REFILE-Amid Calif bar exam disarray, refund offered to 5,600 test takers

Refiles story to replace the word 'take' with 'sit for' in paragraph 1

By Karen Sloan

Feb 14 (Reuters) - The State Bar of California on Thursday offered a full refund to the 5,600 people scheduled to sit for its new bar exam later this month if they want to withdraw from taking it — an unprecedented step with the test date just 12 days away.

The state bar said that it was “extremely sorry” about the problems test takers have faced with the bar and the company it hired to deliver the test, in an email to applicants reviewed by Reuters.

The state bar's announcement to provide applicants with an $830 refund acknowledged the rocky run up to its new bar exam, which will be a hybrid test given on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26, remotely and in-person, without any components of the national test it has used for years. California has the second-highest number of annual bar takers, behind only New York, with about 11,000 taking the test each year in February and July.

Examinees have reported problems scheduling their in-person tests and a lack of nearby test sites. They say the state bar and testing company Meazure Learning have provided contradictory information at times, and claim the state bar made last-minute changes to its study materials without telling them.

“We understand that scheduling challenges, poor communication, and inconsistent messaging between the State Bar and Meazure Learning have caused a lot of frustration, confusion, and anxiety,” the state bar’s email said.

The state bar will "take action to improve our communication with test takers immediately," said Leah Wilson, executive director of the state bar, in a prepared statement on Friday. Meazure Learning did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Despite the "debacle" of the test's rollout, one applicant said he was still planning on taking the February exam. The applicant, who is licensed in another state, requested his name not be used because he said he feared reprisal from the state bar. He said the state bar and its contractors "were not ready to administer this test in a fair and effective manner."

The state bar in August fast-tracked a new exam written by Kaplan Exam Services and gave examinees the option of testing in person or remotely under the supervision of online proctors — a change projected to save as much as $3.8 million annually by eliminating the need to rent out large event spaces.

But the new exam has already proven more costly than expected, cutting into those projected savings, Wilson said during a Feb. 3 subcommittee meeting of the state bar's board of trustees. Initial projections for the February exam mistakenly omitted the cost of providing testing accommodations. The July exam, which more than 7,000 are expected to take, will be about $1 million more than budgeted because that test must be given in one administration, instead of splitting it into two separate administrations spread over four days, as initially planned.

Some of the problems with the February bar rollout stem from an unexpectedly high number of bar takers, Wilson said at the Feb. 3 meeting, when officials approved changes to the bar’s exam refund policy. About 1,000 more are scheduled to take the February test compared with last year, Wilson said.

“This is not us moving forward on our best foot," Wilson said during the meeting. “I want to assure folks that we are being accountable.”

Read more:

California’s new bar exam hits early snags, examinees report

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