NCBE Announces Initial Plans for Remote Option for February 2021 Bar Exam

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) today announced initial plans that will allow jurisdictions the option to provide the bar exam remotely in February 2021, since challenges related to COVID-19 will likely still be present next year. More details will be provided in the coming weeks.

To provide flexibility to jurisdictions and candidates as we all continue to navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, NCBE plans to make a full set of bar exam materials available for a remote administration in February 2021 to be held on the same dates as the in-person administration (February 23–24, 2021). Each jurisdiction will select which mode it will use for its administration.

NCBE plans to equate the MBE, calculate scaled scores for the written components, and provide UBE and MBE score transfer services for both the in-person and the remote administrations.

Additional details will be announced in the next few weeks as jurisdictions and NCBE complete their review of the October remote administration, which was the first time the bar exam has been given to candidates testing in their own environments using their own computers.