California wasn’t the only state to release horrendous bar exam results on Friday the 13th. Be prepared for a scare, because Arizona followed suit, and the results of the state’s exam were truly frightening.
According to a press release from the Supreme Court of Arizona’s Committee on Examinations, the overall pass rate for the February 2016 exam was just 49 percent. For the sake of comparison, let’s take a look at the results for the past two administrations of the Arizona bar exam. In July 2015, the overall pass rate was 56.6 percent. In February 2015, the overall pass rate was 58.8 percent. As detailed on the AZ Courts Exam Statistics website, the pass rate for the February 2016 bar exam was the worst Arizona has seen for more than 10 years (and possibly even longer — the state’s website only goes back to the year 2005).
Although Arizona has yet to release the school-by-school breakdown of its February 2016 passage rates, given graduates’ incredibly poor performance generally, that didn’t stop our readers from speculating as to the cause of the overwhelmingly subpar results:
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“Arizona bar results got leaked a few hours early. 49% pass rate. I’ll bet AZ Summit loses their accreditation finally.”
“July’s rate was higher with something like 85% ASU/UofA pass rate and 30% at Summit. Gotta be similar this time.”
It would be incredibly embarrassing if Arizona Summit Law School’s graduates were behind the state’s worst bar-passage rate in more than a decade, but we unfortunately don’t have the information to support that hypothesis quite yet. What we do know, however, is the top three performers on the February 2016 Arizona bar exam. (Unlike most states, Arizona announces its top scorers — such as Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie, who got the highest score on the Arizona bar exam the year she took it.)
Check them out — you may be surprised by the law schools you see here:
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Two out of the three top performers were graduates of Arizona Summit Law. Perhaps the much-maligned Unlock Potential program is actually working (for at least two people).
Congratulations to everyone who was lucky enough to have passed the Arizona bar exam. Less than half of your peers passed, so this is truly a special accomplishment.
Earlier: Despite All Efforts, Law School Posts Worst Bar Exam Performance Ever
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.