mock-bar-exam

Law school graduates from the University of San Diego and the University of Southern California beat the average pass rate on the February 2019 bar exam by more than 20 percentage points, according to school-based figures released Tuesday by the state bar.

Forty-three of 78 University of San Diego alumni who took the spring exam passed for a 55% success rate; 53% of USC test-takers passed. The overall pass rate for the 4,640 applicants who took the bar exam was 31.4%.

Information for many other law schools, including those whose students traditionally ace the test in high numbers, was not furnished by California's bar on Tuesday.

The bar separates pass rates for each school's graduates into two categories: those who were taking the bar exam for the first time and those who were repeating the test. If either category had 11 or fewer students, the bar redacted all statistics in that category. The policy is meant to protect test-takers' identities, bar officials have said.

The February exam, administered months after most students graduate from law school, typically has a higher percentage of repeat test-takers.

At many schools, only a small number of graduates were sitting for the test for the first time, leading the bar to shield their results.

All numbers for Stanford University students were redacted, as were figures that would show the overall pass rates for every out-of-state law school whose graduates took the test. Similarly, the bar did not release any information about how students from Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center and New York University School of Law, among other schools, performed on the test.

Sixty-four percent of UCLA graduates retaking the test passed, but the school's overall pass rate is unknown because data on the 11 or fewer Bruin alumni who took the test for the first time was not disclosed.

Twenty-two percent of students from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law passed the test. The American Bar Association last week revoked the San Diego school's accreditation for failing to comply with its admissions, governance and academic program standards. School leaders are appealing the decision.

The pass rate on California's February 2019 bar exam was the second-lowest in 35 years, reigniting calls for the state Supreme Court to lower the required passing score, known as the test score, at least until additional reviews of the test can be completed. California's cut-score is the second highest in the nation.

The school-specific data the bar released is posted below: