The percentage of would-be lawyers who passed California's February 2020 bar exam plummeted to a historic low with fewer than 3 in 10 test-takers posting a passing score, according to figures released by the state bar Friday night.

Just 26.8% of the 4,205 applicants who completed the test passed. That's the lowest success rate recorded in California since at least 1951, the oldest figures provided by the bar.

"We heartily congratulate the 1,128 applicants who passed the general bar exam and the 163 candidates who passed the attorney's exam," Donna Hershkowitz, the bar's interim executive director, said in a prepared statement. "Meanwhile, we are moving forward on both near-term and long-term efforts that will affect the future of the bar exam."

On Monday, Hershkowitz said, the bar will give the California Supreme Court a plan for administering the September exam, which justices have called to be delivered online. Bar leaders also are studying the exam for possible changes in future content.

The February 2020 exam pass rate fell below what was then the historically low figure of 27.3% tied to the February 2018 test. The pass rate had climbed to 31.4 percent a year ago, offering hope that California's slumping scores were over.

But pass rates have dropped across the nation this spring. The national average score on the multistate bar exam—the 200-question multiple-choice portion of the attorney licensing test—fell 1.4 points from the previous year. according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which develops the test. That represents the lowest average February MBE score on record. 

The mean scaled MBE score on the February 2020 bar exam in California was 1357, down from 1370 last year.

Virginia's February 2020 pass rate fell to 58%, down from nearly 63% the previous year. In New York, the pass rate dipped from 45% in February 2019 to 40% one year later. Pennsylvania saw the percentage of successful test-takers dropped, too, from 60.2%  to 52.2%. 

Florida was an outlier, seeing an increase from 58% in 2019 to 60% this February, while Tennessee's February pass rate held steady at 46%.

First-time test-takers from out-of-state, American Bar Association-accredited law schools posted a better pass rate than their California counterparts, 45% to 42%.

The names of those who passed the February exam will be posted Sunday at 6 a.m.

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