Passing Rate, Scores on Bar Exam Plummet

SAN FRANCISCO —  Scores on last July’s California Bar exam showed their biggest one-year drop in 21 years, and the pass rate was the lowest in many decades, according to new figures from the State Bar.

The decline was especially severe among minorities, the figures show. Just 11.6% of the blacks who took the exam passed, compared to 48.3% of the whites, the report said. The passage rate was 18.1% for Latinos and 30% for Asians.

All ethnic groups declined from the July, 1983, exam, when the pass rate was 55.1% for whites, 15.8% for blacks, 24.8% for Latinos and 39.7% for Asians. Proportionately, the pass rate dropped by about one-fourth for minorities and one-eighth for whites.

Overall, of 7,352 students who took the three-day exam, 41.8% passed, compared to 49% in July, 1983.

The decline was even worse for the top-ranking group of students, who were taking the exam for the first time after graduating from major law schools accredited by both the state and the American Bar Assn.

Their pass rate was 59.9%, down from 70% a year earlier.

Those repeating the exam after failing it in the past had a pass rate of 14.9%, down from 23% in July, 1983.

The State Bar has offered no explanation for the drop in scores but has denied that the test or the grading was more difficult than in previous years. Bar statisticians are working on an analysis.

The report also said the pass rate for women was 1.3% higher than for men. The previous year, women outperformed men by 5.9%. However, among first-time test-takers, men had a 2.1% higher pass rate than women.

Among major California law schools, the best pass rate was achieved by graduates of UC Berkeley, 76.1%, followed by UC Davis, 74.4%. Stanford University, the previous leader, ranked third, also at 74.4%.

Pass Rates

However, two out-of-state schools had the highest pass rates on the California exam: Harvard University, 83%, and the University of Michigan, 78.4%.

Several private law schools were particularly hard-hit, notably the University of Santa Clara, dropping from 67.2% to 46.6%; the University of Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, 69% to 53.1%, and the University of San Diego, 62.9% to 47.1%.