In a disappointing turn of events for many hopeful lawyers, the February 2022 bar exam results have dropped. The national average score decreased 1.4 points from last year’s February exam to 132.6, which matches the all-time low score garnered in February 2020. Of the twenty states who have reported their February bar exam results, twelve states’ pass rates have decreased. Just six states have seen increases and two states’ rates have held steady.
New York—the largest bar exam jurisdiction—saw a decrease from 49 percent last year to 45 percent this year, and Florida experienced a similar decline, dropping from a 47 percent pass rate to 43 percent. Pennsylvania and North Carolina experienced more significant declines dropping 14 and ten percentage points, respectively. Among the six states with increasing pass rates were Illinois (up one percentage point from last year, to 43 percent), North Dakota (up 13 percentage points to an impressive 68 percent), and West Virginia (up eight percentage points to 56 percent).
This year’s exam was notable in that it brought almost all test-takers back to in-person testing sites (with the exception of Nevada, which was experiencing the Omicron COVID-19 surge at the time). Last year, just 16 sites provided in-person testing while all others opted to provide the exam virtually due to the pandemic.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners’ director of assessment and research, Rosemary Reshetar, reacted to the lower average by pointing out that various factors combine to influence the results. She noted that the February test cohort is smaller than it is for the July exam, which means that the scores tend to fluctuate more from year-to-year. She also said that this year’s February test-takers included more repeat examinees (68 percent) compared to the previous year, and that repeaters tend to have a higher fail rate than first time test-takers.