California scraps new bar exam for July, adjusts scores on botched February test

By Karen Sloan

May 5 (Reuters) - California will not administer its newly developed bar exam in July, after the state’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered a return to the previous test following a disastrous rollout in February.

The California Supreme Court directed the State Bar of California to use to the Multistate Bar Exam — the 200-question multiple choice portion of the exam the state had used prior to the February test — for the upcoming July test.

The court said that it “remains concerned over the processes used to draft” the multiple-choice questions that appeared on California’s February exam, and it also cited in its decision the “previously undisclosed” use of artificial intelligence in drafting some of California’s February questions.

In the same order, the court approved several scoring adjustments requested by the state bar that are intended to address some of the various problems February examinees encountered on the attorney licensing test.

A state bar spokesperson declined further comment on Friday about the court's decision.

California has the second-largest number of annual bar exam takers, behind New York. About 8,000 people typically sit for its July exam.

The court-ordered return of the MBE, which is developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, is the latest blow to California’s efforts to break away from the national bar exam in a bid to cut costs. The February exam was administered both remotely and in-person and did not use any components of the national bar exam that the state has used for decades. That change was expected to save as much as $3.8 million annually by eliminating the need to rent out large event spaces, but examinees faced unprecedented technical and logistical problems.

The California Supreme Court in March ordered the July exam to be given in-person at testing centers, meaning that the upcoming test will have the same format and test components as before the development of California’s own exam.

The state bar now projects that addressing the problems from February’s exam will cost at least $2.3 million more than anticipated for July. State Bar Executive Director Leah Wilson on Friday said she will step down from that post in July, citing the botched rollout of the new bar exam.

The court’s order set the raw passing score for the attorney licensing exam at 534 — lower than the 560 score recommended by its standardized testing expert who looked at February's results. Raw pass scores can fluctuate each year and are converted according to a standardized scale. The order also directed the state bar to “impute” scores for test takers who weren’t able to complete significant portions of the two-day exam.

The bar on Monday announced that 55.9% of exam takers passed the February bar exam.

Read more:

California Bar leader to step down amid exam debacle

California bar exam meltdown on Tuesday prompts offer of March retakes