ProfessorTommy.Tips

California has officially adopted the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, marking a major shift in how the state will license new attorneys. This decision comes at the end of what may become one of the most consequential weeks in the recent history of California’s bar exam. Over the span of just eight days, three major developments—each significant on its own—collectively signaled the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. While details about score portability under the NextG

One of the most overlooked aspects of bar preparation is learning how to take the exam in the format in which it will actually be administered. Many students spend hundreds of hours learning substantive law and completing practice questions, but very little time becoming comfortable with the testing environment itself. Yet familiarity with the testing platform and testing procedures can reduce anxiety, prevent avoidable mistakes, and improve efficiency on exam day. The specif

At London Marathon yesterday, one of the world’s most prestigious long-distance races, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe delivered a historic performance, becoming the first person to run an official marathon under two hours. He crossed the finish line in 1:59:30, breaking the previous world record by more than a minute. He wasn’t alone. Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha also broke the two-hour barrier in 1:59:41, and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo finished third in 2:00:28. All three podium finishers

Well, that didn’t take long. Just hours after I posted about the "Final 7” jurisdictions that had yet to decide whether to adopt the NextGen bar exam, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order adopting the Legacy Uniform Bar Examination beginning in July 2026, with a transition to the NextGen UBE in July 2028. So, yes, my earlier post (" South Carolina Is In, So What About the Final 7 ") aged quickly. But in another sense, it aged pretty well. Wisconsin was one of the juri

South Carolina is officially in. With its announcement yesterday that it will begin administering the NextGen UBE in July 2028, South Carolina becomes the 49th jurisdiction to have already committed to the new exam. That leaves just seven jurisdictions still on the sidelines. And that’s really the story now. This is no longer about whether the NextGen UBE will become the dominant bar exam. It already has. The question now is what these remaining jurisdictions are signaling

As the NextGen UBE gets closer, I'm seeing a very common misunderstanding about the star symbols in the NCBE’s NextGen UBE Content Scope Outline . The NextGen UBE is the NCBE’s redesigned bar exam, created to better measure foundational lawyering skills (reading, analysis, reasoning, writing, and using legal materials) while still testing a defined set of doctrinal concepts. The exam is designed to feel more like the work lawyers actually do, often with a mix of what you know

Yesterday, the National Conference of Bar Examiners released a new document: " NextGen UBE Constructed Response Guide ." It's touted as the "NCBE’s Official Resource for Understanding and Responding to the Written Components of the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination.” The document is attached for your reference. If you're taking the NextGen UBE in July 2026, I highly recommend that you review this new document and the previously released resources found at the end of the documen

If you’re studying for the bar right now, you may have seen this NCBE update: "Effective with the July 2026 bar exam, the following areas will no longer be tested on the MEE: Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions. From July 2026 through February 2028, both Family Law and Trusts and Estates will be tested regularly through the Multistate Performance Test." That announcement might have you wondering: “Wait … do I still need to learn Family L

For years, the Uniform Bar Examination portability pitch was simple: take the exam in one UBE jurisdiction place, transfer an eligible score to another UBE jurisdiction. The NextGen UBE transition is turning that simple idea into a more complicated planning problem, especially during the July 2026 through February 2028 window when some jurisdictions will be administering the NextGen UBE and others will still be offering the Legacy UBE. Recently, the landscape has started to c

Every once in a while, a bar-exam order drops that makes me stop mid-scroll, blink twice, and say, “Wait! They did what?” That just happened in Washington. Washington will be one of the first jurisdictions to administer the NextGen UBE starting in July 2026, and on December 8 the Washington Supreme Court issued a short, two-page order that quietly made three big moves at once. In its new order, the Washington Supreme Court did three key things: 1️⃣ Set the NextGen UBE pass