News Releases

State Bar announces results for February 2016 California Bar Examination

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

• Exam Results Information

• General Bar Examination Summaries 

• Attorneys Examination Summaries

SAN FRANCISCO, May 13, 2016, 6 p.m. — The State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners reported today that 35.7 percent of the applicants passed the February 2016 General Bar Examination (GBX). If the 1,700 people who passed the February 2016 exam satisfy other requirements for admission, they will become members of the State Bar.

Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 4,758 applicants who took the GBX, 29.3 percent were first-time takers. The passing rate for the 1,395 first-time applicants was 45.0 percent overall. The passing rate for the 3,363 applicants repeating the examination was 32.0 percent overall.

Preliminary statistical analyses show the first-time and repeater percent passing the GBX (rounded to whole numbers) by law school type as follows:

School Type	First-Timers	Repeaters
California ABA	48%	46%
Out-of-State ABA	45%	32%
California Accredited (but not ABA)	22%	16%
Unaccredited: Fixed-Facility	13%	10%
Unaccredited: Correspondence	23%	11%
Unaccredited Distance Learning	44%	7%

The applicants not included in the above totals either were attorneys admitted in other states who either chose or were required to take the GBX, attorneys admitted in foreign jurisdictions, law students in the Law Office/Judge’s Chambers Study Program or law students who qualified to take the GBX through four years of law study. More detailed statistics, including passing rates by individual law schools with 11 or more takers, will be made available in approximately four to six weeks and published on the State Bar’s website at /www.calbar.ca.gov/admissions.

The three-day General Bar Examination is given twice a year in February and July. The exam 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 1385 compared with the national average of 1350.

In addition, the committee announced that 195 (43.1 percent) of the 452 lawyers who took the Attorneys' Examination passed. Out of the total taking the Attorneys’ Examination, 25 were disciplined lawyers who took the examination as a condition of reinstatement; two disciplined lawyers 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 United States 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 a positive moral character determination and who have passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination – may either take the Attorney's Oath individually or participate in admissions ceremonies held throughout the state during June 2016.

Once applicants have met all admission requirements and have taken the attorney’s oath, they become members of the State Bar of California and their names will appear on the bar’s website via the attorney search function. Effective with this administration of the examination, the list of successful applicants will not be released to the public in compliance with the limitations imposed by the new Business and Professions Code section 6026.11, which makes the State Bar subject to the California Public Records Act, and the associated Admissions statute (B&P Code § 6060.25), which prohibits the release of information regarding bar admission applicants. Test-takers may log on to see whether their names appear on the pass list.