Best practices for high-stakes licensure examinations include periodic review of exam content and design. Consistent with that standard, the Testing Task Force undertook a three-year, comprehensive, empirical study to ensure that the bar examination continues to assess the minimum competencies required of newly licensed lawyers in an evolving legal profession, and to determine how those competencies should be assessed.

This overview sets out the Task Force’s recommendations for the next generation of the bar examination, which were approved by NCBE’s Board of Trustees in January 2021. A tremendous amount of work will be required to implement the recommendations and transition to administration of the new examination. At the end of this overview, we list some of the steps involved in implementation, a process that is anticipated to take up to four to five years.

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