The pass rate for first-time takers of the July Pennsylvania bar exam rose slightly this year after dipping in 2018.

Of the 1,093 first-time applicants this year, 80.6% passed, up from 79% last year. In 2017, 81.2% passed, a marked jump from 75.4% in July 2016, which was the lowest pass rate for any July exam for which the state Board of Law Examiners has made data about bar exam pass rates available.

The pass rate for all test takers in July 2019 also increased, to 73% from 71%.

The downward trend in the total number of applicants who took the July exam continued, however, dropping to 1,270 this year, down markedly from 1,293 test takers in 2018.

Pennsylvania's improved pass rates this year appear to fall in line with a national trend.

Officials with the National Conference of Bar Examiners had predicted that pass rates would rise due to an increase in the national average score on July's Multistate Bar Exam, which is the 200-question multiple-choice portion of the exam that accounts for half of a test-takers score in most jurisdictions. (States can assign different weights to the MBE.) The average MBE score this July was 141.1, up from 139.5 the previous year. That 1.6-point increase is the largest single-year jump since 2008, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

"Most jurisdictions, but not all, will see an improvement in scores and pass rates," said Judith Gundersen, president of the national conference.

Results by School

This year, Widener University Delaware Law School had the lowest overall pass rate at a Pennsylvania-area school in 2019, with 46.3% of its 54 applicants passing the July exam. Last year, 63.3% of its 79 applicants passed. The school also had the lowest first-attempt pass rate in 2019, with about 63.2% of its 38 first-timers being successful.

For the fourth year in a row, the highest overall pass rate among Pennsylvania-area law schools belonged to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. This year, 88.2% of its 34 applicants passed the July exam. And like last year, all of its applicants were first-timers.

But unlike the past four years, Penn Law did not take the top spot among Pennsylvania area schools for its first-attempt pass rate.

This year, that distinction went to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, which saw 91.4% of its 81 first-time test-takers pass. The school also had the third-best overall pass rate at about 85%.

"We congratulate the Class of 2019 on their incredible and historic achievement, which reflects their collective hard work, perseverance, and support of one another," Pitt Law Dean Amy J. Wildermuth said in a statement.

Wildermuth also credited Rob Wible, Pitt Law's director of academic success and bar exam services.

"He has steadily expanded and improved our programs and has added a personalized human touch to address the stresses our law students face. His support of our students has made all the difference," she said.

Meanwhile, in the second batch of July test results since Penn State split its law school into two separate institutions, Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle had the second-best first-attempt pass rate, slightly edging out Penn Law with 88.5% of its 26 first-timers passing. It also came in second in terms of overall passage rates, with 85.7% of its applicants passing.

Its sister school, Penn State Law in University Park, came in seventh among Pennsylvania-area schools in terms of both first-time passage rate, with 81.8% of its 44 first-timers successful, and overall passage rate, with 80.4% of its 46 test-takers passing.

The rest of the first-time applicant pass rates at Pennsylvania-area schools were: 87.9% at Duquesne University School of Law; 86.9% at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law; 85.4% at Temple University Beasley School of Law; 78.5% at Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law; 66.1% at Widener University Commonwealth Law School; and 64.7% at Rutgers Law School.