The July 2026 administration of the Washington State Bar Examination was canceled Tuesday after network bandwidth issues prevented test takers from accessing the new exam on the first day of testing.
Renata de Carvalho Garcia, chief regulatory counsel of the Washington State Bar Association, said in an email to test takers that “we do not have sufficient confidence that the technology issues have been resolved” in order to push the exam to Wednesday.
The email said the WSBA is working with the test maker, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, to hold a make-up test on Sept. 1. Test takers can also transfer their applications to the February 2027 sitting or receive a full refund.
The NCBE, which oversaw the first ever administration of its NextGen Uniform Bar Examination across 10 jurisdictions Tuesday, said in a statement that test takers in Missouri also saw delayed start times and one testing site in Maryland saw a short delay.
LISTEN: Is It Time to Kill the Bar Exam?
“We recognize that applicants devote months — and often years — of preparation to reach this moment, and we deeply regret the disruption and disappointment experienced by those affected,” the statement said.
Local testing staff in Yakima, Wash., where the test was taking place determined the bandwidth issues couldn’t be resolved in order to complete the test and exam takers were dismissed for the day, according to NCBE. It added that the bandwidth issues “did not involve the NextGen testing platform.”
WSBA’s Chief Communications and Outreach Officer Sara Niegowski said in a statement that test takers with “approved accommodations were able to proceed with their exams as scheduled and were not impacted.”
The statement said WSBA will work with the Washington Supreme Court to determine next steps.
“We sincerely apologize to the candidates who worked so hard to prepare, and we deeply regret that we could not deliver a successful exam experience today,” the statement said.
The Missouri Board of Law Examiners didn’t return a request for comment.
The technical issues with the bar exam on Tuesday follow a disastrous rollout of a different bar exam in California in February 2025. Following the issues with its exam, the California Supreme Court approved a move to the NextGen exam beginning July 2028.
Chaos in Yakima
The botched Washington test drew complaints from aspiring lawyers across internet forums and social media where they expressed frustration over the Wi-Fi challenges and ensuing chaos.
The exam in Yakima, a rural city a few hours south of Seattle, was supposed to start at 8:15 a.m., but test takers reported almost immediate problems with connecting to Wi-Fi in order to access the NextGen exam.
WSBA directed questions about the cause of the Wi-Fi problems to the Yakima Convention & Event Center where the test was to take place. The center didn’t immediately return an after-hours request for comment.
Test administrators at sometime around 11 a.m. attempted but were ultimately unable to begin the exam, three test takers that spoke with Bloomberg Law said. After lunch, administrators tried to start the tests in staggered waves, but they were again thwarted by Wi-Fi issues.
“It was just really very chaotic. People didn’t know what was going on. There wasn’t a lot of guidance,” said Ella Van Troba, a University of Washington Law School graduate. “It was not a fun environment to be in during an already stressful time.”
They stopped for the day in the early afternoon. Test takers were initially told they could come back on Wednesday before the WSBA canceled the entire sitting.
Like many aspiring lawyers coming from other parts of the state, Jack Despain Zhou, a 31-year-old Temple Law School graduate, stayed in a hotel the night before after driving from Seattle. He was frustrated, having spent the last year of law school and summer preparing earnestly for the test.
“This is an avoidable problem. I had been looking around the convention center thinking you have these 600, 700 people in this room, you know there are going to be issues,” he said. “This is not the only way to administer an exam.”
Tyson Weeks, a 25-year-old recent graduate of Notre Dame Law School, said he spent about $1,000 in flights and hotels to travel to Washington from his home in North Carolina. He said his job is contingent on passing the exam, which makes the cancellation “really difficult.”
“I’m going to have to come up with the money” for travel to the make-up test, Weeks said.
