Law Schools

Law School Deans Say Absurd Cut Score To Blame For California's Horrendous Bar Exam Pass Rate

Things need to change in California, and fast.

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We recognize that some critics blame us for this situation. They say that we are admitting students to law schools who are not adequately qualified. From 2010 to 2017 there was a decline in LSAT scores and undergraduate GPAs of admitted law students in California and nationally, and there is undoubtedly some correlation between those metrics and performance on the bar exam, as well as in law school. However, while this may explain some of the recent decline in bar passage rates, it does not explain most of it, nor does this provide any legitimate reason for keeping California’s cut score so much higher than other states’.

It is more plausible to hypothesize that the bar exam has grown anachronistic, a test designed for a paper-and-pencil generation now inflicted on a smartphone generation.

— An excerpt from a joint op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, written by Dean David L. Faigman of UC Hastings Law, Dean Stephen C. Ferruolo of San Diego Law, and Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin of UCLA Law, in an effort to convince the State Bar of California, the California Legislature, and the California Supreme Court to reconsider the state’s bar exam cut score so that more test-takers can pass the exam. The overall pass rate for California’s July 2018 exam was 40.7 percent — the lowest overall pass rate the state has seen for the July administration of the bar since results were released in the fall of 1951.

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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