, 23 decided to take the February exam and two withdrew and received a full refund.
Before the retake, the Washington State Bar Association doubled down on backup technology support for the makeup exam completed.
“Today, we completed a successful makeup administration of the NextGen UBE, and we send our utmost congratulations to the examinees, who were resilient, earnest and gracious,” Terra Nevitt, the executive director of the Washington State Bar Association, told the ABA Journal in a statement. “Our top priority was a smooth process this go-round, and the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the University of Washington-Tacoma were instrumental partners in making sure that happened; their on-the-ground leadership was much appreciated preparing for and during the exam.”
According to the NCBE, all examinees who completed the exam successfully launched, progressed through and submitted each examination session, and three backup devices were used for individual device-specific issues.
According to a Sept. 3 press release from the NCBE, additionally, there were no administration-level technical interruptions, no cellular hot spot contingencies were needed, and all examination response data was uploaded on-site and confirmed as received by the NCBE’s testing system.
“I’m incredibly relieved that the bar exam went as planned, though this was a much smaller cohort of examinees,” says Carrie Sanford, the director of academic success at the University of Washington School of Law. “I’m also mindful that there should have never been a need for a September bar exam.”
She is eager for an investigation and public accounting of what happened.
“The next administration is right around the corner, so we must have answers and solutions to ensure this never happens again,” Sanford adds.
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