The Recorder, California Supreme Court Lowers Passing Score on February Bar Exam, Orders Return to Multistate Exam in July:
Citing the "particular issues" that created a chaotic February 2025 bar exam, California's Supreme Court on Friday lowered the raw score needed to pass the test and ordered the state bar to return to using the National Conference of Bar Examiners' Multistate Bar Exam for the upcoming July exam.
The results for the tests, originally scheduled for release at 6 p.m. Friday, will now be posted for applicants at noon on Monday, according to an announcement on the bar's website. The pass list will be opened to the public on Tuesday.
Those who took the general bar exam will need at least 534 points on the essay, performance test and multiple-choice sections of the exam to reach a passing scaled score of 1390, the one-page order said. …
The court also authorized the state bar to impute the scores of applicants who could not finish significant portions of the exam due to widespread technical difficulties.
Reuters, California Scraps New Bar Exam for July, Adjusts Scores on Botched February Test:
California will not administer its newly developed bar exam in July, after the state’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered a return to the previous test following a disastrous rollout in February.
The California Supreme Court directed the State Bar of California to use to the Multistate Bar Exam — the 200-question multiple choice portion of the exam the state had used prior to the February test — for the upcoming July test. …
In the same order, the court approved several scoring adjustments requested by the state bar that are intended to address some of the various problems February examinees encountered on the attorney licensing test. The state bar on Friday told examinees that their results, which were originally scheduled to be released on Friday, would be pushed back to Monday as it worked to adjust scores based on the court’s order. …
The court’s order set the raw passing score for the attorney licensing exam at 534 — lower than the 560 score recommended by its standardized testing expert who looked at February's results. Raw pass scores can fluctuate each year and are converted according to a standardized scale. The order also directed the state bar to “impute” scores for test takers who weren’t able to complete significant portions of the two-day exam.
- ABA Journal, California Delays Releasing Results From Troubled February Bar Exam
- Balls and Strikes, California’s AI-Generated Bar Exam Questions Went As Poorly As You’d Expect
- Bloomberg Law, California Bar Leader Wilson to Retire as Exam Chaos Endures
- Bloomberg Law, California Bar Says Contractor Used ChatGPT for Exam Prompts
- Bloomberg Law, California Justices Accept Bar Exam Scoring Despite AI News
- Los Angeles Times, California Supreme Court Orders State Bar to Revert to National Exams After Testing Debacle
- New York Times, On California’s State Bar Exam, More Questions Than Answers
- Reuters, California Bar Leader to Step Down Amid Exam Debacle
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- California Bar Exam Suffers Catastrophic Meltdown: ‘I’ve Never Had This Much Despair And Hopelessness’ (Feb. 27, 2025)
- The California Bar Exam Fiasco: Is Provisional Licensure The Appropriate Remedy? (Mar. 1, 2025)
- New York Times: California Bar Exam Fiasco Enrages Test Takers And Clouds Their Futures; Chemerinsky Calls For Provisional Licensure (Mar. 3, 2025)
- 17 Deans Ask California High Court To Provisionally License Grads Who Fail February Exam And Scrap New Kaplan-Written Questions And Revert Back To In-Person Exams In July (Mar. 4, 2025)
- California Supreme Court Reverts Back To In-Person Bar Exam In July (Mar. 5, 2025)
- Law Profs: California State Bar Must Be Held Accountable For Its Catastrophic Failures (Mar. 6, 2025)
- California Bar Orders Investigation Of February Exam Disaster As Beleaguered Test-Takers Fume (Mar. 9, 2025)
- California Bar Blocked Law School Deans And Professors From Vetting Troubled Bar Exam (Mar. 15, 2025)
- California Bar Recommends Provisional Licensure For All Who Failed And Withdrew From The February Bar Exam (Mar. 16, 2025)
- State Bar Of California Announces Remediation Actions For The February Bar Exam And Plans For The July Bar Exam (Mar. 18, 2025)
- California Bar Still Can't Decide How To Make Applicants Whole After Botched February Bar Exam (Apr. 8, 2025)
- California Bar Allowed Non-Lawyers To Use AI To Draft February Exam Questions, Will Ask Supreme Court To Lower Cut Score (Apr. 23, 2025)
- California Supreme Court Demands Answers From State Bar On Its Use Of AI In Preparing Bar Exam Questions (Apr. 26, 2025)
- Pressure Grows On California Bar To Switch To NCBE For July Exam Following February Exam Debacle (Apr. 28, 2025)
- California Bar Delays Release Of Results Of Catastrophic February Exam, Further Punishing Applicants (Apr. 30, 2025)
Editor's Note: If you would like to receive a daily email with links to legal education posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.
