The February California bar exam results were released to the public this morning, with exam-takers hearing of their fate on Friday night (hope you all had a good weekend).
While it'll be 4-6 weeks before the State Bar releases the in-depth data and school by school analysis, there is one interesting bit of news: this sitting of the exam saw the second-lowest number of passers in 23 years. When you compare that to the July 2008 exam, which saw the highest number of passers in 11 years, you gotta wonder about the bipolar nature of it all. The February exam normally sees a lower passage rate than the July one, but from best in 11 years to second-worst in 23? Whoa.
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One need not wonder about the "bipolar" nature of the discrepancy. The February bar is mostly made up of people who failed the July bar. To the extent the bar graders in the summer allowed marginal scores to pass (and thus increased the July passage rate), the remainder are less likely to pass the next time around. Every marginal candidate that is passed in July is one less candidate that has a high probability of passing in February (high in relation to the other repeaters).
Posted by: Anon | May 18, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Anon, First time takers from CA accredited schools had a 53% pass rate. That is lower than usual. It was not just repeaters, it was everyone.
Posted by: SFJD | May 19, 2009 at 08:38 AM