The National Conference of Bar Examiners has announced that ExamSoft, the platform most states use for the current bar exam, will be replaced with different testing software for the NextGen bar exam.

The bar examiners’ switch to Surpass Assessment software comes after a number of technology issues with ExamSoft. The company paid $2.1 million in 2015 to settle a lawsuit brought by bar exam takers who could not upload their test answers.

A spokesperson for ExamSoft parent company Turnitin on Wednesday said that it “continues to provide bar exam services” to states, and declined to comment further.

ExamSoft’s software also came under scrutiny during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many states administered the exam remotely using laptop microphones and cameras to monitor for cheating. Some July 2021 examinees across the country had their computers crash mid-test. An investigation by the State Bar of California found that nearly 31% of the people who took the state’s remote exam experienced tech issues, and 2% lost time or answers as a result. ExamSoft attributed the problems to the video proctoring portion of the software using more memory than anticipated.

Currently, states may choose from ExamSoft, Extegrity or ILG Technologies to deliver the written portions of their bar exams. California, New York and Florida now use ExamSoft, while Texas, Illinois and New Jersey use ILG. ILG declined to comment.

Extegrity chief operating officer Greg Sarab believes requiring all states to use a single software platform is risky.

“If you have all your eggs in one basket and then it doesn’t work, nobody else is ready to step in,” he said.

The NextGen bar exam is intended to be more skills-oriented and rely less on the memorization of law. The National Conference currentky plans to offer both the current exam and the NextGen test from July 2026 through February 2028, after which time only the new test will be available.

You can read more about this development here.

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