Hello everyone.  Happy July.  Just about two weeks to go until exam day!

This summer, the mask situation has evolved over time for the California Bar.  The April 14 FAQ indicated masks are optional.  COVID numbers have gotten worse over time, but hospitalizations and deaths numbers did not dramatically worsen.

Alameda County created reinstituted a mask mandate.  I’m shocked that the Cal Bar didn’t publicly react.  Mask mandate in one Cal Bar Exam site (the Oakland site is in Alameda County) would necessitate masks for every Cal Bar Exam site, unless the Cal Bar wants a class action lawsuit from a very litigious group (the entire Cal Bar applicant pool).  Publicly, they said nothing.  Remarkably, Alameda County gave 24 hours notice and rescinded its mask mandate a few weeks ago.  Crisis averted.

The other potential issue about a mask mandate is from LA County.  Public health officials indicated that the county would likely reach the high COVID tier, and that would result in a mask mandate.  That would trigger masks for Cal Bar Exam sites in LA, and again, that would necessitate masks for all bar takers.

But the date was a moving target.  First, it was mid-June, then late June, then early July, and around this time came the kicker:  the mask mandate wouldn’t immediately trigger.  Once LA County reached the high tier, it would have to stay there for 14 consecutive days for the mask mandate to trigger.

On July 8, the LA Times published an article titled, “With ultra-contagious BA.5 rising, how close is L.A. to an indoor COVID mask mandate?”  Buried in the lengthy article was this important assessment:

“Based on current trends, however, Ferrer estimated the L.A. County rate could surpass the high threshold as soon as next week.”

The only way that a mask mandate would occur for the Cal Bar would be ALL of the following:

1. LA County reaches the high tier Monday, 7/11.
2. LA County stays there 14 consecutive days.
3. On 7/25, the day before the Cal Bar Exam, LA County announces at 9 am that two consecutive weeks are met, and WHAM-O!, mask mandate.
4. The Cal Bar reacts at 10 am and announces masks are mandatory for the exam, and brings masks to all of its exam sites in case students don’t bring one.

Quite a needle for the Cal Bar to thread.  I don’t see it happening.

Officially, wait until Tuesday morning.  Check out latimes.com.  If you don’t read that LA County reaches the high tier on Monday, then you can take your mask off on exam day.

A student asked a great question:  fine, no masks on exam day, but should I be wearing a mask before then?  My recommendation is YES, if you go outside your house, for any reason, for any length of time, wear a mask.

You don’t want to get COVID just before the Cal Bar Exam!  Remember:  the first ability is availability!

Good luck to all as you finalize your preparations for the July 2022 Cal Bar Exam.

Hello everyone!
Remember that item I posted about the July 2022 FAQ document being replaced with info about Clear Health Pass/Mask Mandate that was copied and pasted from a bar exam page shortly before the February 2022 exam?  As in, dates included late January and early February?

Well, that was short.  Less than a few hours later, it’s gone.  So the April 14 FAQ is now back where it belonged, and no updates have issued.

So as of June 29, no need to upload vaccination status anywhere.

As of June 29, masks aren’t required for the July 2022 Cal Bar Exam.  I strongly recommend you wear one for 3- to 3-1/2 hours a day just in case LA County announces a mask mandate that would begin July 15-22.

If the weekly Cal Bar Friday update indicates, final answer, no masks required (on July 1, 8, 15), then stop wearing a mask.

If the weekly Cal Bar Friday update on July 22 (the Friday before the exam) says masks are optional, then you can take off your mask.

Admittance tickets and mock exams are theoretically available as of Tuesday.  Evidently these are distributed in batches over the next week.  Call the Cal Bar if you don’t have your admittance ticket by July 5.

Remember, you MUST complete the mock exam by July 22, otherwise you won’t be admitted to the exam.  And who wants that?

Hello friends.

Please note the following message from the NCBE regarding the July 2022 UBE exam, and regarding the MBE on the July 2022 Cal Bar Exam:

 JUN 24, 2022

NCBE Statement on SCOTUS Decisions

If you’re taking the Cal Bar, please know that the Cal Bar approved the questions for this exam in late April, even prior to the leak of the draft decision in Dobbs.  You could see an abortion issue in a Cal Bar Con Law essay.  Unlikely, but possible.  If you see this come up, mention that it was a fundamental right before June 24, and subject to rational basis review afterwards.  Maybe you get a bonus point as a result.

Hello everyone.

Well, that was fast!  Alameda County is rescinding its mask mandate, effective Saturday, June 25.

Per the LA Times:

Three weeks after becoming the first California county to reinstitute a mask mandate in most indoor public settings amid climbing coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, Alameda County has rescinded the order — citing improving conditions.

The move, effective at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, coincides as the San Francisco Bay Area’s second most populous county progresses from the high to medium COVID-19 community transmission level as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So that means no chance of wearing a mask on exam day, right?  Not so fast.  LA County estimated that it would reinstitute a mask mandate in late June.  Then that estimate moved to early July due to lagging reporting during the Memorial Day weekend.  Now, the estimate is mid-July.  Per the LA Times:

Health officials in Los Angeles County have said they would reimpose a public indoor mask mandate should the region fall in the high COVID-19 community level for two consecutive weeks. That category, the worst on the CDC’s three-tier scale, indicates not only significant community transmission but also that hospital systems may grow strained by coronavirus-positive patients.

Based on current hospitalization trends, L.A. County would likely not reach that category until mid-July.

However, that projection is “based on that assumption of a continued rate of increase that doesn’t change, and that’s really impossible to predict,” said Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that we may level off and, in the best of all worlds, we will begin to see a decline in hospital admissions sooner rather than later,” he told reporters Thursday. “But it is hard to predict.”

Hmmm… “must be in the high COVID-19 community level for two consecutive weeks.”  “Not reach that category until mid-July”.

So what does the Cal Bar do?  Are we going to escape scot-free?  Or will there be an announcement of a mask mandate in LA County and prompt the Cal Bar to mandate masks days before the bar exam?  Who knows?

For the second consecutive week, the Cal Bar issued a Friday email and noted that masks are optional for the exam.

I still recommend that students wear masks for 3- to 3-1/2 hours a day.  If you see an email from the Cal Bar on Friday, July 22, and you see that masks are still optional, then laugh as you take it off (or if you are inclined to keep it on, you can).  But if LA County comes back with a mask mandate on July 20, or 22, or 24, and the Cal Bar is forced to email you that masks are mandatory, what will you do?  Would you prefer to have practiced wearing a mask for hours at a time for a month?  Or have no recent experience with it, and touch your mask 70 times over a three-hour period, and be super distracted?

I don’t know what the final answer is here.  Do you?  Would you prefer to have a plan B, just in case?

Tread carefully, friends.  Good luck to you as continue your preparation for the exam.

Link:  https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/admissions/Examinations/July-2022-Bar-Exam-Admittance-Ticket-Bulletin.pdf

Of note:  in person exam.

Only the following items are allowed in the exam areas without prior approval. All items are subject to inspection at the test centers: 1. Government-issued ID 2. The admittance ticket with no writing on it 3. Silent analog watches 4. Prescription medications (does not include cough drops) 5. Cash (must not have extraneous writing on it) 6. Credit/debit cards that might be needed for the lunch breaks 7. Keys 8. Face masks without valves (with no patterns or extraneous writing on them) 9. Protective gloves (latex or rubber only) 10. Nondigital pens (standard blue or black ink), nonmechanical pencils (with eraser incorporated; no separate erasers), pen-style highlighters (must not be used on answers), rulers and paper clips 11. Nondigital timers and nondigital clocks measuring 4”x 4” or smaller. 12. Eyeglasses (no cases or sunglasses) 13. Foam earplugs (cannot be wireless and must not be connected to any mechanism or device) 14. Menstrual products 15. Inhalers 16. Diabetes-related items and equipment (does not include food or drinks) 17. Eyedrops in single-use vials 18. One back support (without a cover) 19. One orthopedic cushion (without a cover) 20. One standard-size pillow (without a case) 21. One bookstand 22. One footrest 23. Splints, braces, casts, crutches, wheelchair 24. Hearing aids 25. TENS units 26. Disability-related items that have been approved through the testing accommodations petition process 27. Separate keyboard, mouse (wired or wireless), laptop riser/stand no higher than 4 inches and a solid color mouse pad with no writing on it. During the MBE sessions, the items listed above are allowed in the exam room, except pens, highlighters, back supports, orthopedic cushions, pillows, bookstands or footrests, and laptops or laptop accessories. If you need any of these items due to a disability, you must request them through the timely filing of a Testing Accommodations Petition. 3 Applicants who will be handwriting their exam answers, or who are required to handwrite in the event of a laptop/software malfunction, must bring their own standard blue or black ink ballpoint pens. Applicants must also bring their own pencils for the MBE portion of the exam (several sharpened pencils are recommended). Mechanical pencils are not permitted. Pencil sharpeners and separate erasers will not be allowed into the exam room. Please note that applicants cannot bring wallets, tissues, lip balm, cough drops/throat lozenges, gum, candy, or other food or drinks in the exam room. Water and tissues will be available nearby at the test centers.

Hello everyone,

This morning, the FAQ document for the July 2022 exam was removed and in its place shows the following.  It is the Clear Health Pass App and mask mandatory information… copied/pasted from the February 2022 exam.  Yup, including the dates (as in, January/February 2022 – see below).

This APPEARS to indicate that you will need to download the Clear Health Pass app and that masks are mandatory for July 2022.  But let’s wait until the dates are updated to see how official this is.

Link:  https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/California-Bar-Examination/July-2022-Bar-Exam-FAQs

July 2022 Bar Exam FAQs

Hello everyone!  Happy June!

Graduation season has already begun.  I’ve heard from students who got COVID during this time.  And graduation season will continue for elementary school, middle school, high school, and undergrad levels, and even some law schools will have graduations.  And mask wearing will be spotty at best.

We’ve had Memorial Day – mask wearing isn’t at an all-time high.

Father’s Day?  I don’t know how many mass celebrations will be happening then.

But then, of course… July 4 – bad news for COVID positivity rates.

So the big question for Cal Bar Exam applicants:  will applicants be required to wear masks on July 26-27?  Sure seems like it.

Why?

UCLA and Cal Poly SLO have already reinstituted mask mandates.

Alameda County (home to the Oakland Cal Bar Exam testing site) reinstituted an indoor mask mandate on Thursday, June 2.  Per the San Francisco Chronicle:

On Thursday, Alameda County broke ranks by once again implementing an indoor mask mandate “to limit the impact of increasing COVID-19 cases on hospitalizations.” The mandate, which takes effect June 3, applies to most indoor settings, save K-12 schools and the city of Berkeley, which sets its own health protocols. The state lifted its school mask mandate earlier this year.

Indoor mask mandate.  Not indoor mask mandate for events with more than 500 people.  Indoor mask mandate.

There’s more.  Note what the Los Angeles Times said on June 2:

With coronavirus-positive hospitalizations in Los Angeles County continuing to rise, officials said the nation’s most populous county could be poised to see a new universal indoor mask mandate later this month if the upward trends continue.

“Our weekly case rate and the rate of increase in hospital admissions are of concern,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. “If we continue on the current trajectory … we’re likely to move into the CDC high [COVID-19] community level within a few weeks towards the end of June, indicating increased stress on the healthcare system.”

L.A. County health officials have already said once the county enters the high COVID-19 community level, that will trigger a local requirement to wear masks in indoor public settings.

Also note that several counties with Cal Bar Exam sites are already in the high community level:

Nearly 1 in 6 Californians live in a county with a high COVID-19 community level. The affected counties are Santa Clara, Sonoma, Solano, Marin and Napa in the San Francisco Bay Area; Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado in the Sacramento Valley area; and Monterey, Mendocino, San Benito and Del Norte counties elsewhere in Northern California.

As you are aware, Santa Clara and Sacramento counties have Cal Bar Exam sites.  San Diego and Orange County are already in the middle community level.

The Cal Bar has not updated its FAQ document (originally issued April 14).

The current momentum of this crisis strongly suggests that at least one county with a Bar Exam site will require masks on exam day.  Things could change, of course.  But you don’t know that.  And I don’t either.

So what to do?  Simple.  Assume that masks are required on exam day.  Wear a mask, EVERY SINGLE DAY, SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK, for 3- to 3-1/2 hours every day.  EVERY DAY, until the Cal Bar guarantees that you won’t have to wear a mask on exam day.

So, if the Cal Bar says on July 15 that you don’t have to wear a mask on exam day, you can laugh while taking off your mask.  But if you hear on July 15, July 20, even July 25 that you have to wear a mask on exam day.  How will you prepare for that?  You can’t.  Unless you start wearing masks.  NOW.

You’ve been warned.

Applicants will find this to be of interest:

The overall pass rate was 33.9%.

The Percentile Table shows us some relevant info:

45% scored higher than 1340.

40% scored over 1355.

35% scored higher than 1382.

30% scored higher than 1400.

The overall pass line is 1390, and you need more than 1350 to get a re-read.

So… roughly 32.5% passed on the first read.  About 10% of the applicant pool got a second read, and the second read appears to have increased the pass rate by roughly 1.4%.

Hello everyone!

The Cal Bar posted results for the February 2022 exam at 6 pm tonight.  The pass rate was 33.9% overall.  This represents a drop of 8.9% from February 2021’s 37.2% pass rate.  How February 2021 impacts things given that this was the exam right after the COVID-delayed October 2020 exam and less time to prep for February 2021 is unclear.

Considering February 2016-February 2020 pass rates, 33.9 is relatively normal for a February exam because those pass rates were 35.7, 34.5, 27.3, 31.4, and 26.8.  Today’s 33.9% fits neatly within that context.

The MBE score nationwide is worth considering from this exam.  The Cal Bar reports that the national average on the MBE dropped to 132.6, the lowest score all-time.  That could explain the lower overall pass rate for this exam.  It could also explain the 61.8% attorney exam pass rate, highest in 19 years!

At least 12 other states reported lower pass rates for February 2022, according to the Cal Bar.  Repeater pass rate was 24.0%.

Full press release appears below.

If you find that you need tutoring, please reach out ASAP as I only have a few spaces remaining.

State Bar of California Releases Results of February 2022 Bar Exam

Today the State Bar announced that 1,056 people (33.9 percent of applicants) passed the February 2022 California General Bar Exam—the first in-person exam since February 2020. If those who passed satisfy all other requirements for admission, they will be eligible to be licensed by the State Bar to practice law in California.

“This is a day of pure joy for the 1,056 applicants who passed the General Bar Exam, and their families, as well as the 209 candidates who passed the Attorney’s Exam,” said Leah Wilson, State Bar Executive Director. “We congratulate all those who successfully passed the exam and look forward to welcoming them to California’s legal profession very soon.”

This year’s 33.9 percent pass rate on the General Bar Exam was a drop of nearly 8.9 percent from the February 2021 pass rate of 37.2 percent, but higher than the February 2020 pass rate of 26.8 percent.

Nationally, at least a dozen other states saw their February 2022 pass rates drop from the previous year, including

• New York (45 percent compared to 49 percent in 2021),
• Florida (44 percent compared to 47 percent in 2021),
• North Carolina (50 percent compared to 60 percent in 2021), and
• Pennsylvania (37 percent compared to 51 percent in 2021).

The national average score on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) dropped to 132.6—the lowest all-time score—matching the low reached on the 2020 February exam.

Attendance at California’s February 2022 General Bar Exam was slightly higher (3,113) than during the remotely administered February 2021 exam (3,098) but still low compared to past years, when 4,000 to 5,000 typically took the exam.

February 2022 General Bar Exam preliminary statistics

• Completed the General Bar Exam: 3,113 applicants
• First-time applicants: 1,090 (35.0 percent of total)
• Pass rate for first-time applicants: 53.0 percent overall
• Repeat applicants: 2,023 (64.9 percent of total)
• Pass rate for repeat applicants: 24.0 percent overall

Pass rate for the General Bar Exam (rounded to whole numbers) by law school type:

General information about the structure and content of the General Bar Exam.

The Attorneys’ Examination is open to those who have been admitted to the active practice of law and are in good standing for at least four years in another U.S. jurisdiction, as well as disciplined lawyers who are ordered to take the examination as a condition of reinstatement. Of the 338 attorneys who completed the Attorneys’ Examination, 209 (61.8 percent) passed.

A pass list from the exam will be published on the State Bar website on May 8, 2022, at 6:00 a.m. More detailed statistics about exam results will be available in four to six weeks on the State Bar website.

Successful applicants who satisfy all requirements for admission may take the Attorney’s Oath individually or participate in admissions ceremonies held by their law school or others.  Applicants are eligible to practice law in California after taking the Attorney’s Oath and submitting their oath card to the State Bar. Once again, the State Bar is enabling digital signing and electronic processing of oath cards.

Hello June 2022 Baby Bar applicants!  You’re on deck!

And, surprisingly, the Baby Bar will be delivered remotely.  As of March 1, the exam announcement and the laptop announcement are consistent and refer to a remotely proctored exam.  As per the laptop announcement:

The First-Year Law Students’ Exam will be remotely proctored, and you must take the exam on a laptop computer with a functional internal webcam and microphone.

The June 2022 Baby Bar Announcement can be found here:

https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/First-Year-Law-Students-Examination/June-2022-First-Year-Exam

The Laptop announcement can be found here:

https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Admissions/Examinations/First-Year-Law-Students-Examination/Laptops-for-First-Year-Exam

The deadline schedule is here:

On exam day, the Baby Bar Exam Schedule will be (NOTE you have a 20 minute window to get passwords):

Exam Day Schedule (all times Pacific Time)

Need a tutor?  Email me and let’s talk!  I have some spaces available for Baby Bar Exam tutoring.  Need budget friendly resources?  Books are available and a 10% discount coupon is available!  Check out the books tab on the site.