Law School Toolbox®

Podcast Episode 554: How We’re Thinking About NextGen Prep Differently (Plus, Try Our New Tool for Free!)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 05 May 2026 12:00:40 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today we’re discussing how we’re thinking about preparing for the NextGen bar exam differently — and we’re excited to introduce a new tool we’ve built to help you learn and retain the rules you need to know.

In this episode we discuss:

An overview of the NextGen UBE
The big misconception: No memorization is required for the NextGen
Why traditional study methods fall short
Introducing our new RAMP (Rule Acquisition and Mastery Platform) tool and how it works
Our recommendation on who should start using RAMP now

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If you enjoy the podcast, we’d love a nice review and/or rating on Apple Podcasts or your favorite listening app. And feel free to reach out to us directly. You can always reach us via the contact form on the Law School Toolbox website. If you’re concerned about the bar exam, check out our sister site, the Bar Exam Toolbox. You can also sign up for our weekly podcast newsletter to make sure you never miss an episode!

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The post Podcast Episode 554: How We’re Thinking About NextGen Prep Differently (Plus, Try Our New Tool for Free!) appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

Podcast Episode 553: NextGen Bar Exam: What Law Schools (and Students) Need to Do Differently (w/Quentin Huff)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:00:35 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today, Alison is speaking with Quentin Huff — Director of Bar Support at Purdue Global Law School — about the NextGen bar exam, which shifts focus from memorization to practical legal skills. Find out what’s actually changing, and what it means for how students and professors might approach law school classes.

In this episode we discuss:

An introduction to our guest, Quentin Huff
Setting the stage: Specifics of the NextGen bar exam
Moving away from memorization
Curriculum mapping in law school
Legal research and writing focus on the NextGen
Using class time to build NextGen-ready skills

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Podcast Episode 552: Too Much Reading, Not Enough Time? Tips for Overloaded Weeks in Law School

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:00:34 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! This episode covers law school survival strategies for when you’re overwhelmed and behind on the material. Lee outlines a triage framework — prioritizing class attendance, case reading, and black-letter law understanding.

Thanks to Juno for sponsoring this episode! If you’re thinking about student loans for law school, head to JoinJuno.com to explore your options and see how Juno can help you find a better rate.

In this episode we discuss:

What actually moves the needle on your exam prep, and what could you afford to cut?
AI use without cognitive offloading
Case reading priority cascade
Supplements and tips for catching up on your reading

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The post Podcast Episode 552: Too Much Reading, Not Enough Time? Tips for Overloaded Weeks in Law School appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

NextGen Bar Exam 2026: Expert Insights and Preparation Tips for Law Students

Law School Toolbox Team — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:00:32 +0000

If you’re in law school, or even preparing to go, get ready for something completely different: the NextGen bar exam 2026. This isn’t just a small update to the current test—it’s a complete reimagining of how we assess whether new lawyers are ready to practice.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners has spent years developing this new exam through task forces, focus groups, and extensive evaluation. The goal? Create a more valid measure of the knowledge and skills new lawyers actually need. And we think that’s a really positive change.

What Is the NextGen Bar Exam Replacing?

NextGen bar exam will replace the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), which has been around since 2011. The current UBE has three components: the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) with 200 multiple-choice questions over two three-hour sessions, the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) with six 30-minute essays, and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) with two 90-minute tasks. That adds up to 12 hours of testing spread over two days.

Because almost all U.S. jurisdictions use at least some UBE components—39 states plus D.C. and the Virgin Islands use the full UBE—this change will affect bar exam preparation virtually everywhere except Louisiana and Puerto Rico.

Why Create a New Bar Exam?

The driving force behind NextGen is reducing the overwhelming amount of material tested while putting more emphasis on practical lawyering skills. Let’s be honest: memorization is the biggest hurdle to bar success for a lot of people. The current exam requires you to memorize massive amounts of picky details that, in practice, any competent lawyer would look up rather than rely on memory.

With NextGen, some legal information will actually be provided as part of the exam materials. You’ll still need to know the law (as you would for an open-book exam), but you won’t have to memorize every single detail about, say, the number of days for responding to a pleading. Instead, the exam will focus on bigger core concepts and your ability to apply them.

What Subjects Made the Cut?

Here’s where things get interesting, especially if you’re trying to choose your 2L and 3L classes. The current UBE tests Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts in both multiple-choice and essay form. Then there are additional essay-only topics: Agency, Conflict of Laws, Corporations, Family Law, Partnerships, Secured Transactions, Trusts, and Wills.

The NextGen bar exam is slimming this down. The surviving subjects are basically the current MBE subjects plus Business Associations. So it’s Business Associations (Agency, Corporations, and Partnerships), Civil Procedure, Contracts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts.

What’s gone? Conflicts, Family Law, Secured Transactions, Trusts, and Wills won’t be tested anymore. There will also be reduced coverage within each surviving topic. You should check the NCBE website for more detailed information on the Content Scope and Sourcebooks for the NextGen exam.

The NCBE prioritized subjects based on how frequently they arise in entry-level practice, whether they’re relevant across multiple practice areas, and whether not knowing the topic would pose a significant risk of malpractice or poor client outcomes.

New Question Formats: “Integrated Question Sets”

This might be the most dramatic shift. The current exam separates question types—MBE is all multiple choice, MEE is all essays, MPT is legal writing tasks. NextGen introduces something called “integrated question sets.”

Here’s how it works: you’ll get a case file that raises legal questions and requires you to use foundational lawyering skills. For example, you might receive a file that includes a police report, a statute for assault and battery, and an excerpt from a case interpreting that statute. Then you’ll answer a series of questions about this scenario.

Some questions will be short written answers, like identifying a fact in the police report that would prove the “knowingly” element of the statute. Others might ask you to list ways to gather more evidence on a particular issue. And yes, there will still be some multiple-choice questions tied to the case file.

The scenario might even develop as you go. After answering the first set of questions, you could receive additional information—like a transcript of a witness interview—and then answer new questions based on this expanded file. The questions won’t be cumulative (so one wrong answer won’t cascade into more errors), but you’ll need to work through increasingly complex scenarios.

It’s essentially like the MPT plus substantive knowledge. The MPT never required you to know the law beforehand because everything was in the materials. These new integrated question sets combine that practical, file-based approach with the need to know and apply legal rules.

Skills Beyond Memorization

The MPT already tests legal writing, issue-spotting, analysis, and some client counseling. NextGen keeps all of that but adds more practical skills: research, investigation and evaluation, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship management.

If you’ve made it through law school, you’ve been developing these skills for three years. The bar prep period becomes about polishing and focusing them rather than learning entirely new capabilities. If you’re still in law school, you might want to prioritize clinics or other classes that emphasize practical application.

When Does This Start?

Some jurisdictions will begin administering the NextGen bar exam in July 2026. First-year law students starting in fall 2023 will be the first cohort taking this new exam upon graduation (assuming they graduate in May 2026 and sit in July).

Here’s the tricky part: not all jurisdictions will switch at the same time. You can check the NCBE website to see whether and when your target jurisdiction will be changing.

One positive note: NextGen will maintain score portability, just like the UBE. However, questions remain about how UBE scores will transfer to NextGen jurisdictions during the transition, and vice versa.

How Will Bar Prep Change?

Some existing test prep materials will remain useful for reviewing substantive law, since the tested subjects are mostly the current MBE subjects plus Business Associations. There will just be less depth of coverage.

But the bar prep industry will need to generate completely new materials reflecting the integrated assessment format and the emphasis on skills. What those materials look like is anyone’s guess right now. Bar prep companies will need guidance from the NCBE—hopefully including released subject matter outlines and sample questions—before they can fully respond to this transition.

The good news? Materials generated for the MPT will retain some relevance. The whole idea of reading a case file and extracting information is very similar to these new integrated assessments. The difference is what you do with that information—instead of writing a memo or brief, you’ll answer specific questions about the file.

Is This Actually Better?

Yes, we think it’s a very positive change, though there will be challenges. The reduced memorization burden should make bar prep much less stressful and overwhelming (though, of course, you’ll still need strategies for managing stress!). The skills being tested are things you’ve been practicing throughout law school—issue spotting, analysis, applying law to facts. These don’t require brand-new learning, just focused practice.

The exam will only be 9 hours, compared to the current 12-hour marathon, which is better for everyone, but especially helpful for students who need accommodations.

On the flip side, these integrated question sets have the potential to be dense and reading-heavy. Time pressure could remain an issue for many test-takers, even though the NCBE says they’re specifically looking at timing during pilot testing.

The transition period will create some unfortunate scenarios. Someone who fails the final UBE administration in their jurisdiction will face a completely different exam format when retaking. And there will be uncertainty about how materials and preparation strategies translate from the old exam to the new one.

What Should You Do Now?

If you started law school in fall 2023 or later, embrace this change. You’re getting a better exam than your predecessors had to take. You’ll have more flexibility in choosing coursework without worrying about whether every single class appears on the bar exam.

Focus on developing practical skills throughout law school. Even if you don’t think you have these skills yet, you’re building them every time you analyze a case, write a memo, or work through a fact pattern. By the time you graduate, you’ll have the foundation you need.

For students and bar examinees closer to test day, realize that you’ve already developed many of these necessary skills through your work experience and law school education. The practical, skill-based aspect of NextGen has the potential to be an asset rather than an obstacle. And, of course, as you prepare, watch out for common self-sabotaging behavior that can undermine even the best study plans.

The Bottom Line

The NextGen bar exam 2026 represents a significant shift toward testing what new lawyers actually need to know and do. Less memorization, more practical application. Fewer obscure details, more realistic lawyering tasks. It’s not perfect—no licensing exam can truly capture the diversity of legal practice—but it’s an improvement.

We’re all going to have to sit back and see what happens as more details emerge about which jurisdictions go first, what the subject matter outlines look like, and how sample questions actually work. But if you’re facing this new exam, you’re fortunate to be taking a test that better reflects the skills you’ll use in practice.

For more details on the NextGen bar exam and what it means for your preparation, check out our Bar Exam Toolbox podcast episode where we talk with an experienced bar tutor and law professor about the changes to the bar exam.

Need some support in law school? Check out our Law School Toolbox tutoring options, and reach out to us if you want to discuss whether we’re the right people to offer support. Or, if you’re really close to graduation, you might want to check out our Bar Exam Toolbox page for more bar information.

The post NextGen Bar Exam 2026: Expert Insights and Preparation Tips for Law Students appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

Podcast Episode 551: Listen and Learn — Warranties and Disclaimers Under the UCC (Contracts)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 12:00:59 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today we’re discussing contract law – specifically, warranties and the disclaimer of warranties under the UCC. We explain both express and implied warranties and how they can be disclaimed. We also go through several examples to illustrate these rules in practice.

In this episode we discuss:

Express and implied warranties under the UCC
Disclaimer of warranties
A hypothetical scenario from a previous California bar exam

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The post Podcast Episode 551: Listen and Learn — Warranties and Disclaimers Under the UCC (Contracts) appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

Podcast Episode 550: Financial Planning for Law Students and Young Lawyers (w/Alexandra Sandberg)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:00:41 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! In this episode, Lee and financial advisor Alexandra Sandberg discuss financial planning for law school graduates and early-career attorneys. The conversation includes essential topics, including student loan repayment, budgeting, tax planning, and how to evaluate job offers by looking at total compensation, not just salary.

In this episode we discuss:

The role of financial advisors
Student loan repayment strategies
Financial blueprint for the first decade after law school
Decoding job offer package

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The post Podcast Episode 550: Financial Planning for Law Students and Young Lawyers (w/Alexandra Sandberg) appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

Podcast Episode 549: Acing the Law Review Write-on Competition (w/Professor Dawn Young)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:06 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! This episode features a conversation with Professor Dawn Young from Loyola University Chicago School of Law about legal writing, bluebooking, and law review write-on competitions. Professor Young explains how the write-on competition works and what 1L students need to focus on if they decide to participate.

Note: We would like to thank Themis Bar Review for sponsoring this episode. Only until this Friday (April 3rd, 2026), you can save up to $1,100 on your 2027 or 2028 bar review course with just $25 down. Simply visit ThemisBar.com and select “Pay Partially” when opting for a 2027 or 2028 bar review course. The $1,100 discount will automatically apply at checkout.

In this episode we discuss:

An introduction to our guest and her path from legal practice to academia
Why legal writing matters and how it’s different from writing in undergrad
Tips for preparing for the write-on competition
How important is being on a law journal to potential employers

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Podcast Episode 548: A Week in the Life of a Successful 1L – What You Actually Do Hour by Hour

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 12:00:22 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! In this episode, we discuss time management strategies for first-year law students, walking through a detailed weekday schedule. We cover how to manage class and reading time with active study techniques, regular breaks, and actual downtime.

Thanks to Juno for sponsoring this episode! If you’re thinking about student loans for law school, head to JoinJuno.com to explore your options and see how Juno can help you find a better rate.

In this episode we discuss:

The 1L weekly framework
The “Thousand Minute Rule”
A 1L student’s weekday schedule breakdown
What derails study time
Tactical tools to help manage your time
Focus blocks and Pomodoro method

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The post Podcast Episode 548: A Week in the Life of a Successful 1L – What You Actually Do Hour by Hour appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.

Podcast Episode 547: Listen and Learn — Duties to the Tribunal (Professional Responsibility)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 12:00:09 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! Today we’re discussing ABA’s Model Rule of Professional Conduct 3.3, which governs truth telling to the tribunal (a court, arbitrator, administrative agency, or any other body acting in an adjudicative capacity). We break down all of the rule’s nuances and parts, and analyze a few hypothetical scenarios.

In this episode we discuss:

An overview of ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct
The elements of Rule 3.3 “Candor Toward the Tribunal”
A few hypothetical scenarios that show how this topic appears on an exam

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Podcast Episode 546: 5 Tips for Keeping Your Legal Writing Organized (Part 2)

Law School Toolbox Team — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:00:46 +0000

Welcome back to the Law School Toolbox podcast! In a two-part episode, we discuss how organization is what makes legal writing usable and trustworthy — allowing judges, supervisors, and clients to follow your reasoning and accept your conclusions. Together with Legal Writing professor and Law School Toolbox tutor Mary Fran Richardson, we cover five essential tips for keeping your legal writing clean and well organized.

In this episode we discuss:

Planning and outlining before you write
Avoiding conclusory analysis
Utilizing headers as signposts for your reader
Organizing your paragraphs logically
Writing simple, focused, and purposeful sentences
How to write strong topic sentences

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The post Podcast Episode 546: 5 Tips for Keeping Your Legal Writing Organized (Part 2) appeared first on Law School Toolbox®.