State Bar February pass rate is 26.8%, lower than last

Just 26.8% of State Bar applicants passed the February exam, down from 31.4% last year, the bar announced Friday.

The mean scaled score on the Multistate Bar examination was down from 1,370 last February to 1,357 this year. The national mean score was 1326, an all-time low. The Multistate Bar examination accounts for 50 percent of the California bar exam grade.

Law schools in the state accredited by the American Bar Association had a 42% pass rate for first-time takers, down from 45.2% last year. Schools only accredited by the state showed a 17% pass rate, down from 21.2% last year.

The bar will give more analysis and figures later in the month and on Monday intends to submit to the state Supreme Court a plan to virtually administer the delayed July exam in September.

"Meanwhile, we are moving forward on both near-term and long-term efforts that will affect the future of the bar exam," said Donna Hershkowitz, interim executive director of the State Bar, in the press release.

"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."