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New bar exam coming to Indiana in 2028

By Mia Hilkowitz, Indiana Capital Chronicle

Posted August 9, 2024

The National Conference of Bar Examiners will offer both the Uniform Bar Exam and NextGen test through February 2028 to give states time to transition to the new format. (Barbara Brosher/WTIU News)

Indiana will begin using a new bar exam to admit future attorneys to practice law in the state in July 2028, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) announced on Aug. 1.

The new test, called the NextGen bar exam, will replace the Uniform Bar Examination, which Indiana has used since 2021 to admit attorneys to practice in its courts. The Indiana Supreme Court has authority over the bar exam and made the decision to adopt the new version.

Indiana joins 22 other U.S. jurisdictions in adopting the NextGen bar exam. Maryland, Missouri and Oregon, the first states to adopt the new version of the exam, will administer the test in July 2026.

U.S. News and World Report said the current bar exam has three sections consisting of 200 multiple-choice, essay and performance test questions. But in the NextGen exam, test-takers will instead be given scenarios that have elements of different knowledge areas and skills.

Brad Skolnik, executive director of the Indiana judicial branch’s admission and continuing education department, said in a statement the NextGen exam tests future attorneys on skills and knowledge needed for “an ever-changing legal profession.”

“By adopting the exam effective July 2028, we are providing Indiana’s law schools with the time they may need to make any necessary changes to their curriculum to ensure students are well-prepared for the exam,” Skolnik said in the statement.

“Our commitment remains to ensure we have highly qualified lawyers available to serve the needs of the public,” he continued.

What’s on the new test?

According to a press release from the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the exam will cover nine legal focuses; civil procedure, evidence, contract law, torts, business associations, criminal law, constitutional law, real property and family law. The exam will also test skills lawyers need to have including legal research and writing, client counseling, investigation and evaluation.

The NextGen Bar exam focuses on applying legal information, rather than pure memorization. The test will be nine hours and administered over two days — shorter than the average of 12 hours it takes to administer the Uniform Bar Examination.

Additionally, while the test will be administered in-person, test takers will take the exam on a personal computer.

In January 2024, law students from IU’s Maurer and McKinney Schools of Law and the University of Notre Dame Law School, participated in a three-hour field test of NextGen Bar Exam. In a press release, the McKinney School of Law said it surveyed students “to see if we are preparing them” for NextGen bar exam questions.

In a report analyzing these surveys from the field test, the NCBE found there were small differences in the average scores of various demographic groups. For instance, the report said the differences between how men and women answered the short-response questions were “almost nonexistent” and that differences based on being a non-native English speaker were small. In 2023 the American Bar Association released data that reflected disparities in bar pass rates between white first-time test takers and first-time test takers who were Black, Hispanic or Asian.

The Indiana bar exam is administered in February and July of each year, though more students often take the exam during July. In July 2023, the overall pass rate for test takers was 70%, an increase from July 2022 (68%) and July 2021 (69%).

The NCBE will offer both the Uniform Bar Exam and NextGen test through February 2028 to give states time to transition to the new format.

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