The State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners
reported that 55.3 percent of the applicants who took the July 2000 general bar
examination passed. The rate is higher than the 51.2 percent passing rate on the July 1999
bar exam. If the 4,233 people who passed the exam satisfy other requirements for
admission, they will become members of the bar.
Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 7,655 applicants
who took the July exam, 77 percent were first-time takers. The passing rates for the 5,894
first-time applicants were: 64.3 percent overall, 71.7 percent for applicants who attended
California law schools approved by the ABA, 64.3 percent for applicants from ABA-approved
schools outside of California, 28.6 percent for applicants from schools accredited by the
bar committee but not approved by the ABA, 21.8 percent for applicants who studied law at
unaccredited law schools, and 54.3 percent for those who were not allocated to a law
school (because they did not take the bar exam within one year of graduation). Most of
these applicants are graduates of an ABA-approved law school.
For the 1,761 applicants repeat test-takers, the overall pass rate
was 25.3 percent.
The committee also announced that 204 (54.7 percent) of the 373
lawyers who took the Attorneys’ Examination passed. This passing rate is higher than
the July 1999 exam, when 43.8 percent of the lawyer applicants passed. |
