STATE BAR ANNOUNCES RESULTS FOR JULY 2003 CALIFORNIA BAR EXAMINATION

MEDIA CONTACT:  E.J. Bernacki   415-538-2440   barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

San Francisco, November 21, 2003 — The State Bar's Committee of Bar Examiners reported today that 49.4 percent of the applicants passed the July 2003 General Bar Examination (GBX).

• Attorneys' Examination Pass Rate Summary • General Bar Examination Pass Rate Summary • California Bar Exam Fact Sheet

This rate is just slightly lower than the 50.5 percent passing rate on the July 2002 GBX.

If the 3,848 people who passed the July 2003 examination satisfy other requirements for admission, they will become members of the State Bar. Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 7,788 applicants who took the July 2003 GBX, 68.9 percent were first-time takers.

The passing rates for the 5,364 first-time applicants were: 63.5 percent overall, 71.5 percent for applicants who attended California law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA), 65.6 percent for applicants from ABA schools outside of California, 25.6 percent for applicants from schools accredited by the Committee but not approved by the ABA, 14.9 percent for applicants who studied law at unaccredited law schools, 28.9 percent for correspondence law school applicants and 39.5 percent for those that were not allocated to a law school (because they did not take the GBX within one year of graduation). Most of these applicants are graduates of ABA-approved law schools.

For the 2,424 applicants repeating the GBX, the passing rates were: 18.3 percent overall, 28.3 percent for applicants from California ABA-approved law schools, 20.2 percent for applicants from ABA schools outside of California, 9.1 percent for applicants from schools accredited by the Committee, 4.5 percent for applicants from unaccredited law schools, 6.5 percent for correspondence law school applicants and 14.2 percent for applicants who were not allocated to a law school.

The applicants not included in the above totals either studied law outside of California or through the law office/judge's chambers program.

Jerome Braun, Senior Executive, Admissions, commented that one contributing factor to the lower pass rate may be the change in the "Do Not Grade Policy." Previously, at the end of the examination period, applicants had the option of requesting that their exam answers not be graded.

"In the past, approximately 25-30 applicants would formally file such a request," said Braun. "Usually the request is due to illness or the realization that they were not adequately prepared."

This year, however, the Committee of Bar Examiners eliminated the option because it was both difficult to administer and to ensure the security of the exam.

"Each group of applicants is unique and differs in ability and preparation," said Braun, "and it's not unusual to find differences in performance. The scores of the exam are scaled so that the difficulty remains constant from one test to the next."

The three-day General Bar Examination is given twice a year, in February and July. The examination consists of three sections: a multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), six essay questions, and two performance tests that are designed to assess an applicant's ability to apply general legal knowledge to practical tasks.

The mean scaled MBE score in California was 1442 compared with the national average of 1436. In addition, the Committee announced that 160 (45.5 percent) of the 352 lawyers who took the Attorneys' Examination passed.

This passing rate is higher than the July 2002 examination when 38.7 percent of the lawyer applicants passed.

The Attorneys' Examination, which consists of the essay and performance test sections of the GBX, is open to lawyers who have been admitted to the active practice of law in good standing for at least four years in another jurisdiction.

Successful applicants who have satisfied other requirements for admission — those who have not been reported by local district attorneys for being in arrears with family or child support payments, who have received positive moral character determinations and who have received a passing score on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination - may either take the Attorney's Oath individually or participate in admissions ceremonies held throughout the state during December 2003.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The pass list for the July 2003 California Bar Examination can be found - and downloaded - on the State Bar's home page: www.calbar.ca.gov on Sunday, November 23, 2003 at 6:00 a.m. The list is organized both alphabetically and by zip code.

Founded in 1927 by the legislature, the State Bar of California is an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, serving the public and seeking to improve the justice system for more than 75 years. All lawyers practicing in California must be members of the State Bar. By November 2003, total membership reached more than 192,000, making it the largest state bar in the nation.

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