More California bar exam scores go from fail to pass amid errors
The scoring errors, outlined during a Thursday joint meeting of the state bar's Board of Trustees and its Committee of Bar Examiners, resulted in three examinees moving from failing to passing.
That adds to a tally of 243 February examinees who were initially told they failed but later learned they passed either through changes to how the exam was initially scored or because scoring mistakes were corrected.
California in February debuted a hybrid remote and in-person exam that did not include any components of the national bar exam the state had used for decades. Examinees reported computer crashes, distracting proctors, and no ability to copy and paste text, among other technological and logistical problems.
The state bar in June hired the Human Resources Research Organization, a consulting firm, for $185,000 to review how the February exam was scored after test takers raised concerns — part of an estimated $6 million the bar is spending to address February's problems.
At Thursday's meeting, staff reported that the review found 31 unsuccessful applicants did not have their exam notes fully exported for grading. But that issue only changed the grade of one test taker, who did not go from failing to passing.
Three test takers moved from failing to passing after a review of the performance test portion of the exam found that their annotations had not been fully exported and evaluated by graders. They were notified of that change on July 18, according to the state bar.
Scoring changes enacted after the February exam boosted the test's overall pass rate to 65% — nearly double the state's historical average of 35%.
The California Supreme Court in May ordered a return to the previous version of the lawyer licensing exam, which uses the 200-multiple-choice question Multistate Bar Exam developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, for the July test. That exam did not face any major problems, state bar staff said Thursday.
State bar officials also discussed their options for the future of the California bar exam, including continuing to develop their own test or moving to the new version of the bar exam that the national conference will introduce in July 2026.
Read more:
Hundreds of California bar exam-takers move from fail to pass with new scoring
California's February bar exam mess is costing millions to clean up
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