Cal Bar February 2025 exam “retake” moved from March 3-4 to March 18-19, and other updates
Hello everyone,
The unprecedented February 2025 Cal Bar Exam continues, apparently, for weeks.
Tonight, in the 7 pm hour, the Cal Bar emailed the applicant pool with an update. That update appears below:
Day 3 of the exam has concluded. For those of you testing in person, Day 2 meant a significant delay in getting started; for most it involved delays in logging back into the exam after the lunch break. In addition to these systemic challenges, we are aware of other issues experienced by test takers, including continued challenges with proctors, connectivity lapses, time lost, and submission problems. We are still assessing results from Day 3 and will report on that following the conclusion of all testing.
As we stated after Day 1, these conditions are unacceptable, and we make no excuses for them. We are actively meeting with our psychometrician and other stakeholders to solidify the full range of remediation steps.
Initial retake opportunity March 18-19
Note that the retake originally planned for March 3-4 has been rescheduled due to a prohibited online disclosure of an essay question.(Please see more about this prohibited disclosure below.) Day 1 content will be changed as a result of this disclosure. This change requires reconfiguration of the exam driver, which takes time to execute.
In the immediate term, Meazure will be offering this retake opportunity on March 18-19 to test takers meeting the following criteria:
- Were unable to launch the bar exam in the Meazure Learning platform at all.
- Have fewer than four successfully submitted written responses (essays and/or the Performance Test). Why this parameter? For statistical reasons, imputation of scores can be applied to applicants with at least four written submissions. Imputation, regression analysis, and pro rata scoring adjustments have been used with the California bar exam in the past—most recently in July 2021.You can learn more about that score imputation here. [NOTE: I will publish the Cal Bar memo about the July 2021 exam below.]
If you meet criteria 1. or 2. above, you will be affirmatively contacted to schedule your retake exam.
If you do not meet these criteria
Because of the evolving nature of what we are learning, the fact that there are a number of accommodated applicants who will continue to test through Saturday, and the need to better understand systemwide versus applicant-specific failures, we will be taking a few more days to finalize any other remediation plans. As mentioned, the State Bar has used psychometric remedies like score imputation, pro rata adjustments, and regression modeling in prior exams. We understand that any delay on our part will be a cause for even more frustration, but we do not want to rush towards a solution that may not in fact work.
Statement re: prohibited dissemination of exam questions
The State Bar is aware that certain individuals are attempting to prevent the administration of a retake of the February 2025 bar exam by posting exam questions online.This conduct is strictly prohibited. The State Bar will engage digital forensic experts to identify individuals who have posted exam content and has already taken steps to preserve postings to support this forensic investigation. Individuals who are found to have engaged in any conduct that violates exam security or compromises exam integrity are subject to strict sanctions, including revocation of a previously granted positive moral character determination or denial of a pending moral character application. In short, individuals who are found to have engaged in this type of prohibited and unethical behavior will find it difficult if not impossible to secure licensure with the State Bar of California.
Seeking your input
In the immediate term, those of you who have completed an exam should expect to receive a survey from us. This will not be a typical post-exam survey; instead, the results will be used to inform the remediation discussions we are currently engaged in.
Lastly, some of you may notice that we are changing the registration date for the July bar exam. Please don’t be alarmed; we will finalize the application launch date once July exam administration plans are confirmed in the coming weeks.
Thank you for your perseverance,
Office of Admissions
State Bar of California
NOTE: the memo titled “Scoring Adjustments for Applicants Negatively Affected During the July 2021 California Bar Examination” is published below:
SCORING ADJUSTMENTS FOR APPLICANTS NEGATIVELY AFFECTED
DURING THE JULY 2021 CALIFORNIA BAR EXAM
During the July 2021 Bar Exam, applicants nationwide encountered technological issues that
vendor ExamSoft reported were caused by high-memory utilization between ExamMonitor (the
video proctoring arm of the software) and the main software that generates digital images.
After the State Bar of California investigated the scope of impact of these issues on California
examinees, the agency worked with its psychometrician to develop a grading adjustment for
those who were negatively impacted. A negative impact was defined as follows:
• Examinee reported encountering a black or blue screen that required a laptop reboot,
whether the examinee lost time or not.
• Examinee experienced a black or blue screen that required more than a laptop reboot in
order to continue testing. Typically, the applicant was directed by ExamSoft to
redownload the exam question to restart that exam session and continue testing.
• Examinee was not provided access to redownload the exam question and thus was
unable to fully complete that exam session.
State Bar Admissions staff verified each reported incidence through a variety of sources,
including review of proctoring videos, ExamSoft call logs and reports, reports submitted in the
Applicant Portal, and emails received by the State Bar. The State Bar concluded that 2,429
examinees experienced negative impacts. Applicants who reported incidents that were not
substantiated have been informed that they did not receive a grading adjustment.
For applicants who were negatively impacted by these ExamSoft issues during the written
sections of the exam (essay questions and Performance Test), the State Bar applied a pro rata
grading adjustment for each affected question, which utilized data from the unaffected
population of examinees, as well as the affected individual’s scores on questions where there
were no recorded problems. The adjustment consisted of two components:
1. The first component accounted for the relative difficulty of each question. This
component was calculated by first obtaining the average score on each question among
examinees who had no memory utilization issues on any written question and the
overall average of all scores in that group. The difference of the averages on each
question and the overall average was used to represent the relative difficulty of each
question. For example, if the overall average across all questions was 78, and the
average on the first question was 76, that question was considered more difficult than
the average question by 2 points. The 2-point difference was considered
OFFICE OF ADMISSIONS
Scoring Adjustments
Page 2
the “adjustment factor” for that question. Each question was given an “adjustment
factor.”
2. The second component was based on the scores of each individual who experienced an
ExamSoft memory utilization issue. First, an average was calculated for the examinee’s
scores on which no issue was encountered. That average was considered to be the best
estimate of that individual’s ability. For each question on which there was some
technological issue of the type described above, the average score from the unimpacted
sessions was adjusted by the “adjustment factor” to arrive at an “Expected Score.” The
“Expected Score” was then compared to the examinee’s actual score on the question. If
the actual score was less than the “Expected Score,” an adjustment was made, and the
final score on the question was the “Expected Score.” If the actual score was greater
than the “Expected Score,” the score was not changed.
For examinees negatively impacted during any session of the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), the
National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) provided an adjusted score for the State Bar’s use
that also uses the pro rata method. Similar to the adjustment method for the written section, if
the adjusted score calculated by the NCBE was lower than the original MBE score, then no
adjustment was made.For statistical reasons, the pro rata grading adjustment could not be applied to applicants who
either experienced more than three negatively impacted written sessions, or more than two
negatively impacted MBE sessions. For the very small number of applicants who met this
criteria (less than 2 percent of those who were negatively impacted), the State Bar employed
a regression model that takes into consideration MBE scores to adjust the written session, or
for those missing three or four MBE sessions, considers their written essay scores in adjusting
the MBE score.
Examinees who experienced these technological issues and were unsuccessful on the exam will
have the option to request that their July 2021 bar exam fees be applied as a credit to take the
February 2022 or July 2022 California bar exam. Applicants who do not plan to sit for those
exams will be able to request a full refund of their fees. Applicants will receive instructions with
their results letter on how to take advantage of these options
