The NextGen UBE launches next month; are we ready?
Updated: As 10 jurisdictions prepare to be the first wave to administer the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam next month, some law school administrators are scrambling to fill the gaps in test prep materials and remain concerned about the portability of the new skills-based test from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
“The academic support and bar prep community literally is operating on vibes right now,” says Marsha Griggs, associate professor at St. Louis University School of Law. “Our train has already left the station.“
Micah Yarbrough, director of bar prep programs at University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, agrees. “We were forced to launch based on good intentions and promises, which is not ideal for the students in terms of figuring out their way forward, giving them a sense of confidence,” he says.
Early-adoption jurisdictions consist of Connecticut, Guam, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, the Virgin Islands and Washington, according to the NCBE.
The academics note that not all sourcebooks, outlines of the doctrinal concepts and principles tested on the new skills-focused exam are available.
While seven subject-matter sourcebooks are out, NCBE spokesperson Valerie Hickman says the Constitutional Law Sourcebook won’t be available until mid-July, the same month the test will be administered for the first time. The Business Associations and Relationships Sourcebook was released May 27.
However, shortly after this story was published, Griggs received an email from the NCBE saying the missing sourcebook, the Constitutional Law Sourcebook, is now available, earlier than anticipated, and that accredited law schools would be notified on June 15.
“We could have used them a year ago,” says Carrie Sanford, director of academic success at the University of Washington School of Law. “There are less practice materials available for people taking NextGen than there have been for the legacy UBE. That’s a fact. You can’t even argue that.”
The NCBE offers free sample questions for each NextGen question type on its website. And law schools can license—or students can purchase directly—six NextGen practice sets with 40 stand-alone multiple-choice questions, two integrated question sets and one performance task per set; one multiple-choice question bank of 50 stand-alone multiple-choice questions; and two integrated question set banks that include five integrated question sets per bank.
Academics also have concerns about the portability of NextGen UBE scores. In January, New York announced it would not accept any NextGen transfer scores until 2028, and so did Florida. In addition, 11 others have not determined when they will start accepting the NextGen scores. Hawaii, which has not been a UBE jurisdiction and does not accept transferred MBE scores, will not accept transferred NextGen UBE scores, according to the NCBE.
“The academic support and bar prep community literally is operating on vibes right now,” Marsha Griggs says. (Photo by Jeannie Liataud Photography/ABA Journal)
New York’s decision “really threw this community for a loop,” says Brian Gallini, dean of Quinnipiac University School of Law. “That caught a lot of our students off guard. We did see students who were like, ‘If you’re telling me it’s not portable, then I am going to take a different exam.’”
To fill the gap left by the lack of historic questions for the new exam, law schools like Quinnipiac are leaning on commercial bar prep companies. For instance, the Connecticut law school, which requires students to take a bar prep course before graduation, developed with AccessLex Institute a NextGen sister course to the one it has for the legacy exam.
AccessLex developed its Building Bar Skills Initiative with modules on topics like legal writing and research, says Joel Chanvisanuruk, senior director of programs for academic and bar success in AccessLex’s Center for Legal Education Excellence.
Teams of skills and doctrinal professors each created about six to eight hours of adoptable curriculum for law faculty based on the information available from the NCBE about the NextGen.
“The faculty then test-drive those modules in a class over a semester, then reconfigure and recalibrate the materials based on what they learn from the students’ engagement,” Chanvisanuruk says. “Each of the modules will provide an adopter with everything from the materials, rubrics, mode answers and skills-based student learning outcomes.”
While Griggs says her school is also leaning on the commercial bar prep companies, she notes that “they are in the exact same positions that we’re in and truly don’t have any more access or information than we have.”
All the academics contacted by the ABA Journal agreed the candidates need to become comfortable with the new skills-based exam.
Gallini notes that most candidates have never taken the bar exam before and won’t be used to the legacy UBE format. “Now, they need to have confidence and bear down and do the work,” he adds.
Updated June 12 at 9:25 a.m. to include additional reporting on the Constitutional Law Sourcebook.
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