What to Bring to the Washington Bar Exam (July 2026)

Knowing exactly what to bring to the Washington bar exam matters more than usual this cycle, because July 2026 is Washington's first NextGen UBE. The exam runs Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28-29, 2026, over roughly nine hours across three sections. It is delivered on your own laptop (handwriting is not an option), and the WSBA has a strict, itemized security policy about what comes into the room with you. Pack for that policy, not for the old MEE and MPT format you may have read about.

What Must You Bring? The Official Washington List

Four things are required to enter the exam room, and you will not get in without all of them:

• A government-issued photo ID. The name on it must match the name on your NCBE account.
• Your WSBA-issued seating card, which is provided to you at registration. There is no self-printed admission ticket, so guard this card.
• Your laptop computer (or a Surface Pro with its keyboard).
• Your laptop or Surface Pro power cord.

That is the non-negotiable core. Everything else is either permitted in limited form or banned outright. Note that you cannot carry anything in your pockets into the exam room, so plan to have your required items in hand and your small permitted items in a clear bag.

What Does Washington Provide?

You can leave a few things at home because the WSBA supplies them onsite:

• Scratch paper for note-taking (bring sharpened wooden pencils to write on it).
• Free foam ear plugs (all other ear plugs are prohibited).
• Free generic menstrual products.
• Beverage cups plus coffee, tea, and water.
• Tissues in the exam room.
• A nursing room with a refrigerator.

The secure testing browser also includes a built-in on-screen notepad. It is handy for scratch work, but remember that anything you type there is not graded.

What You Can Bring in Your Clear Bag

Small personal items are allowed only inside a clear, quart-size (Ziploc-style) plastic bag. Inside that bag you may carry credit cards and cash, keys (no paper key jackets or covers), a wired mouse (Bluetooth mice are not permitted), sharpened wooden pencils, and menstrual products.

You may also bring a jacket or coat. Garments with attached hoods are fine, but you cannot wear the hood over your head inside the exam room. Beverages are allowed too, but they must be poured into the facility-provided cups and placed on the floor during the exam. Bags, backpacks, purses, and laptop cases stay outside the room in a non-secure storage area, and you leave them there at your own risk since the facility is not responsible for loss or theft. All bags are subject to search.

What to Leave at Home

Anything not on the required or permitted lists is prohibited. The banned list is long, so read it closely:

• Bags, backpacks, purses, luggage, and laptop cases or covers.
• Books, notebooks, and review materials.
• Electronic and Bluetooth devices of any kind (phones, keyboards, non-wired mice, smart glasses, watches, cameras, e-cigarettes), even turned off.
• External storage like CDs, DVDs, and flash drives.
• Food, gloves, and headphones, earbuds, or headsets of any kind.
• Headwear, including hats, scarves, and headbands wide enough to cover the ears.
• Lip balm, cough drops, and eye drops.
• Medication and medical supplies (accessible during a session only with a proctor).
• Pens, highlighters, mechanical pencils, and pencil sharpeners (electric sharpeners are located outside the room).
• Personal ear plugs, wallets, water bottles, thermoses, and coffee mugs.
• Watches, fitness trackers, and clocks of any kind.
• Weapons of any kind (none are allowed anywhere at the site).

No visitors or pets are permitted (approved service animals go through the accommodation process). Do not eat in the room, do not write on either side of your seating card, and do not talk to other examinees, including in the restroom during a session. Restroom breaks are allowed as needed, but no extra time is given. It is also worth avoiding heavily scented products out of courtesy to people around you.

Laptop and Software: What Are the Requirements?

Because this is the NextGen UBE, Washington uses NCBE's own secure testing browser, not Examplify or ExamSoft. A few specs matter:

• A Windows or Mac laptop that meets NCBE's published technical specifications; confirm the exact required Windows and macOS versions in your NCBE account. Tablets and Chromebooks are not permitted, only Mac and PC laptops.
• Wi-Fi capability and administrator rights to install the secure browser.
• A wired mouse is allowed if you prefer one (Bluetooth mice are not permitted).

Then there are mandatory pre-exam steps, and all of them must be finished no later than 72 hours before exam day (roughly July 25, 2026) or you cannot sit: the candidate agreement, the $149 technology fee paid through your NCBE account (separate from your WSBA application fee), installation of the secure browser on the exact laptop you will bring, and the exam tutorial plus system compatibility check. That compatibility check is the NextGen stand-in for the old mock exam, and it must run on the same laptop you will carry to the exam. Backup laptops exist onsite, but only for genuine in-exam software emergencies, not for people who skipped setup. The exact compatibility-check deadline date was not published in the official guide at the time of writing, so confirm it in your NCBE account and on your WSBA seating card or the board's official July 2026 instructions. For the full official item and software rules, see the WSBA Bar Exam Security Policy.

Dressing for the Exam Room

There is no formal dress code, but the rules shape your choices. A jacket or coat is expressly allowed, so dress in layers you can add or remove as the room temperature shifts. Attached hoods are fine, but you cannot pull the hood over your head, and headwear that covers the ears (hats, scarves, wide headbands) is prohibited. If you need religious attire that would otherwise be restricted, you can request it through the special-request process with 18 days of advance documentation. Skip heavily scented lotions, sprays, and perfumes.

Key Deadlines and Report Times

Two dates are firm. Exam-room special requests (to bring an otherwise-prohibited item like medication, back support, a book stand, or a wrist rest) are due Friday, July 10, 2026, submitted through your WSBA user home page at least 18 days before the exam with supporting documentation where needed. The NextGen pre-exam steps are due about July 25, 2026, as noted above.

Official examinee report times and the exact July 2026 venue were not published in a confirmable official source at the time of writing. Yakima Convention Center in Yakima has been referenced as this cycle's site, and proctor scheduling suggests an early-morning check-in, but confirm both the report time and the venue on your WSBA seating card and the board's official July 2026 admission notice. Anyone not in the room when instructions begin will not be allowed to take the exam, and missing a session bars you from the remaining sessions, so build in a generous cushion. For the broader packing routine, our general exam day checklist covers the essentials that apply in any state.

One last thing worth doing in your final week: pump real feedback through your written answers. The integrated question sets on the NextGen exam reward tight, issue-spotting prose, and cold practice essays only help if you know how they would actually score. You can paste a timed practice essay into BarScore and get a score plus detailed feedback in seconds, on any jurisdiction and any prep course's questions, with a free trial to try it before the exam. (BarScore grades written essays, not performance tasks.) A calm setup and a few sharpened, well-scored essays are the best pair you can walk in with.