Ms. Moeser has denied requests for additional information.

The exam is an indispensable safeguard against unqualified practitioners, she said in a telephone interview, noting that “it is a basic test of fundamentals” that has “no justification other than protecting the consumer.”

But critics have long questioned not only the expense and time devoted to taking the exam but also whether clients benefit from an admissions standard that is largely based on rote memorization.

The bar exam “does nothing to measure lawyering skills,” said Kristin Booth Glen, a law professor and former dean of the City University of New York School of Law, which trains public interest lawyers, “and only shores up the guild mentality that there should be a barrier to prevent the legal market from being flooded during times when fewer jobs are available.”

All states but one, Wisconsin, require passing the bar exam to become a licensed lawyer, but bar associations in states including Arizona and Iowa have been exploring alternatives. The Iowa State Bar Association proposed an in-state “diploma privilege,” similar to neighboring Wisconsin’s, that would allow graduates of local law schools to skip the bar exam and begin practicing immediately.

The bar exam does not test Iowa-specific law, and almost all graduates pass it on the first try anyway, said Guy R. Cook, a personal injury lawyer and former president of the state bar association who headed a commission recommending the changes. Studying for the exam heaps more debt on graduates already mired in law school loans, the commission found, and deters them from practicing in lower-paying rural areas.

The Iowa Supreme Court rejected the proposal last year, but asked for recommendations, due at the end of March, for more efficient and economical ways to handle the exam and the admissions process.

“Innovation is always hard,” Mr. Cook said of the initial defeat.

One reason that change is hard is the differing interests in the legal industry. The state bar controls the admissions process, in part by using the testing tools, which include a lengthy multiple choice test, that they buy from the bar examiners conference. The conference, which has scored the exam since the early 1970s, reported almost $20 million in annual revenue, nearly 85 percent of which came from exam sales, according to its most recent tax filing in June 2013. Outside lawyers and legal academics can earn extra money by helping prepare exam questions.