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Only 31.4% of would-be attorneys passed California's February 2019 bar exam, marking the second-lowest pass rate on the notoriously difficult test in 35 years, according to figures released by the state bar Friday night.

The success rate was 4.1 percentage points higher than the historically low pass rate of 27.3% recorded in February 2018.

The rise mirrors improvements seen in other states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, where pass rates ranged from 54% to 72%. The national average score on the February Multistate Bar Exam, the multiple-choice section of the test, ticked up 1.2 points to 134.

“We are encouraged to see the increase in pass rate over last year,” bar executive director Leah Wilson said in a prepared statement. “However, the overall low pass rate continues to be a concern and a focus here in California.”

California's high failure rate is sure to add new fuel to efforts to lower the score required by the state bar to pass the exam, a figure known as the cut score. At a legislative hearing in Sacramento this week, L. Song Richardson, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, argued that the second-highest-in-the-nation passing score delays otherwise qualified law graduates from entering the profession and hampers efforts to diversify the bar's membership.

The bar for the second year is offering an online program to help applicants prepare for the July exam. The bar will also conduct a survey of attorneys this summer to gauge what skills and knowledge new colleagues need. The results will be used to evaluate the current content and passing score of the bar exam.

California's results were released just hours after the American Bar Association adopted new standards that will require at least 75% of a law school's alumni to pass the bar within two years of graduation for that school to retain its ABA accreditation. Schools currently have five years to meet that threshold.

Most of California's 21 ABA-accredited law schools would have no problem with the two-year standard, according to statistics on 2016 graduates released by the association last month.

A handful of schools, however, are flirting with or falling below the 75% mark: Golden Gate University (74%); Thomas Jefferson (64%); University of La Verne (74.5%); the University of San Francisco (67%; and the University of the Pacific McGeorge (73.5%). Whittier Law School, which has announced plans to close, saw just 57% of its 2016 graduates pass the bar in two years.

Those who performed best on February's exam—with a 48% pass rate—were first-time test-takers who graduated from ABA-approved schools located outside of California. 45% of graduates of ABA schools in California passed.

California's slight uptick in pass scores ends a five-year slide in February bar exam scores. A Law.com review of exam figures reported by schools to the American Bar Association between 2013 and 2017 found that 42 out of 203 ABA-accredited law schools saw their pass rate fall anywhere from 10% to 20%. Thirty-five schools had pass-rate declines of more than 20% in those four years.

Most of the schools with the biggest declines in success on the test saw significant drops in enrollment and applicants combined with incoming students with lower undergraduate grades and LSAT scores.

The list of those who passed California's February 2019 exam will be released Sunday on the state bar's website.

 

The bar's statement on the latest exam results is posted below:

 

Read more:

ABA Toughens Bar-Pass Standard for Law Schools

Data Snapshot: A Look at the Falling Bar Passage Rates in Five U.S. States

California's Bar Exam: How Schools Fared on July 2018 Test

'Frightening' Bar Exam Results, but No Plans to Lower Passing Score

Here's Who Passed California's July 2018 Bar Exam