The results for the February 2016 administration of the New York bar exam are out, and they really aren’t pretty. In fact, they’re hideous.
Congratulations to you if you happened to pass the New York bar exam this time around, because many of your peers — 59 percent of them — did not. Once again, please reach out and thank your law school for admitting subpar students, because your colleagues’ failure is making your success look even better.
What went wrong here? According to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 4,193 examinees sat for the test this winter. Of those examinees, only 41 percent passed the New York bar exam. The overall pass rate for first-time takers was 55 percent.
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Look at these New York bar statistics to see how awful the February 2016 results are:
| Year | All Candidates | All First-Time Takers | All First-Time ABA Takers |
| February 2016 | 41 percent passed | 55 percent passed | 67 percent passed |
| February 2015 | 43 percent passed | 56 percent passed | 70 percent passed |
| February 2014 | 47 percent passed | 62 percent passed | 74 percent passed |
| February 2013 | 50 percent passed | 64 percent passed | 75 percent passed |
| February 2012 | 44 percent passed | 59 percent passed | 69 percent passed |
| February 2011 | 48 percent passed | 63 percent passed | 77 percent passed |
| February 2010 | 50 percent passed | 67 percent passed | 81 percent passed |
| February 2009 | 42 percent passed | 60 percent passed | 73 percent passed |
| February 2008 | 50 percent passed | 64 percent passed | 76 percent passed |
| February 2007 | 44 percent passed | 61 percent passed | 74 percent passed |
| February 2006 | 46 percent passed | 61 percent passed | 74 percent passed |
| February 2005 | 47 percent passed | 62 percent passed | 72 percent passed |
| February 2004 | 45 percent passed | 58 percent passed | 67 percent passed |
As we noted when the July 2015 New York bar exam results were released, even when the results were bad in the past, they were never this bad.
Some will again blame the record high number of foreign-educated candidates who took the exam for these horrendous results. For the February 2016 exam, 1,848 foreign-educated examinees sat for the test, accounting for 44 percent of all candidates who took the exam. The pass rate for this group was an astoundingly low 30 percent. While these test-takers dragged down the overall pass rate and overall pass rate for first-time takers, the pass rate for all first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools doesn’t lie. That number dropped by 3 percent between 2015 and 2016, and it represents the lowest percentage of first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools to have passed the exam since February 2004.
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Law schools MUST stop scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to admitting students. Admission standards MUST be raised to put a stop to this.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we will repeat this statement for the umpteenth time: “Until law schools realize they’re doing a disservice to everyone — their students, their graduates, and their graduates’ future clients — things will only continue to get worse.” Do your jobs. End this misery once and for all.
Press Release: NY Bar Exam Results – February 2016 [New York Board of Law Examiners]
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.