Pretty big news for anyone planning to take the NY bar exam. The New York State Board of Law Examiners has recommended that the existing test (which is generally considered one of the harder bar exams in the nation) be replaced by the NCBE UBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners Uniform Bar Exam). The UBE consists of the 200-question MBE, 6 MEE essays and 2 MPT performance tests.
The Court of Appeals is allowing for Public Comments until November 7, 2014 at the following url:
New York Court of Appeals request for comment
If these changes go through, it would be quite a change as this would be the first “big” state to change their bar exam in favor of the UBE. The target is to replace the existing exam for the July 2015 administration of the New York bar exam. The proposal also states that there would still be a state-specific component. Apparently, the same 50 multiple choice state-specific NY questions would remain as a 1-hour test to be given concurrently with the UBE. The good news is that they are proposing to also offer just the 50 NY questions in December and Early Spring for those who pass the UBE but fail the NY section.
Big changes indeed if this all goes through. Stay tuned…
