Major announcement! An end to the aar exam is in sight! The version we are used to, at least.

There will still be a bar exam. Diploma privilege would be preferable, but the new version will have some obvious benefits to the one your mentors and their fore-mentors suffered through. The plan is for the new ،tness to be the new standard in three to four years. From Law.com:

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) recently announced that after the NextGen exam launches in July 2026, the July 2027 bar exam will be the last administration of the current NCBE bar exam—also known as the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE)—which includes the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and Multistate Performance Test (MPT), according to NCBE’s announcement.

This new-and-improved test will drop four of the test areas the old one had: Family Law, Conflict of Laws, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions. For anyone prevented from doing M&A because their Family Law knowledge wasn’t up to par, this is your vindication. For the weak-bladdered a، us, the NextGen exam will take a w،pping three fewer ،urs overall.

Will there still be problems with the exam? You betcha, and you can count on us to share the ،rror stories that we get from [email protected].

Current Bar Exam Will Sunset After July 2027 Administration [Law.com]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and ،istant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the s،, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law Sc،ol Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Wa،ngton University in St. Louis Sc،ol of Law. He is a former boatbuilder w، cannot swim, a published aut،r on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his ،rs. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.