New California Bar Exam Questions Can Be Vetted By State Judges

New California bar exam multiple choice and essay questions could be checked by Golden State judges under a set of rules passed Thursday.

The state bar is still weighing whether to continue its plan to roll out a brand new licensing test just for California applicants, after its attempt in February 2025 was marred by technology meltdowns and concern that several questions got the law wrong. The bar also admitted to using ChatGPT to generate 29 of the test’s 200 multiple choice questions.

California Supreme Court justices in an administrative order added active and retired state judges and justices to the list of roles eligible for panels that will check new bar exam questions to ensure they test whether applicants can perform as “minimally competent” attorneys. The panels will also include law school faculty, newly licensed attorneys, and attorneys who supervise recent licensees.

Law school consultants and employees recently involved with their institution’s accreditation status are barred from vetting questions. People who have worked in the commercial bar exam prep industry for the past two years are also not allowed to participate, unless their work is limited to a faculty position at a school.

Another set of panelists will check the questions for legal accuracy. These subject matter experts must be “outstanding in their field,” measured by criteria including major professional awards, leadership positions in professional organizations, membership in selective organizations, and authorship of published work. They won’t need to live or practice in California.

States are rethinking how they assess lawyer competence as the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ current standardized test is set to be administered for the last time in February 2028. Some jurisdictions see the deadline as an opportunity to address longtime concerns that the bar doesn’t adequately measure what new attorneys need to know and are pursuing new non-exam alternatives, especially to fill gaps in rural areas and public interest law.

California’s state bar, still under a five-year $8.25 million contract with Kaplan Exam Services to develop test questions that it entered before the botched test in February, has until May to decide the future of California’s bar exam.

It’s weighing whether, starting in 2028, the state bar will administer the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen test or a new California test, under the format that was greenlit by the state’s justices in 2024 and attempted in February 2025.

The bar could also use the NCBE test in 2028 but plan to phase it out when a new California test is ready. It could adopt the NCBE’s test but add a California-specific component. Or it could follow Nevada’s lead and create a new, shorter exam that can be administered at multiple times throughout the year.