The Bar Exam: A Challenging but Changing Gateway to the Legal Profession

For anyone considering a career in law, the phrase Bar Exam can be intimidating. It’s the final, and often the most challenging, step in the journey to becoming an attorney. After tackling the LSAT, spending three or more years in law school, and navigating countless exams, walking across the graduation stage might feel like the moment to finally take a deep breath. But in reality, there’s one more significant milestone ahead. After law school, you dedicate a minimum of ten weeks to preparing for a rigorous two-day exam, with each day lasting eight hours. Then, you wait an additional three months to find out if you passed.

What Does the Bar Exam Entail?

The bar exam consists of 200 multiple-choice questions covering the seven core subjects taught in law school: Federal Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law, Evidence, and Criminal Law and Procedure. At first glance, this might not seem too overwhelming—until you realize that’s just one day of testing.

The second day is entirely essay-based and includes two Multistate Performance Tests, along with six to nine short essays (depending on the state), each of which you have roughly 30 minutes to complete. In addition to the seven core subjects, the essays may cover additional topics such as Family Law, Agency, Partnerships, Corporations, Conflict of Laws, Wills, Trusts and Estates, Secured Transactions, and Negotiable Instruments—bringing the total number of possible subjects to 15. That means you must prepare for all of them equally, even though only six will appear on the exam.

Most of these subjects are covered in law school, but many students don’t take every single one. This adds to the challenge, as test-takers must not only review material from their first year but also learn entirely new subjects in a matter of weeks. At this point, you might be thinking, that sounds incredibly difficult—and slightly unfair. Many law students would agree. The bar exam isn’t necessarily an accurate measure of how one will perform as an attorney, as it doesn’t test many of the skills needed for success in the legal profession.

Why Does the Bar Exam Exist?

The bar exam is often viewed as a gatekeeping mechanism, ensuring that only those who are well-prepared enter the field. However, in recent years, opposition to the exam has been growing, sparking conversations about its role and effectiveness in the legal profession.

Alternative Pathways to Licensure

Several states have been exploring alternative pathways to licensure that don’t require taking the traditional bar exam. These alternatives include supervised practice portfolios, experiential learning programs, and skills-based assessments. Leading the charge in rethinking this system are states like Oregon, Washington, and New Hampshire, which recognize that standardized testing may not accurately reflect an individual’s ability to practice law.

Creator: Credit: Barbri 

Other states have taken a less drastic approach but are still making changes to ease the burden of bar exam preparation. For example, Virginia recently announced that beginning with the next bar cycle, five rarely tested subjects will be removed, allowing students to focus more on core subjects. Similarly, Maryland will implement changes in 2026, eliminating Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions (Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code) from the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) starting in July 2026.

By reducing the number of tested subjects, these changes significantly impact how students prepare for the bar exam. Instead of cramming 15 subjects into 10 weeks of studying, future test-takers in Maryland will only need to focus on 11, allowing for a more manageable and focused preparation process.

The Shift Toward the NextGen Bar Exam

Taking it a step further, some states are considering a shift in the format of the bar exam with the introduction of the NextGen exam. The current format primarily tests legal doctrine—assessing how well candidates remember rules and apply them to fact patterns in essays. In contrast, the NextGen format places greater emphasis on practical legal skills, such as negotiation, legal research, and client counseling.

It evaluates seven foundational skills:

• Legal research

• Writing

• Issue spotting

• Analysis

• Investigation

• Client counseling

• Negotiation, dispute resolution, and client relationship management

These are skills attorneys regularly use in practice, whereas memorizing legal jargon is less critical, given the vast resources available for reference.

A Step Toward Greater Inclusivity

Moving away from the traditional bar exam format could foster greater inclusivity and accessibility in the legal profession. Currently, only 2% of lawyers in the United States are Black women, and just 5% identify as African American. In 2020, only 14% of all attorneys were people of color.

Increasing representation within the field requires reconsidering barriers to entry, including an exam that may not fully reflect an individual’s ability to succeed in practice. By implementing alternative pathways, the legal profession can take meaningful steps toward diversity, equity, and inclusion—ensuring that one test does not determine a person’s ability to practice law.