Bar Exams, California

California's Friday The 13th Bar Exam Results Were Terrifyingly Bad

The numbers we're about to show you are truly scary.

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Green California Road Sign with Dramatic Clouds and Sky.On Friday the 13th, would-be lawyers on the West Coast were subjected to unimaginable horrors as they awaited the release of the results from the February 2016 administration of the California bar exam. Would the results be as frightening as those from the February 2016 New York exam, where only 41 percent of test-takers passed? Unfortunately, we fear that this winter’s California bar exam results were bone-chillingly worse. The numbers we’re about to show you are truly scary.

According to a press release from the State Bar of California, the overall pass rate for the February 2016 exam was 35.7 percent, while the pass rate for first-time takers was 45 percent. The pass rate for retakers was a a shockingly low 32 percent. For the sake of comparison, let’s take a look at the results for the past two administrations of the California bar exam. In July 2015, the overall pass rate was 46.6 percent, and the pass rate for first-time takers was 60 percent. In February 2015, the overall pass rate was 39.5 percent, and the pass rate for first-time takers was 47.4 percent. This is a real problem, and it’s only seems to be getting worse as time passes.

On the bright side (if there can be a bright side, given the alarming circumstances), the state’s mean scaled MBE score was 1385, compared with the national average of 1350. On the other hand, this is the lowest overall pass rate California has seen for the February administration of the bar since results were released in the winter of 2009, when only 33.5 percent of all test-takers passed the exam. These are the worst February exam results in almost a decade in the state of California (cf. the results of the state’s July 2015 exam, which were the worst California had seen in nearly 30 years).

Here are some additional statistics from this winter’s administration of the exam:

CA Feb 2016 Bar Exam Results

Once again, graduates of ABA-accredited law schools displayed an obvious advantage over their peers who attended California-accredited or unaccredited law schools. We’re eager to see the pass rates for individual law schools when that data is available.

Congratulations to everyone who was lucky enough to have passed the California bar exam. Less than half of your peers passed, so this is truly a special accomplishment.

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STATE BAR ANNOUNCES RESULTS FOR FEBRUARY 2016 CALIFORNIA BAR EXAMINATION [State Bar of California]

Earlier: California Bar Exam Results Reveal Worst Pass Rate In Nearly 30 Years — But It’s Not All Bad News

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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