This article originally appeared in The Bar Examiner print edition, Summer 2024 (Vol. 93, No. 2), pp. 6.
NextGen Bar Exam Pilot Testing
NextGen bar exam development and implementation include multiple stages of research to test new question types and content and to establish administration and scoring processes.
These 3 stages are:
- Pilot testing
- Field testing
- Prototype testing
From August 2022 to August 2023, NCBE conducted 4 administrations of pilot testing to evaluate new questions and question sets.
These questions and question sets varied in several ways, including:
- format
- the number of total options and keys (correct answers) in selected-response questions
- the composition of question sets
- grading scales for constructed-response questions
70 law schools in 35 jurisdictions participated in the pilot testing phase.
Pilot test participants totaled over 2,500 (primarily final-year law students and recent law school graduates).
Click here to see results of the pilot testing phase.
For more about the three research phases, see “Pilot Testing, Field Testing, and Prototype Testing: A Look at the Interconnected Research Phases for the New Bar Exam” at thebarexaminer.ncbex.org/article/winter-2022-2023/the-next-generation-winter-22/.
Did You Know?
NCBE publishes up-to-date information on bar exam pass rates as jurisdictions release their results after each exam administration. Visit www.ncbex.org/statistics-research/bar-exam-results-jurisdiction to see pass rates by jurisdiction for the July 2024 exam as they are released.
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