Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse…

On Friday, April 18, the Cal Bar’s Committee of Examiners decided to reduced the raw passing score on the February 2025 Cal Bar Exam from 560 to 534.  Problem?  The Cal Bar can’t do that unilaterally.  It must file a petition to the California Supreme Court.  If the Court approves (ideally before April 28, so that the Cal Bar could implement those changes in results letters), then the Cal Bar felt that it could still publish results on time, on May 2.

Sooooooo…. the Cal Bar didn’t exactly file that petition on April 18.

Then, last week, the Cal Bar revealed that its psychometric vendor, ACS Ventures, used artificial intelligence to craft 23 of the 200 multiple choice questions that applicants saw on the February exam.  In addition, 48 questions were taken from the Cal Bar’s  bank of questions for the First-Year Law Students’ Exam (aka, the Baby Bar, which consists of 100 contracts, crim, and torts MBEs).  Kaplan, you know, the firm that received all that money to create the MBE questions, drafted only 100 of the 200 questions.  No word on who drafted the 29 questions deemed to be experimental and which were not graded.

Remember, the Cal Bar said it would file its petition with the Court on April 18.  As I said, it didn’t happen.  Then, the Cal Supreme Court found about the non-lawyer psychometrician drafting MBE questions with AI just like the rest of us, via press release (trust me, the justices were NOT amused, on multiple levels).  Then, last Thursday, on April 24, the Cal Supreme Court issued a statement:  “Because the court was not made aware of the use of AI to draft some of the multiple-choice questions for the February bar exam, the court has asked the State Bar, in its petition regarding the scoring of the exam, to explain to the court how and why AI was used to draft, revise, or otherwise develop certain multiple-choice questions, efforts taken to ensure the reliability of the AI-assisted multiple-choice questions before they were administered, the reliability of the AI-assisted multiple-choice questions, whether any multiple-choice questions were removed from scoring because they were determined to be unreliable, and the reliability of the remaining multiple-choice questions used for scoring.”  As of Friday, April 25, the Supreme Court confirmed that the Cal Bar hadn’t sent its petition to the Court regarding lowering the passing score for the February 2025 exam.  This is probably because the Court asked the Cal Bar to address how and why they used the 200 questions they used for the MBE on the February 2025 exam.

NOW it comes to pass that tonight, Monday night, April 28, the Cal Bar sent applicants an email:  the Cal Bar still hadn’t filed the petition that it was going to file on April 18.  The Bar said that “we anticipate doing so tomorrow, on April 29.  The timing of our petition submission will not give the Court much time to rule in a manner that allows us to apply the scoring recommendations adopted by the Court and then release February Bar Exam results on May 2.  There may therefore be a slight delay in releasing results.” (emphasis mine).

And, at the end of the email, the Cal Bar said that it is “committed to sharing exam results as soon as we are able.”

Unprecedented, this.  The Cal Bar results may not publish on time.  We’ll see when the Cal Bar files its petition.  We’ll see how quickly the Cal Supreme Court rules on the petition.  Remember, the Cal Bar cannot control the Cal Supreme Court in any way:  what it decides, or when it decides.  Do you think the Supreme Court will adjust the cut score given the Cal Bar’s fundamental alteration of the MBE, by allowing non-lawyers to use AI to generate MBE questions?  Not to mention the use of seemingly easier questions (48 questions for a 1L exam used on a Cal Bar exam), which may have been deliberately used to improve student performance to dilute the impact of Kaplan’s inability to deliver more than 50% of what it promised to do?

Either way, as the Cal Bar said, “there may therefore be a slight delay in releasing results.”  I hope applicants receive results on Friday!  We shall see.

Hello everyone,

In its message today, the Cal. Supreme Court said the following, in relevant part, about the February 2025 applicant pool:

“At present, the complete scope and causes of the problems are still being determined.  Last week, the court asked the State Bar, in conjunction with the vendor responsible for administering the exam, to provide an expedited, detailed report regarding the problems encountered by applicants.  This information is crucial in informing how the court will provide appropriate remedies for affected applicants who deserved and expected better.”

Folks, the Cal. Supreme Court didn’t have to say what I highlighted in bold.  The Cal. Supreme Court asked the Bar to provide an expedited detailed report about what happened on the exam.  All well and good.  The Court could have stopped there.  But the Court said that it wanted the information because it will inform how the Court will provide appropriate remedies.  The Court is rather unhappy about all this, in my view.  It could have left such remedies to the Cal Bar.  Seemingly the Court wants to get involved.  I would remind the Court that results day is Friday, May 2, and I would hope that the Court will provide its thoughts before results publish on that date.

For its part, the Cal Bar emailed applicants today as well and addressed a few issues.

1. The controversial March 18-19 retest.

Turns out precious few people will be allowed to participate in the March 18-19 retake.  Just 85 people met the criteria:  unable to launch the exam at all, or submitted 1, 2, or 3 (but no more) essays/PT on exam day, or people who couldn’t access the MBE at all, or people who only competed 1 or 2 of the 4 sessions of the MBE.

That’s 85 out of 5,400 applicants, or 1.5% of the applicant pool.

The Bar didn’t address whether it would be replacing all of the essays/PTs for March 18-19, or just the one essay that was published recently.  Frankly, that should be a no-brainer:  if they can replace on essay, they can replace all of the essays and the PT, and they should do so ASAP.

2. Other remedies

The Cal Bar said in its email:  The State Bar has used psychometric remedies like score imputation, pro rata adjustments, and regression modeling in prior disrupted exams. Historically, the Committee of Bar Examiners has had purview over exam grading, and any scoring adjustment would likely be subject to Supreme Court approval.”  In other words, they can recommend something, but the Supreme Court will have to approve it.

3. Provisional Licensure

The Cal Bar said in its email:  “Many of you, as well as various law school deans, have recommended that the State Bar provisionally license February 2025 test takers. The State Bar does not have the authority to unilaterally initiate a new, or extend and modify the current, provisional licensure program. ” 

The Board of Trustees will receive an update on the February 2025 bar exam at its meeting on March 5; an overview of possible remediation steps will be provided to the Board at that time. The Committee of Bar Examiners will discuss remediation options at its March 14 meeting; however, action by either body is unlikely given that preliminary grading will not have concluded. Further, neither State Bar staff nor the Board of Trustees nor the Committee of Bar Examiners can act alone in making decisions to apply scoring adjustments or to provisionally license February exam takers. Decisions about these matters are subject to review and approval by the Supreme Court.

In other words, I don’t see the Cal Bar recommending provisional licensure at all.  Ultimately, something like that is up to the Supreme Court, which has the final word on any issues relating to the Bar Exam.  Which suggests why the law school deans wrote its letter to the California Supreme Court.  The deans seemed to know that the Court is the only entity that could approve such a remedy.

No idea what’s going to happen in this regard.  However, I’m happy to see that the Court has an interest in what’s going on.  The Court rarely speaks on Bar Exam-related matters.  I’m glad the Court is getting involved and has done so expediently.

The State Bar of California reported today that 53.8 percent of applicants passed the July 2024 General Bar Examination (GBX). As a result, the 4,458 people who passed the July exam will be eligible for admission to the State Bar as soon as all admissions requirements are satisfied.

“The State Bar celebrates the dedication and perseverance of everyone who passed the California Bar Exam,” said Leah Wilson, State Bar Executive Director. “We are pleased to see you reach this important milestone, and we look forward to welcoming you soon into our community of dedicated legal professionals.”

California’s General Bar Exam pass rate of 53.8 percent is up from last year’s July pass rate of 51.5 percent, and 2022’s July pass rate of 52.4 percent. Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 8,291 applicants who completed the GBX, 67.7 percent were first-time takers. The pass rate for these 5,614 first-time applicants was 68.2 percent. The pass rate for the 2,677 applicants repeating the exam was 23.5 percent.

Here are preliminary pass rate statistics* in greater detail:

Attorneys’ Examination results 

The statistics above do not include attorneys who took the one-day Attorneys’ Examination. The Attorneys’ Exam, which consists of the essay and performance test sections of the GBX, is open to lawyers who have been admitted to the practice of law in another U.S. jurisdiction and have been an active licensee in good standing for at least the four years immediately preceding the exam. Of the 319 lawyers who completed the Attorneys’ Exam, 156 (48.9 percent) passed.

Background information about the California Bar Exam

The two-day General Bar Examination is given twice a year, in February and July. The exam consists of three sections: five essay questions, and a performance test designed to assess an applicant’s ability to apply general legal knowledge to practical tasks, and a 200-item multiple-choice section, also known as the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). California’s mean scaled MBE score was 1401, on par with the national average. The July 2024 exam was the last time that California will use the MBE for multiple choice questions.

Successful applicants who have satisfied other requirements for admission―those who have received a positive moral character determination, passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, and are not on the California Department of Child Support Services’ list of those in arrears for family or child support―may take the Attorney’s Oath.

A pass list from the exam will be published on the State Bar website on November 10, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. More detailed statistics about exam results will be available in four to six weeks on the State Bar website.

*Please note that these are preliminary statistics. Law schools will be required to confirm the students allocated to their law school and, as a result, these statistics may change.

Hello everyone!

Good luck tonight!  I know you’ll be checking results from the July 2024 Cal Bar Exam very soon.  I hope you receive good news!

If the news isn’t what you hoped for tonight, don’t worry.  People fail the Cal Bar Exam.  In fact, about 1/2 of you will, if history is accurate.  Smart people fail the Cal Bar.  It happens, promise.

What to do next?

If you pass tonight, congratulations!  Go celebrate, sleep, and be grateful you don’t have to retake the exam.  No felonies, please!  Get sworn in, and use your license for the power of good and impact people’s lives in a positive way.

If you don’t pass, mourn your result for 15 minutes.  Then contact me.  Good tutors fill up quickly.  The worst thing that can happen is that you want to work with a tutor, wait too long, and then you don’t get to work with that tutor.  Programs can fill up within a few days, or even a few hours.

I’ve tutored for 25 years, taught several courses at UC Law SF for that period of time (Legal Writing I and II, Critical Studies I, II, III), and I’m one of a handful of 1-on-1 MBE tutors in the country.  I’ve tutored through the COVID exams, so I know how to handle paperless exams.  And that means I know how to help you Avoid Scrolling Hell!  What if you could learn how to master a paperless exam, even on the PT?  I have answers for all three parts of the exam.

Let’s generate some points!  I speak fluent repeater.  I speak fluent paperless exam.  And whatever your situation is, I can meet you where you are and help you get to wherever you need to go.

Let’s do something about it!  Good luck tonight.  If you need me, reach out.  Now.

Hello everyone,

The Cal Bar updated their FAQ’s on October 30.  Of relevance here is #20:

20. I have a disability that requires hard copy exam questions, but I will be using a laptop.
What should I do?

Applicants using a laptop will not have access to exam paper material regardless of
whether they test remotely or in-person. Applicants may request hard copy exam
material as an accommodation for a disability-related functional limitation by submitting
a testing accommodation request through the Applicant Portal. Please use the following
link to get more information about Testing Accommodations.

All applicants will have access or permission to access virtual scratch paper and an 8.25″
x 11″ dry-erase whiteboard for use during the examination. The whiteboard will be
subject to inspection, and larger sizes will not be permitted.

So, looks like you can get a whiteboard to use on the Cal Bar.  8-1/4 x 11 is way better than 2×2!

That said, I assume you must get it yourself.  So that should mean you can get a whiteboard marker, an

eraser, and the whiteboard.  Get one now so you can practice on it.

Still not perfect, of course.  What if you need more than one page to complete your outline?  And how do

you transfer that info?  Is there a better way?  YES.  Want more information?  Contact me and let’s talk about

a tutoring program!

And how is a one-page whiteboard going to help you on a PT, when you normally need 2-3 pages to do your

inventory of the Library?  2-3 pages for the inventory of the File?  And 2-3 pages for the Outline?  How does

the one-page whiteboard fix that?  Want something better than a whiteboard?  I HAVE ANSWERS!  Contact me now.

Click here for the FAQ:  https://www.calbar.ca.gov/Portals/0/documents/admissions/Examinations/February-2025-Bar-Exam-FAQs.pdf

From the unsuccessful applicants memo:

The essay and PT answers of those applicants who are unsuccessful on the California Bar Exam are
accessible through your Applicant Portal. You may save or print a copy for your records. The files will
be removed from the Applicant Portal on May 31, 2024.

From the Cal Bar’s web site:

The State Bar announced today that 1,337 applicants (33.9 percent) passed the February 2024 General Bar Exam, and 197 applicants (52.7 percent) passed the Attorneys’ Exam. 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.

“Congratulations to the 1,534 applicants who passed the February California Bar Exam,” said Leah Wilson, State Bar Executive Director. “We recognize their hard work and share in their excitement and celebration and wish them the very best in their future legal careers.”

Ms. Wilson also addressed concerns about the Cow Palace testing site: “We can report that a full and independent psychometric analysis of the potential impacts of the Daly City exam site on applicant performance outcomes was conducted, and no such impact was found,” she said. “The State Bar is dedicated to ensuring the testing environment meets the highest standards and will incorporate the feedback received from test takers to improve future administrations. The July exam will not use the Cow Palace as a testing location.”

The 33.9 percentage pass rate for the February 2024 General Bar Exam represents a slight increase from the February 2023 pass rate of 32.5 percent. The pass rates for the February 2024 bar exam nationwide followed a similar path, with most experiencing a slight increase, including:

• New York (42 percent, compared to 40 percent in 2023)
• Florida (41 percent, compared to 39 percent in 2023)
• Illinois (44 percent, compared to 43 percent in 2023)
• Pennsylvania (48 percent, compared to 44 percent in 2023)

According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the California mean scaled score on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) for February 2024 was 1327, compared to the national average mean scaled score of 1318.

In most U.S. jurisdictions, including California, the bar exam consists of three sections, one of which is the MBE. An increase in the national mean MBE score would likely indicate an increase in the February 2024 pass rate, and in California’s and other states’ results, it did.

The State Bar commissioned an independent psychometric analysis to assess whether reported concerns about temperature, restroom facilities, and other site-related concerns with the Cow Palace testing center, impacted applicant scores. According to the independent analysis, score adjustments were not warranted or recommended: “Differences among groups of applicants who tested at different sites…does not support a hypothesis that the performance of applicants was meaningfully different at Cow Palace, locations within Cow Palace, or applicants who did not test at Cow Palace. Therefore, there is insufficient evidence that applicants were disadvantaged by the environmental conditions at the facility.”

The February bar exam typically includes a higher proportion of repeat takers than a July administration. Repeat takers’ exam performance, including pass rates, is lower on average than that of first-time test takers. The proportion of repeating examinees on the California February 2024 administration was 69.7 percent, which represents a slight drop from nearly 71 percent in 2023.

Attendance at California’s February 2024 General Bar Exam was 3,944, nearly 5 percent higher than for the February 2023 exam, and 26.7 percent higher than the February 2022 exam.

February 2024 General Bar Exam preliminary statistics*

• Completed the General Bar Exam: 3,944 applicants
• First-time applicants: 1,195 (30.3 percent of total)
• Pass rate for first-time applicants: 44.8 percent overall
• Repeat applicants: 2,749 (69.7 percent of total)
• Pass rate for repeat applicants: 29.2 percent overall

Pass rate for the General Bar Exam by law school:

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.

A pass list from the exam will be published on the State Bar website on May 5, 2024, 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. The State Bar has enabled digital signing and electronic processing of oath cards on a permanent basis.

*Please note that these are preliminary statistics. Law schools will be required to confirm the students allocated to their law school, and as a result, these statistics may change. The general statistics, including data on pass rates by gender, race/ethnicity, and law school type, will be released in four to six weeks.

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The State Bar of California’s mission is to protect the public and includes the primary functions of licensing, regulation and discipline of attorneys; the advancement of the ethical and competent practice of law; and support of efforts for greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system.

Hello everyone!

Results Day is today.  Hope the February 2024 Cal Bar test-takers receive good news tonight!

If you receive good news tonight, CONGRATULATIONS!  Celebrate responsibly, and no felonies!  Remember, the goal is to get sworn in, right?  Felonies don’t help with that, even if you commit one after you pass the Bar Exam.

If your name does not match a name on the database of names of people who passed, mourn your result for 30 minutes, and then contact me.  Good tutoring programs fill up quickly.  I usually fill up within a few days of publication of results and last season I filled up within a few days!  The first ability is availability.  Let’s talk, set up a plan, and then you can know that you’re not alone and that you’re doing something about it.

Good luck tonight, everyone!