Hello everyone. Today’s the day! The unique, unprecedented October exam results will publish today at 6 pm.

For those who pass, congratulations! You have earned it. In some ways, this was the most difficult bar exam of all time. The exam was delayed to September and then to October. You had to comply with deadlines. You had to clear all that stuff out of your workspace so the remote proctoring video wouldn’t trip up. You had to hope that a cat or a child didn’t inadvertently enter the exam space. Or that that the garbage truck wouldn’t somehow trip up your exam! Much less finding quiet spaces to study, finding time to study amidst the chaos, etc. You will have stories of perseverance and more to tell your kids and grandkids someday about the unique COVID Bar Exam.

For those of you who do not receive good news today, I feel you. I had the honor and privilege of retaking the Cal Bar Exam. And you have far more and far better excuses to fail given the COVID than I did!

Here’s the challenge though: the result wasn’t what you wanted. What are we going to do about it?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether you’re going to take the February exam, or wait until July. Some good news: the February exam won’t be delayed. You know when your exam will be! Yes, you have less time to prepare. Then again, remember the Bar originally set January 15 as the results date, so at least you have an extra week. But time is of the essence. You don’t have the luxury of taking two weeks to mourn the exam.

So, do this: get your results. Mourn the result for 30 minutes. Then email or call me. I have the tools you need to pass the next exam. My calendar is already drafted. Let’s start Monday or soon thereafter. Let’s generate some points!

I am a staff of one. I don’t farm out grading or lecturing to other people – my teenagers aren’t quite ready to start lecturing! But I am that rare breed of tutor: I focus on ALL THREE parts of the exam: essays (including issue spotting and outlining, and a NEXT LEVEL method of outlining for an online exam!), Performance Tests (specific methods to reduce your reading time and a NEXT LEVEL method of inventorying and outlining for an online exam!), and 1-on-1 tutoring for the MBE. Yes, I’m one of a handful of 1-on-1 MBE tutors in the country. I don’t relegate 50% of the test to a coupon code for questions that look nothing like what you saw on exam day.

If you failed the October exam, my condolences. 1390 is in reach! Now let’s do something about it. Call or email me now.

Hello everyone.

Seismic change for the exam!

Here’s what we know. The next Cal Bar Exam will take place on October 5-6. It’ll be online. What they didn’t say (but what is true according to an NCBE email and the statements of DC, MD, PA, TN, AZ, and TX) is that the MBE will be 100 questions. 50 questions in 90 minutes. Then 15 minute break. Then 50 questions in 90 minutes.

Not sure what changed the minds of the Cal Supreme Court justices, who said there was no reason to change the cut score not that long ago (and this was after even the Cal Bar advocated lowering the cut score). But I’m certain nobody is complaining. So 1390 means what? It means that you will likely need a 60% to barely pass on the first read, not 62-63% (which is what the pass line effectively was since 2007), and not 66-67% (which is what the pass line effectively was prior to 2007). Basically you can miss one more minor issue and still pass.

More significantly, on a 200 question MBE exam, that would mean you could miss 5 more MBE’s and still be OK (i.e., 120 instead of 124-125).

It’s a different day, folks! Let’s generate some points!

Today the State Bar released results of the February 2020 California Bar Exam and announced that 1,128 people (26.8 percent of applicants) passed the General Bar 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.

“We heartily congratulate the 1,128 applicants who passed the General Bar Exam and the 163 candidates who passed the Attorney’s Exam. We hope to welcome all of them to California’s legal profession very soon,” said Donna Hershkowitz, Interim Executive Director of the State Bar. “Meanwhile, we are moving forward on both near-term and long-term efforts that will affect the future of the bar exam. On Monday, we will submit to the California Supreme Court a work plan addressing how we intend to administer the next exam in September. For the long term, the State Bar has recently completed several studies that we hope will contribute meaningfully to informed discussion around a future direction for the California bar exam.”

At its meeting on May 14, the State Bar Board of Trustees will review the agency’s most recent bar exam studies and consider recommendations for next steps on the future of the exam. The mean scaled Multistate Bar Examination score on the February 2020 bar exam in California was 1357, down from 1370 last year. The national mean score was 1326, down from the previous year’s mean of 1328 and an all-time low.

February 2020 General Bar Exam preliminary statistics

• Completed the exam: 4,205 applicants

• First-time applicants: 1,192 (28.3 percent of total)

• Pass rate for first-time applicants: 38.0 percent overall

• Repeat applicants: 3,013 (71.6 percent of total)

• Pass rate for repeat applicants: 22.0 percent overall

Pass rate (rounded to whole numbers) by law school type:

School Type First-Timers Repeaters

 California ABA 42% 30%

 Out-of-State ABA 45% 22%

 California Accredited (not ABA) 17% 10%

 Unaccredited: Fixed-Facility 0% 8%

 Unaccredited: Correspondence 14% 11%

 Unaccredited Distance-Learning 16%  9%

 All Others 41% 20%

 All Applicants 38% 22%

Here is general information about the structure and content of the General Bar Exam.

The one-day 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. Of the 417 attorneys who completed the Attorneys’ Examination, 163 (39.1 percent) passed.

A pass list from the exam will be published on the State Bar website on May 10, 2020. 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. Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the State Bar’s Office of Admissions has had to cancel admissions ceremonies it typically offers throughout the state and has posted instructions for individuals to be sworn in remotely.

If they have satisfied all other requirements, applicants are eligible to practice law in California after they have taken the Attorney’s Oath and submitted their oath card to the State Bar. Approximately two weeks after forwarding the oath card to the State Bar, their names will appear on the agency’s roll of licensed attorneys accessible on the State Bar website.