The Recorder, Pass Rates on February 2025 California Bar Exam Soar for State-Accredited Law Schools:
Pass rates on the February 2025 bar exam skyrocketed for students of California-accredited law schools, with success percentages at some campuses increasing by five- or even 10-fold, according to statistics released this month by the State Bar of California.
The jump from a 18% pass rate in February 2024 to more than 54% this year for all repeat test-takers at state-accredited schools [was 36 percentage points, which] exceeded the overall 33 percentage-point increase for everyone taking the test for at least the second time [for ABA-accredited California law school, the percentage-point increase for repeat test-takers was also 33 percentage points (from 42% to 75%)].
The record improvements are tied to the chaotic run-up to the February exam, widespread technical failures that plagued the multiple days of testing and scoring snafus. In response to what bar officials acknowledged was an exam fiasco, agency leaders and the California Supreme Court approved a lower passing score, imputations of results for some testers and an essay scoring change that helped hundreds of applicants.
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)
- California Supreme Court Lowers Passing Score on February Bar Exam, Orders Return to Multistate Exam in July (May 5, 2025)
- Pass Rate On February 2025 California Bar Exam Hits All-Time High, Due To Lowered Passing Score And Bonus For Taking Experimental Test (May 6, 2025)
- California Bar Backs Provisional Licensure For Those Who Withdrew From Or Failed Botched February Exam (May 13, 2025)
- California Bar Cops To Multiple Scoring Errors On Disastrous February Bar Exam; Third Party Will Do A Comprehensive Review (May 17, 2025)
- California Bar Notifies Another Tranche Of Test-Takers Who Were Told They Flunked But Actually Passed; Bar Petitions Supreme Court To Extend COVID-Era Provisional Licensure To Over 3,000 Victims Of Botched February Exam (May 26, 2025)
- More California Bar Exam Chaos (June 7, 2025)
- California Supreme Court Expands Remedies For Law Grads Victimized By Botched February Bar Exam (June 14, 2025)
- Lawmaker Seeks Two-Year Pause On New California Bar Exam (June 26, 2025)
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