Results of the first-ever online New York Bar Exam are in!

On December 16, 2020, the New York State Board of Law Examiners released pass/fail results for the latest administrations of the twice-yearly test. The exam, normally held every February and July, was postponed because of the pandemic, and finally given in late October.

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Online bar exam results have more or less tracked expectations. There’s always a little fluctuation, but it’s been difficult to say that the online exam produced results demonstrably worse than the usual licensing exam. That shouldn’t really surprise anyone because the bar exam is, by design, intended to produce stable results and when jurisdictions are handling scaling with a ragtag set of NCBE castoff questions, it’s reasonable to assume that things would play out mostly according to script.

New York Bar Exam Pass Rate Soars in State’s First Online Test

A total of 84% of test takers passed the October exam, up from 65% for the in-person test in July, according to a state agency. The overall number of test takers in New York was down by about 50% from the more than 10,000 who sat for the exam in July.

The New York State Board of Law Examiners didn’t offer explanations as to why the state exam’s pass rates shot up—Ohio and Washington, D.C. have also seen increased pass rates in online tests—or why the overall number of test takers plummeted.

https://twitter.com/dom_dotty/status/1339235002337423361?s=20

I PASSED THE NEW YORK BAR. IN A PANDEMIC.

Now, #abolishthebar. DO IT. pic.twitter.com/kI89KBmPX2
— MK Cunningham, Esq. (@MKCunningham91) December 16, 2020

Breaking: The passage rates for New York's first-ever online bar exam shot up when compared with last July's test -- while the overall number of test takers plummeted https://t.co/ggMn7nEswl @BLaw #NewYork #barexam
— Sam Skolnik (@samskolnik) December 16, 2020

I failed the Bar Exam, now what?

You’re worth more than your ability to pass (or fail) the bar exam, and you are not alone. Did you know that Kamala Harris also failed the Bar Exam on her first try?

Tens of thousands of aspiring attorneys get the bad news each year that they’ve failed the bar exam. It might feel like it at that time, but it’s not necessarily “game over” for any chance at a successful legal career.

A list of those who passed the October bar in New York will be available to the public on the Board’s website on Thursday morning. In the meantime, congratulations to all of you – taking a Bar Exam in a pandemic is not easy.