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37.2 Percent of Applicants Pass February State Bar Exam
Rate Would Have Been 27 Percent Had Previous Standards Been Maintained
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The State Bar of California announced yesterday that there was a 37.2 percent passage rate on the February bar exam, under lowered standards ordained by the California Supreme Court last July.
Had it not been for the high court decree, it was disclosed, there would have been a passage rate of only 23.7 percent. Lowering of the required cut score from 1440 to 1390 resulted in 1,151 applicants passing the general bar exam rather than 734, the State Bar said in its announcement.
It reported that 3,098 persons completed the exam, which was administered remotely in light of the pandemic.
Passage rate on the February exam is generally lower than on the exam usually administered in July (postponed last year to October) because there are more repeat applicants, who are less likely to pass. That was true this year: there were 1,871 repeat applicants, comprising 60.4 percent of the total, and only 27 percent were successful.
By contrast, 1,227 of the applicants—39.6 percent of the total—were first-time exam-takers, and 53 percent of them passed.
The State Bar provided the following chart showing passage rates by law school type, rounded by whole numbers:
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The State Bar also noted that 247 candidates who passed the exam for out-of-state attorneys. |
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