In re:Preparation for the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination, July 2026 through July 2028 administrations.Before:The candidate, on the candidate’s own laptop, on the candidate’s own time.
Filed: September 2026
Authored: professors and attorneys
Not affiliated with NCBE
Every claim labeled

Statement of the case

Knowing the law is half of it.
We drill the other half.

Every question here went through the same editorial panels and scrutiny, built to simulate the exam as closely as the published record allows. We publish the editorial standard so you can hold us to it.

Claim full access Try a real question Get the next exam report by email

Full access · $399 · One payment, everything through the July 2028 exam.

Exhibit B
What a select-two is actually worthScored 2 / 1 / 0
Both right2 / 2
One right, one wrong1 / 2
One right, one blank1 / 2
Neither right0 / 2

A wrong second pick does not cost you the first point. Leaving one blank is the only way to give a point back.

The .ai is for convenience. The vetting is not.

Wherever you learn the law, it won’t give you enough reps in the formats the NextGen actually uses. NCBE has released two exams’ worth of official practice material, and every course draws on that same supply. NCBE PUBLISHED But For is 565 original questions in those formats, professor and attorney authored and overseen, and we explain every option, including the ones you didn’t pick. It sits beside whatever you are already studying from, and it’s built to the three formats that are new:

  • Select-two:six options, exactly two right, real partial credit
  • Integrated sets:one client’s case, with new facts arriving as you work and nothing closing behind you
  • Performance tasks:two formats, the 60-minute memo and the new legal-research task
18integrated sets
12performance tasks · 2 formats
565original questions
229select-two · real partial credit
229select-two
336select-one

Three real questions are below, live and free, in the exam’s own formats. You can see the app’s screens at full size on Our Method and Formats.

The new bar exam doesn’t just test what you memorized. It hands you a statute you’ve never seen and grades what you do with it. Rereading outlines makes the law feel familiar. But knowing a rule when you see it and being able to use it are two different skills, and the exam only grades the second one.

Our law professors and attorneys took the new exam apart, format by format. We worked out what each question type actually tests, how its wrong answers are built, and the move that beats each one. We publish all of that analysis free, on the formats page and how to work them.

But For trains that second skill, and only that: no videos, no lectures, no tutors. What you get is the bench. That’s our name for the practice app that comes with membership: the question bank, the sets, the tasks, the grader, and your record, in one place. It’s the practice half of bar prep, built to sit beside whatever outlines or course you already use. The rest of this page shows you what’s on the bench, what it looks like, and what it costs.

§ 1

What you get, and where to see it

The question bank

565original questions, written by our team, all set in one made-up state, Meridian

8tested subjects, every one covered by at least 44 questions and mapped to NCBE’s published outline

229select-two questions, scored with the exam’s real partial credit, alongside 336 select-one

18integrated sets, one client’s case each, where new facts keep arriving and you can still go back

12performance tasks, split between the standard task and the new legal-research task

3difficulty tiers, Foundation, Administration and Stretch, each with its own time target per question

The free pages

14pages published free, no account needed: the exam, the formats, how to work them, the study plan, and the rest

45questions answered at length, including the ones where the honest answer is “it depends”

1report on the first exam, July 2026, with a source shown for every claim

56jurisdictions, one timeline: pick yours and see when the new exam reaches it

The checks

7checks every question has to pass before it reaches you; failing even one keeps it out

3questions on doctrines NCBE’s published outline leaves out, each labeled as extra practice and kept out of scored sets

6editorial rules every question is written to, published in full on the method page

1check of every fact pattern against NCBE’s official samples, so nothing echoes them

0pass-rate claims, score guarantees, or fake “seats left” counters

Every number in these three columns can be checked against a published page.

Four things to look at on this page

  1. One Three questions Three questions from the bank, scored the way the exam scores them, with real partial credit. One tap records how sure you were. Answer them →
  2. Two A graded answer A real written answer, marked point by point: one point given, one refused, each with the reason, in the writer’s own words. Read the grade →
  3. Three Your record What the bench keeps on you: points, pace, accuracy by difficulty, and how your sure answers compare with your unsure ones. See the record →
  4. Four The weekly Benchmark The Readiness Benchmark, a short timed exam you take once a week. You get a score band (not a pass prediction), your pace, and your sure-and-wrong count, week over week. See the Benchmark →

The integrated-set and performance-task screens are in § 6, and at full size on the Formats page.

§ 2

Try three questions from the bank

The questionSelect-two, scored 2 / 1 / 0

Live · Three questionsSelect-two · Evidence · Partial credit scored

Moments after a loud collision at an intersection, a bystander shouted, “That truck ran the red light!” A witness who heard the shout will testify to it; the bystander cannot be located. You anticipate a hearsay objection.

Which of the following legal topics are the most important for you to research to determine admissibility?

Select two.

Selected 0 / 2 This question is worth 2 One right pick earns 1 A blank earns 0

    Confidence

    Keys: excited utterance and present sense impression. A startled shout describing an event as it happens sits at the exact junction of both exceptions: stress of the moment for one, contemporaneity for the other. Either can carry the statement in. Dying declaration fails on every element; the best evidence rule governs writings, not shouts; privilege and habit have no footing.

    The one line to remember: the missing bystander is a red herring. Neither exception requires the person who spoke to be unavailable.

    Every question in the bank comes like this: an original fact pattern, wrong options written to be near misses on purpose, an explanation for every option, and one line to remember it by. These three stay free for good. The other 527 are on the bench.

    § 3

    How your written answers get graded

    Performance tasks alone are roughly a third of your score, and the integrated sets add short and medium written answers on top of that. Written work is where it’s easiest to fool yourself: you read a model answer, nod along, and it feels as if you could have written it.

    So on the method page we show a real grade, produced by the same grader members get. The answer was worth two points. The grader awarded one and quoted the writer’s own words as its reason. It withheld the other and wrote out that reason too, where you can read it and disagree with it.

    Read the whole grade, mark by mark, on the method page. And you don’t have to take our word for the grader: on the try page it will grade an answer you write, before you spend anything.

    § 4

    Your record shows where you’re sure and wrong

    Every answer you give on the bench records how sure you were. Your record then compares how you score when you’re sure with how you score when you’re not. Being sure and wrong is the most dangerous mistake in bar prep, because it never feels like a mistake, so you never go back to check it.

    You can see the full record on the method page: the numbers it keeps, the sure-versus-unsure gap, and the practice session it builds from your worst answers.

    Exhibit · The record355 of 565 answered · 210 remain
    Contracts53 / 65
    Torts55 / 70
    Evidence47 / 64
    Civil Procedure52 / 75
    Real Property36 / 72
    Constitutional Law42 / 78
    Criminal Law and Procedure39 / 70
    Business Associations31 / 71
    Integrated sets8 / 18
    Performance tasks3 / 12

    A square fills from your latest answer to that question. Sure-and-wrong stays oxblood until you get the question right on a later pass. Sets and tasks fill when you have worked them.

    Sample · one member’s record after five weeks. The numbers illustrate the exhibit.
    § 5

    One short exam a week shows whether you’re improving

    The Readiness Benchmark is a short timed exam you take once a week: questions from every difficulty level, plus one written answer the AI grades. You get a score band and the numbers behind it. The band says how you did on that test, not how you’ll do on the bar; nobody can honestly predict that from it, so we don’t. What matters is watching it move week over week.

    You can see the results screen and a five-week trend at full size on the method page.

    Exhibit · The trend5 runs · newest right
    BAND IV · 80%BAND III · 65%BAND II · 50% 49%54%58%66%71% SURE & WRONG76532 DEC 7DEC 14DEC 21DEC 28JAN 4
    Sure91 / 118 · 77%Unsure137 / 194 · 71%

    Bands stay labeled provisional until enough real results exist to check them, exactly as the verdict screen says. The gap between the bars, +6 points, is accuracy when Sure minus accuracy when Unsure.

    Sample · one member’s record after five weeks. The numbers illustrate the exhibit.
    § 6

    The four parts of the bench

    Everything above comes from four parts: the question bank, the integrated sets, the performance tasks, and your record. You can see both new formats at reading size on the Formats page. Both arrived with the July 2026 exam, so there’s no archive of old questions to learn them from.

    Multiple choice · both formats

    The familiar pick-one-of-four, and the new six-option pick-two. No old question bank has the pick-two, because it didn’t exist before July 2026. We drill both, scored the way the exam scores them.

    Rule one: never leave a select-two blank.

    Integrated Question Sets

    One client’s case, and the facts keep arriving as you work. Every question is answerable the moment you reach it, and nothing closes behind you.

    The exam lets you go back. Almost nobody does, and that is where the points go.

    Twelve performance tasks

    The 60-minute standard task, plus the new legal-research task. That one tests whether you can rank authorities, pull out holdings, and notice when the library you’re handed doesn’t answer the question.

    The exam covers family law and trusts and estates too. Both appear at every administration now, and NCBE tests both through questions that supply the statute rather than expecting you to have memorized it.

    Your record · the numbers that tell you what to fix

    It keeps how you score when you feel sure versus when you’re guessing, how long each question takes you, and how you do at each difficulty level. One tap builds a practice session from the questions most likely to hurt you on exam day.

    Feeling sure and being right aren’t the same thing. Your record shows you exactly where they differ, and the practice session starts with those questions.

    § 7

    Know the exam you’re actually taking

    The NextGen UBE isn’t the MBE with a new name. It runs nine hours over a day and a half: three three-hour sessions, on your own laptop, through NCBE’s secure platform. Scores come back on a 500 to 750 scale, and each jurisdiction sets its own passing line.

    Three types of questions make up the whole exam.

    7.1
    Fig. 7.1 · Six options, two keys

    Standalone multiple choice

    Two formats: the familiar pick-one-of-four, and a six-option question where you pick exactly two. Partial credit on the select-twos is real: one right pick earns a point and a blank earns nothing, so there’s never a reason to leave one unanswered. The early administrations deliberately resemble MBE-style questions; more variety comes later.

    7.2
    Fig. 7.2 · New facts arrive, the record stays open

    Integrated question sets

    This one is genuinely new. You get one client’s matter and one role, say a solo practitioner, a public defender, or an associate. We build each set on realistic documents: interview notes, a lease, a police report, a deposition excerpt, sometimes part of a statute or an edited opinion. Inside it you work through a mix of multiple choice, short answers, and medium-length written analysis, and the facts keep arriving as the matter develops. Some sets test the law itself. Others have you draft or edit a document, or counsel a client whose stated goals and limits you’re expected to actually use.

    7.3
    Fig. 7.3 · They give you the law, you write one answer

    Performance tasks · two kinds

    The standard task comes from the MPT: a file, a library of authorities, and one long writing assignment, with instructions and formatting rules that are themselves graded. The legal-research task is new: four multiple-choice questions, a short answer, and a medium-length writing assignment. It tests your research judgment directly: which authority is primary and which is secondary, and which one binds the court and which only persuades it. It also asks what a case actually held, as opposed to what it said in passing, and whether the library you were handed even answers the client’s question.

    What actually changed

    NCBE scores skills directly. The exam names seven foundational skills (research, writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation, counseling, negotiation, and client relationship management), and its new question types exist to test them. Weighing a settlement against what a client actually said they want has never been on a bar exam before.
    Provided law beats memorized law. The exam regularly hands you a statute, a rule, or an edited opinion and expects you to apply that text, even where it departs from the general rule you memorized. It can even test subjects outside the memorized syllabus, supplying all the law you need.
    The subjects keep changing. Family law and trusts & estates are on every administration now, through questions that hand you the law, and family law becomes a memorized subject in July 2028. NCBE publishes the content scope for every administration, and it’s worth reading the way you’d read a syllabus.

    The rollout, year by year

    1. Jul 2026
      The first NextGen exam ever given. Ten jurisdictions (Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, Washington, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) with roughly 2,624 examinees scheduled. One state never got to start; our full report is free to read.
    2. 2027
      Thirteen more jurisdictions join at the July 2027 exam: Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
    3. Feb 2028
      The last time the old MBE-based exam is ever given.
    4. Jul 2028
      The big wave. California, New York, Texas, and Florida switch over, and from here most American bar candidates take the NextGen. Full access covers you through this exam. California’s added state-specific component arrives no earlier than July 2029.

    One timeline carries all fifty-six jurisdictions at once, and picking yours on the Exam page narrows it to your own dates. Every date above comes from NCBE’s published materials.

    The free pages · no account needed
    PageWhat it is
    The ExamThe whole exam: nine hours over a day and a half, three types of questions, the law they hand you, and how it’s scored.
    FormatsEvery question type taken apart: what it rewards, how the examiners build its six options to catch you, and what leaving a select-two blank actually costs.
    Where Students Go WrongOne hundred twenty-nine recurring mistakes across the exam’s eight subjects: the trap, how it hides in a wrong answer, and the move that beats it.
    How to Work ThemHow to work each question type, step by step: what to do first, how much time to give each question, and what to do when the clock is winning.
    MethodHow we make the questions: the rules we write to, and the checks every question must pass before it reaches you.
    The PlanTwelve weeks, scheduled: one subject a week, every set and task assigned, a Sunday benchmark, and the eight-week retaker version.
    FAQForty-five real questions, answered at length, across five parts.
    The ReportWhat actually happened at the first exam, with a source shown for every claim.
    The Wi-Fi QuestionWhat the exam software does with your answers if the room’s Wi-Fi fails, with the official answers quoted and dated.
    AboutThe company: what it is, who makes it, and how we build it.
    Fourteen pages published in all, free and open, no account required. Terms and Privacy are there too, and you can read all of it before you spend anything.

    If your outlines came from an MBE course, they’re getting you ready for an exam you won’t take.

    § 8

    How the questions are made

    Our team wrote every question on the bench for this exam and its formats, not adapted from an MBE bank. Here’s how we work, and what every question has to pass before you see it.

    8.1

    Sure-and-wrong comes first.

    Every answer records how sure you were, and review starts with the misses you were sure about. Those are the ones you’d never go back to on your own.

    8.2

    Provided law beats memorized law.

    The NextGen hands you statutes and expects you to apply that text, even where it reaches further than the rule you learned. We build our sets around that trap, because it’s where this exam separates who scores well from who doesn’t.

    8.3

    Where we’re not sure, we say so.

    Score bands stay marked provisional until enough real results exist to trust them. AI grading shows its reasons, and on sets and tasks you can overrule it: the score you give is the one your record keeps.

    Seven checks before you ever see a question

    Every new question has to pass seven checks before it reaches you. If it fails even one, we fix it or throw it out. Here’s what each one asks.

    Is it complete?
    Every question arrives whole: the fact pattern, the answer choices, the right answer, an explanation for every choice including the wrong ones, and one line to remember it by.
    Does it teach something new?
    We check every new question against everything already in the bank, so it adds to what you cover instead of repeating a point you’ve already practiced.
    Could you confuse it with another question?
    Every name we invent for a person, a company, or a case we check against every other question. If two are close enough to blur together in your memory, we rename one.
    Can the answers be gamed?
    We count how often each letter turns out to be right. If right answers drifted toward certain letters, a hard-working student would start learning the drift instead of the law. Every accuracy number we gave you would then measure our writing instead of your knowledge.
    Does everything still fit together?
    Whenever anything changes, we recheck the whole bank from end to end. One error anywhere, and nothing new goes out until it’s fixed.
    Is it actually on your exam?
    Every rule a question tests has to match a line of NCBE’s published outline, checked against the source. We reject anything the outline doesn’t list, however good the question is. Three questions are the exception: we keep them as clearly labeled extra practice, each with a banner saying it’s beyond the outline, and they stay out of scored sets.
    Are the wrong answers honest?
    Every wrong choice has to be a real competing analysis, not filler, and no answer may give itself away by being the longest one. We score what a student would earn by reading nothing and always picking the longest choice, and then the shortest. If either trick beats guessing, we throw the question out, because a question you can beat without knowing the law measures reading speed, not law.

    We publish the rules we write to and all seven checks on the method page. So is what we won’t claim: no pass guarantees, no predicted questions, and no certainty about a curve nobody has seen yet.

    § 9

    Full access

    This isn’t a preorder; the bench is live. Members get everything now and everything we add. Founding pricing ran through August 31 and ended on September 1, on the date we published. The price is $399, and it stays there. One payment covers every update we publish through the July 2028 exam, the first one for California, New York, Texas, and Florida. No fake seat counters. We published the date the price would change, and we changed it on that date.

    • All 565 original questions, including the 229 six-option pick-two questions with real partial credit, plus all eighteen integrated sets and all twelve performance tasks
    • Your record: every answer split by how sure you felt, your pace against each question’s time target, your accuracy by difficulty tier, and one-tap sessions built from your own mistakes
    • The Readiness Benchmark: a timed test that mixes all three difficulty levels, with one written question the grader marks. You get a band, you can run it again each week, and the trend stays on your dashboard. The bands stay marked provisional until enough real results exist to trust them
    • The free 90-minute practice session, plus every new session we add
    • Every written answer graded point by point, with the reason for each point shown. On integrated sets and performance tasks you can overrule the grader, and the score you set is the one your record keeps
    • Our report on how the first exam actually went, plus every content update through the July 2028 exam

    A week inside the bench

    Day one: take the Readiness Benchmark once, cold. It is a short timed exam that places you in a scoring band, and it counts how many questions you got wrong while feeling certain. From your first answer onward, we keep everything you do.

    Through the week: timed sets and practice on your gaps. The facts arrive, the record stays open behind you, every answer records how sure you felt, and one tap drills the questions most likely to hurt you.

    One written task a week, graded point by point. Read the reason behind every point, then set your own score; yours is the one that counts.

    Sunday: run the Benchmark again, the same short timed exam you opened the week with. The band it puts you in says how the week went, and the direction it moves across several weeks says whether the gap is closing. That’s the whole method, and it repeats until exam day.

    We schedule all twelve weeks, subject by subject, set by set, and publish the full plan free, with an eight-week version for retakers.

    To be plain about what it isn’t: this is the bench, not a lecture course. No videos, no live classes, no tutors. It’s built to sit beside whatever outlines you already use, on any device with a browser.

    Full access is $399 once. That is everything through July 2028, four administrations from February 2027, for one payment, and nothing renews.

    Our team writes every question and checks it against NCBE’s published samples before it reaches you. The grader marks every written answer point by point and quotes your own words as the reason.

    If your exam is still a year away, your membership stays open through the July 2028 administration, so the practice app fits whatever calendar you’re on.

    Full access Full access through the July 2028 administration

    $399

    One payment. Everything above. Never a subscription.

    • No renewal to forget to cancel
    • Founding pricing ended August 31, on the date we published

    But For is professor and attorney authored and overseen. No set of questions reaches you until our editors have read it through.

    Three real questions, and one written answer graded by the same grader members use, are free before you pay anything.

    This isn’t a preorder. You have everything the minute you sign in.

    1. Pay once with Stripe
    2. Sign in with the purchase email (a one-tap link, no password)
    3. You have all of it: the question bank, the sets, the tasks, the grading, your stats. Yours through July 2028
    4. Your first ten minutes: take the Benchmark cold, and your record starts with your first answer

    Stripe handles checkout. Sign in afterwards with the same email address, and you are working through questions about a minute later.

    § 10

    Questions we get asked

    10.1What exactly is included for $399?

    Everything on the bench, now and as it grows: all 565 questions including the 229 six-option pick-twos, all eighteen integrated sets, and all twelve performance tasks. Plus the free 90-minute practice session and every new practice session we add. The grader marks written answers point by point and shows its reasons. Your record turns into one-tap practice on your gaps. The weekly Readiness Benchmark keeps your trend. Our report on how the first exam actually went is in too. One payment includes every content update through the July 2028 exam, and nothing recurs. To be plain about what it isn’t: no videos, no live classes, no tutors. This is the bench, built to sit beside whatever outlines you already use.

    10.2When does the NextGen UBE reach my jurisdiction?

    It arrived in July 2026 in ten jurisdictions: Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, Washington, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Thirteen more join in 2027, and the 2028 wave brings California, New York, Texas, and Florida, the majority of American bar candidates. By February 2028, the MBE era ends entirely.

    10.3Is But For affiliated with the NCBE?

    No. But For is “not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners,” and it’s an independent study product. We use the name “NextGen UBE” only to identify the exam. Every claim we make about how the exam is built comes from NCBE’s published materials, and we tell you when something is our own inference.

    10.4How does the AI grading work, and can I overrule it?

    The grader marks every written answer against a rubric, point by point, and shows its reason for each point it gives or refuses, quoting your own words. There’s a real one on the method page, and the try page will grade an answer you write. On integrated sets and performance tasks you set your own score against the rubric, and that number replaces the model’s in every total that follows. The grade is there to help; your score is the one that counts.

    10.5Is the content original?

    Yes. We write every fact pattern, statute, and answer option from scratch and check it against NCBE’s official samples so nothing echoes them. And we write about what taking the exam was like, never about the questions themselves; that’s a confidentiality line we hold voluntarily and absolutely.

    10.6How long does access last?

    Access runs through the July 2028 exam, which is the first NextGen exam for California, New York, Texas, and Florida. One payment includes every update we publish between now and then, and covers the whole run.

    10.7How is the NextGen UBE scored?

    Scores come back on a 500 to 750 scale, each jurisdiction sets its own passing line, and results have historically arrived months after the exam. That’s why our difficulty estimates and score bands stay labeled provisional until real data exists. We’re not going to pretend to know something nobody knows yet.

    We answer forty-five at length on the full FAQ, these seven among them. The other free pages are there too: the exam, the formats, the method, the report. No account needed.
    Anything else, write support@butfor.ai; a human reads every message.

    By email · our report on each exam

    Our reports on each exam, by email

    Our report on the July 2026 exam is free to read right here. Leave your email and a copy comes to your inbox. When the February 2027 exam happens, we’ll write it up the same way and send you that too. You’ll also get the score release when it lands, and every content update. Unsubscribe anytime.

    The July 2026 report arrives right away. The February 2027 report follows once that exam has happened.

    We use your address for this and nothing else. We don’t sell it, and we run no ad trackers on this site.