Bar Exams

Another State Supreme Court Mandates A Lower Bar Passage Score

More students will pass the bar exam, but will it get to the root of the problem?

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The state with the third highest bar passage score — behind Delaware and California — has mandated a lower bar cut score. The Oregon Supreme Court found the minimum passing should should be lowered, and the state Board of Bar Examiners (BBX) decided the new cut score for bar passage should be 274, down from 284.

While no one wants to see students that have already paid — and likely gone into debt — for law school locked out of the profession, there are some who suggest merely lowering the cut score does not fix the problem (law students are unprepared to take the bar exam), it only addresses a symptom (the record number of people who are failing the exam). As the Daily Emerald reports:

While lowering the score may be advantageous to students taking the exam, some law students are critical of the decision to lower the score. One law student, who wished to remain anonymous given the internal politics of the law school, said that the fundamental issue is that the law school doesn’t prepare students to pass the bar, instead choosing to try to lower the score.

The student cites the lack of access to bar prep classes which are offered after graduation and thus keep students from working in order to attend.

Remember, the cut score had been 284 for a long time. Ten years ago, in July 2006, 74 percent of applicants passed the bar exam with a minimum score of 284. Five years ago, in July 2011, 72 percent passed under the old standard. Those are both higher passage rates than in July 2016, even if you retroactively apply the lower cut score. (In 2016, 58 percent of applicants passed with a minimum cut score of 284; under the lower 274 standard, 68 percent of applicants would have passed the July 2016 exam.) Unsurprisingly, in-state law school deans actually pushed for an even lower cut score — to 266 — than what the Board of Bar Examiners decided upon.

So no matter what a law school dean tries to sell you, the standard itself isn’t the problem. Coincidentally, the average LSAT score for students at Oregon’s three law schools has decreased over that same period.

Amid similar concerns over dropping bar passage rates — and accompanying lowering of admissions standards — the California State Supreme Court is also investigating a lower cut score. That state’s bar examiners are in a public comment period to determine the new, lower cut score.

It’s easy to see a lower cut score as a win for students — more of them get to easily progress to a profession they’ve spent three years working to join. But something much deeper than the passing score is wrong in legal education. Academically successful candidates are staying away from getting a J.D., schools are experimenting with accepting the GRE in lieu of the LSAT, and bar passage rates have sunk from coast to coast. Oregon’s move only delays getting to the root of the issue.

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(An earlier version of the story misstated the new cut score as 276.)

Oregon Supreme Court lowers bar passage standard [Daily Emerald]

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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