Law deans shocked, concerned about low February bar exam scores

Deans expressed concerned, and even shock Monday that law school graduates scored significantly lower than previous years on the California bar exam in February, even though they performed better than other states' test-takers on the multiple choice portion of the exam.

"We're definitely concerned that less than 50% of graduates from law schools accredited by the American Bar Association would not be passing this exam," said Selina Farrell, associate dean for student success at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. "Especially because in recent years, the students entering law school in California as a general rule have had higher undergraduate GPAs and LSAT scores. So, this was shocking that for first-time takers, the scores were so low."

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

There was a big difference between law schools accredited only by California and those accredited by the American Bar Association. ABA accredited schools had a 42% pass rate for first-time takers, down from 45.2% last year. California- accredited schools showed a 17% pass rate, down from 21.2% last year.

Farrell said the school was informed in advance that the pass rate was low.

While the mean score in California on the multi-state exam, the multiple choice portion of the exam, was down from 1,370 to 1,357, the overall mean score nationally was 1326. The multiple-choice portion constitutes 50% of the 1,440 score needed to pass the bar in California.

Mitchel L. Winick, dean of Monterey College of Law, has been advocating for California to lower the cut score. He sees the February results as another indication that the cut score needs to be lowered to reflect the rest of the nation.

"We are being asked to believe that despite scoring a state mean scaled score of 1357, well above the national mean scaled score of 1326, and well above the national minimum passing score standard of 1330-1350, that only 26.8% of California bar examinees have the "minimum qualifications for the first year practice of law," Winick said in an email Monday. "I don't see how a growing number of lawyers and judges aren't starting to question whether the California Bar Exam grading and scoring system is broken."

Monterey College of Law is a California-accredited law school. Winick said it's important to factor in that those types of schools don't have a lot of students taking the exam, and even one or two students passing or failing could disproportionately impact the statistics.

"Likewise, the pass rates between the schools vary greatly, so the poor performance of a couple of schools can significantly change the overall group percentage," Winick said.

The February bar exam usually has a higher number of repeat takers. In July last year, there were 2,826 repeaters out of 7,764 people in total. In February this year, the number of repeat applicants was 3,013 out of 4,205 in total. Repeat takers tend to pass at a lower rate than first-time takers, with 22% passing in February. For first-time takers, 38% passed.

The initial statistics don't break down how individual schools or different demographics performed on the exam. More statistics will be released in four to six weeks.