Law Schools

The New York Bar Exam Results Are Out, And They're Not So Great (July 2018)

Uh-oh. These results are certainly not as good as they were last year...

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Last month, the National Conference of Bar Examiners announced that the national mean MBE scaled score from the July 2018 had dropped to a 139.5, a 34-year low. “Pass rates will be lower in most jurisdictions,” said NCBE President Judith Gundersen. This year, New York is one of those jurisdictions.

The July 2018 New York bar exam results were released today, and according to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 9,679 examinees — 253 lower than last year’s exam, and the lowest number of candidates to take a July exam since 2004 — sat for the test this past summer. Of those examinees, 63 percent passed the New York bar exam. The overall pass rate for first-time takers was 74 percent. These results are certainly not as good as they were last year, and seem to be dangerously close to July 2015’s results, which were the worst the state had seen in at least 35 years.

Check out these statistics to see how the July 2018 results measure up:

Year All Candidates All First-Time Takers All First-Time ABA Takers
July 2004 67.4 percent passed 76.5 percent passed 83.1 percent passed
July 2005 67 percent passed 75.9 percent passed 82.7 percent passed
July 2006 69.5 percent passed 79.4 percent passed 86.7 percent passed
July 2007 70.6 percent passed 79.1 percent passed 87 percent passed
July 2008 74.7 percent passed 83.2 percent passed 90.5 percent passed
July 2009 72 percent passed 80 percent passed 88.2 percent passed
July 2010 70 percent passed 78 percent passed 86 percent passed
July 2011 69.2 percent passed 78.5 percent passed 86.1 percent passed
July 2012 68 percent passed 76 percent passed 83 percent passed
July 2013 69 percent passed 78 percent passed 86 percent passed
July 2014 65 percent passed 74 percent passed 83 percent passed
July 2015 61 percent passed 70 percent passed 79 percent passed
July 2016 64 percent passed 73 percent passed 83 percent passed
July 2017 68 percent passed 78 percent passed 86 percent passed
July 2018 63 percent passed 74 percent passed 83 percent passed

Once again, some may blame the record high number of foreign-educated candidates who took the exam for this past summer’s results. For the July 2018 exam, a record 3,232 foreign-educated examinees sat for the test, accounting for 33 percent of all candidates who took the exam. The pass rate for this group was just 41 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. While that number dropped by 3 percentage points since last summer’s exam, as the New York BOLE notes, that’s “generally in line with recent results.”

As NCBE President Gunderson remarked when news of July 2018’s dramatically low national mean scaled MBE score started to spread, “[W]e were hoping that the rebounding of scores in the 2016 and 2017 July results would continue, but they are what would be expected given the number of applicants and LSAT 25th percentile means of the 2015 entering class.” Now is a good time to remind law schools that they must remain cognizant of the fact that just because the UBE may be “easier” to pass than prior state iterations of the test, it is no excuse to keep admitting students whose performance and success on the bar exam may be questionable at best. Admissions standards must be raised so that those who bet their lives and careers on a legal education don’t wind up in a worse position than what they started with.

Congratulations to you if you were able to pass the bar exam in New York this summer. If you didn’t pass, don’t despair. Many very successful people have failed the bar exam (see our list of famous bar exam failures). Focus on February and develop a plan for passing. Believe in yourselves, because you can — eventually — do it!

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Press Release: NY Bar Exam Results – July 2018 [New York Board of Law Examiners]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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