Integrated Question Sets

Scope

This file explains the NextGen UBE's integrated question sets (IQS) — the NCBE/national item type that embeds foundational lawyering skills in realistic, scenario-based question sets — covering NCBE's official description, the sets' count and score weight on the exam, the two published formats, what NCBE's released sample sets show, how written answers are graded, and the exam software used to answer them. It does not cover standalone multiple-choice questions or performance tasks in detail (see the sibling topics on those item types), the full content-scope outlines, or New Jersey-specific registration and test-day logistics.

Legal Explanation

What an integrated question set is (NCBE/national). NCBE defines an integrated question set as a set of questions based on a common fact scenario, which may include legal resources (e.g., excerpts of statutes or judicial opinions) and/or supplemental documents (e.g., a police report or an excerpt from a deposition) and which includes multiple-choice, medium-length, and/or short-answer questions [S1]. NCBE states that, in addition to testing doctrinal law, some sets focus on drafting or editing a legal document, while other sets focus on counseling and/or dispute resolution [S1]. The NextGen UBE Blueprint (prepared June 2, 2025, for the July 2026–February 2027 administrations) adds that IQS require examinees to demonstrate their ability to use the Foundational Skills in realistic situations, completing tasks that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish [S2]. IQS may feature areas of doctrinal law — with accompanying legal resources — that are not among the Foundational Concepts and Principles tested by standalone multiple-choice questions, and they may test more than one Foundational Concept; NCBE notes the Foundational Concepts and Principles are not equally distributed among the integrated question sets [S2]. The Foundational Skills that IQS exercise are NCBE's seven: legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management [S2]. All of this is NCBE/national design; it applies in every jurisdiction that administers the NextGen UBE, including New Jersey, which adopted the exam by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025 [S4].

Count, timing, and weight (NCBE/national). The NextGen UBE is administered over one and a half days in three three-hour sections [S2]. There are two integrated question sets per section and six sets total across the exam [S2]. NCBE's expected time is approximately 24 minutes per set [S2], and NCBE's sample-questions page states that just over a quarter of the total exam time will be devoted to integrated question sets [S1]. (Those two statements are consistent: six sets at 24 minutes is 144 of the 540 total exam minutes, roughly 27% of time [S1][S2].) IQS make up 21% of the total exam score, compared with 49% for standalone multiple-choice questions and 30% for performance tasks [S2]. One of the six sets is an unscored pretest set; pretest sets do not contribute to the examinee's score and are not identified as such, being indistinguishable from the scored sets [S2].

The two formats (NCBE/national). IQS appear in two formats [S2]. Drafting sets contain medium-answer questions [S2]. Counseling sets contain multiple-choice and short-answer questions [S2]. The Blueprint's point values are: in drafting sets, each medium-answer response is worth 0–8 points; in counseling sets, select-one multiple-choice responses are worth 0–1 point, select-two multiple-choice responses 0–2 points, and short-answer responses 0–2 points [S2]. Partial credit is available — in full-point increments — for short-answer responses, medium-answer responses, and select-two multiple-choice questions [S2].

What NCBE's published samples show (NCBE/national). NCBE publishes two complete sample IQS on its website, and they are the best free ground truth for the item type [S1]. Sample Set 1, "Flooded Apartment" (© 2023), puts the examinee in the role of a solo practitioner handling a pro bono landlord–tenant matter, and its six components mix select-one multiple-choice, select-two multiple-choice, and short-answer items — including listing specific facts supporting a statutory habitability claim, identifying specific drawbacks of a settlement proposal for the client (a counseling/negotiation component that expressly instructs the examinee to consider the client's "known objectives, interests, and constraints"), and listing facts supporting a veil-piercing theory against a landlord-owned LLC [S1]. Each component of the sample carries a "Content Scope Designation" linking it to a foundational skill and a subject-matter entry — for example, Component 1 is designated "Skill A.6; Subject Matter: Real Property I.D.5: Habitability and suitability" [S1]. Sample Set 2 (© 2024) is a drafting set: the examinee is an associate asked to check a law clerk's draft complaint for factual and legal support and compliance with the (fictional) jurisdiction's civil procedure rule on pleadings, and NCBE's representative correct answers identify defects such as a misstated transaction timeline, claims that should have been separated to comply with the rule, and demands for punitive damages and attorney's fees that the governing (fictional-jurisdiction) case law does not allow on the claims [S1]. The two samples are illustrative of the format, not released exam items; NCBE notes the sample questions are protected by copyright and are for personal use only [S1]. The samples also show that short-answer components are graded against a published scoring guide: NCBE has released a "Sample IQS Scoring Guide" for Flooded Apartment Component 3 that contains a rubric organized by authority, correct answers, and incorrect answers, plus benchmark responses scored at points 2, 1, and 0 [S3].

Skills and doctrine integration (NCBE/national). The signature feature of an IQS is integration: a single scenario is used to test doctrine together with the skills a beginning lawyer actually uses [S1][S2]. In the released samples, the same landlord–tenant file is used for statutory interpretation (applying the provided statute excerpts), issue spotting, factual investigation, client counseling about settlement, and a business-law sub-issue (veil piercing), each tagged to a different foundational skill [S1]. Because sets may include non-foundational doctrinal areas with legal resources supplied, examinees are not expected to have memorized that doctrine; the provided excerpts are the operative law for the set [S1][S2].

Grading (NCBE/national). Written responses — IQS and performance tasks — are graded by jurisdiction-appointed graders on a common grading platform using detailed, uniform grading rubrics provided by NCBE [S2]. Responses are dual graded, with grade reconciliation performed by jurisdiction grading leads, and jurisdiction graders assess written responses only from examinees within their own jurisdiction [S2]. NCBE performs all scaling and equating and calculates final scores, which are reported to examinees by their jurisdictions [S2]. Official scores are reported as a single number on a scale from 500 to 750, with each jurisdiction setting its own passing score within that range [S2].

Exam software (NCBE/national). IQS and performance tasks are answered in the secure testing browser on the examinee's own laptop [S2]. The platform gives written-response items a split-screen feature so the question and the answer field can be viewed at the same time, plus a notepad (whose text is not graded), spell check, copy-paste from the provided documents into answer fields, undo/redo, and formatting tools; legal resources are presented in-screen in tabbed sections [S2]. Questions within a section may be answered in any order, and the platform's navigation tool shows which questions are answered, unanswered, or marked for review [S2].

New Jersey context (NJ-specific). New Jersey adopted the NextGen UBE by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025, with the first New Jersey administration in July 2028; the legacy UBE continues in New Jersey through the February 2028 administration [S4]. The notice announces no NJ-specific exam-design decisions, such as a state variation of the integrated question sets; the IQS item type is part of the national NextGen UBE design that New Jersey adopted [S4]. New Jersey's NextGen passing score has not yet been set [S4].

How candidates should approach IQS (editorial; beyond NCBE's published guidance). Three practical implications follow from the official materials. First, treat each set as a small legal matter: read the common fact scenario and skim the provided legal resources and supplemental documents before answering, because the resources supplied are the governing law for that set and the components build on the same file [S1][S2]. Second, write short answers the way the samples' representative correct answers do — specific, fact-grounded, roughly one sentence per answer field, answering exactly what the component asks (the samples' prompts expressly forbid restating the settlement terms and ask for facts "now known") — because partial credit is available in full-point increments against rubric-based grading [S1][S2][S3]. Third, budget time: six sets at roughly 24 minutes each is more than a quarter of total exam time, so a set that stalls is a good candidate to mark for review and return to, which the any-order navigation and mark-for-review tools are designed to support [S1][S2]. Candidates can practice with the two released sample sets and the free exam software preview linked on NCBE's sample-questions page [S1].

Currency note. NextGen exam details are still evolving. Every claim in this file was checked against the cited NCBE and New Jersey Courts pages on August 20, 2026, and reflects those pages as of that date [S1][S2][S3][S4].

ELI-10: Explain It Like I'm 10

[HYPOTHETICAL — NOT A REAL CASE] A summer camp is replacing its old "Whistle Badge" test, where kids had to memorize two hundred whistle signals from a booklet. The new test, the "Trail Response Badge," works differently. You get three situations, one at a time: a hiker with a twisted ankle on the Blue Trail, a thunderstorm rolling in over the lake, and a camper who wandered off at dusk. For each situation you get a small folder holding the camp's rulebook pages for that exact situation plus a map of that trail. You sit at a table with the folder and answer questions — some are pick-the-right-answer questions, and some ask you to "write down two things you would do." One of the three situations doesn't count toward your badge at all, but you don't know which one, so you try your best on all three. The counselors who grade your written answers use a checklist (things like "named the right trail feature" and "said what you'd do first"), and you can earn partial credit — half credit for a partly right answer is better than nothing. Old-timers complain the kids no longer memorize all two hundred signals, but the camp leaders point out that in real life a trail counselor carries the rulebook in their pack — what matters is knowing how to read it fast and use it on the actual trail.

Translating back to the real rule: the three situations are the integrated question sets — each one a common fact scenario, like a hiker's sprained ankle [S1][S2]; the folder with rulebook pages and a map is the IQS's legal resources (statute excerpts, judicial opinions) and supplemental documents (a police report, a deposition excerpt) [S1]; the pick-the-answer and write-it-down questions are the multiple-choice and short-answer (and, in drafting sets, medium-answer) components [S1][S2]; the situation that doesn't count is the unscored pretest set, indistinguishable from the scored ones [S2]; the checklist grading with partial credit is the rubric-based grading by jurisdiction-appointed graders, with credit in full-point increments [S2][S3]; and the badge test itself is the NextGen UBE, where integrated question sets are 21% of the total score [S2].

Real Case Reference (if applicable)

No published judicial decision addresses the design, weighting, or grading of the NextGen UBE's integrated question sets — the item type is defined by exam specifications and administrative adoption orders, not by litigated doctrine. The governing authority for what an IQS is and how it is scored is NCBE's official NextGen UBE Blueprint [S2], as illustrated by NCBE's published sample integrated question sets and the accompanying sample scoring guide [S1][S3]. For New Jersey, the governing action is the New Jersey Supreme Court's November 17, 2025 notice adopting the NextGen UBE, effective with a first administration in July 2028 [S4]. (The case cited inside NCBE's fictional-jurisdiction sample drafting set is part of that sample's hypothetical jurisdiction, not a real case.)

Key Takeaways

• An integrated question set (NCBE/national) is a set of questions built on one common fact scenario, possibly with legal resources and supplemental documents supplied, mixing multiple-choice, medium-length, and/or short-answer questions; some sets focus on drafting or editing a document, others on counseling and/or dispute resolution [S1][S2].
• Count and weight (national): two IQS per section, six total, about 24 minutes each, just over a quarter of total exam time, and 21% of the total exam score; one of the six is an unscored, indistinguishable pretest set [S1][S2].
• Formats (national): drafting sets (medium-answer responses, 0–8 points each) and counseling sets (select-one and select-two multiple-choice plus short-answer responses, 0–2 points); partial credit applies in full-point increments [S2].
• The released samples (national) show the format concretely: "Flooded Apartment" (© 2023) mixes statutory-application multiple-choice with short-answer issue-spotting, counseling, and veil-piercing components, and the 2024 sample is a complaint-drafting set; written components carry content-scope designations and are graded against a published rubric with 2/1/0 benchmarks [S1][S3].
• Grading (national): IQS written responses are graded by jurisdiction-appointed graders on a common platform with NCBE's uniform rubrics, dual graded with reconciliation by grading leads; NCBE handles scaling, equating, and final score calculation on the 500–750 scale [S2].
• New Jersey-specific: NJ's first NextGen administration is July 2028 (notice dated November 17, 2025); the notice announces no NJ-specific IQS variation, and NJ's passing score is not yet set [S4].

Sources

• [S1] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "Sample Integrated Question Sets (NextGen UBE sample questions)," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/sample-questions/integrated-question-sets (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S2] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026–February 2027" (PDF, prepared June 2, 2025), https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Blueprint_5.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S3] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "Sample IQS Scoring Guide — Flooded Apartment Component 3" (PDF), https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-11/Sample%20IQS%20Scoring%20Guide-Flooded%20Apartment%20C3.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S4] New Jersey Courts, "Notice — Supreme Court Adopts the 'NextGen' Uniform Bar Examination — First Administration in July 2028" (Nov. 17, 2025), https://www.njcourts.gov/notices/notice-supreme-court-adopts-nextgen-uniform-bar-examination-first-administration-july-2028 (verified 2026-08-20).

Not Legal Advice