How long is the bar exam?
The bar exam usually takes two days. On the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), day one is the essay exam (MEE) and the performance test (MPT), 6 hours in total. Day two is the MBE, 200 multiple-choice questions in 6 hours. That makes 12 hours of testing. The NextGen bar exam, which states are switching to between July 2026 and July 2028, takes 9 hours over one and a half days.
On the legacy UBE, the Tuesday brings the Multistate Essay Examination, six 30-minute questions, and the Multistate Performance Test, two 90-minute tasks. The Wednesday is the Multistate Bar Examination: 200 questions split into a three-hour morning session and a three-hour afternoon session, with no scheduled breaks inside either session. Only 175 questions are scored. The other 25 are pretest questions you cannot tell apart, so answer them all.
Your UBE score is on a 400-point scale, weighted 50% MBE, 30% MEE and 20% MPT. The exam runs in February and July, on the last Wednesday of the month and the Tuesday before it. In 2027 that means February 23 to 24 and July 27 to 28. The legacy UBE is given through February 2028.
The NextGen UBE takes over state by state between July 2026 and July 2028. It runs over one and a half days: two three-hour sessions on day one and one on day two, each mixing multiple-choice questions, integrated question sets and performance tasks. You take it on your own laptop at a proctored site, it is scored on a 500 to 750 scale, and states with a local law component can extend day two. Some states, such as California and Louisiana, run their own exams, so check with your state's bar admissions office.
| Legacy UBE | NextGen UBE | |
|---|---|---|
| Days | 2 | 1.5 |
| Day one | MEE: six 30-min questions, MPT: two 90-min tasks (6 h) | Two 3-hour sessions (6 h) |
| Day two | MBE: 200 questions in two 3-hour sessions (6 h) | One 3-hour session (3 h) |
| Total testing time | 12 h | 9 h |
| Score scale | 400 points | 500 to 750 |
| When | Through February 2028 | Phased in from July 2026 to July 2028 |
- 1Ask your state's bar admissions office which exam you will sit and on which dates.
- 2For the legacy UBE, practice MEE answers at 30 minutes each and MPT tasks at 90 minutes each.
- 3Do full 100-question MBE sets in 3 hours, about 1 minute 48 seconds per question.
- 4Sit at least one full simulated exam on two days in a row to build stamina.
- 5For the NextGen exam, practice on your laptop with mixed sessions of multiple choice, integrated question sets and performance tasks.
- 6The week before, confirm your test site, check-in rules and laptop requirements.