Bad News: New York Bar Exam Results Are Out (February 2020)

The results for the February 2020 administration of the New York bar exam are out, and following the news that the national average score on the MBE section of the exam had hit an all-time low, they’re not looking so great.

According to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 3,563 examinees sat for the test this winter. Of those examinees, 40 percent passed the New York bar exam, a decrease of 5 percent from the February 2019 exam. The overall pass rate for first-time takers was 61 percent, the same as the rate from the February 2019 exam.

Look at these New York bar statistics to see how the February 2020 results compare:

Year	All Candidates	All First-Time Takers	All First-Time ABA Takers
February 2020	40 percent passed	61 percent passed	72 percent passed
February 2019	45 percent passed	61 percent passed	72 percent passed
February 2018	38 percent passed	59 percent passed	69 percent passed
February 2017	44 percent passed	61 percent passed	71 percent passed
February 2016	41 percent passed	55 percent passed	67 percent passed
February 2015	43 percent passed	56 percent passed	70 percent passed
February 2014	47 percent passed	62 percent passed	74 percent passed
February 2013	50 percent passed	64 percent passed	75 percent passed
February 2012	44 percent passed	59 percent passed	69 percent passed
February 2011	48 percent passed	63 percent passed	77 percent passed
February 2010	50 percent passed	67 percent passed	81 percent passed
February 2009	42 percent passed	60 percent passed	73 percent passed
February 2008	50 percent passed	64 percent passed	76 percent passed
February 2007	44 percent passed	61 percent passed	74 percent passed
February 2006	46 percent passed	61 percent passed	74 percent passed
February 2005	47 percent passed	62 percent passed	72 percent passed
February 2004	45 percent passed	58 percent passed	67 percent passed

The New York Law Journal has an explainer on why the overall pass rate fell:

The board said that the decrease in the overall passing rate is “largely attributable” to the performance of the repeat-takers and foreign-educated candidates who sat for the examination. The passing rate for the 2,254 repeat takers of the bar examination in February was 28%, and repeat takers accounted for 64% of all candidates who sat for the February examination. Foreign educated candidates, totaling 1,649 or 46% of all candidates, had a passing rate of 31%, the board said.

The lone bright spot for the February 2020 exam was the fact that graduates of New York law schools taking the test for the first time did better than their colleagues from out-of-state schools. The first-time passing rate for this group — 340 law school graduates — was 74 percent, which was not just an increase of 2 percent from the February 2019 exam, but the highest passing rate for this group for a February administration of the bar exam since 2010. The first-time pass rate for all ABA law school graduates was 70 percent, down 2 percent from last year.

Congratulations to you if you were able to pass the bar exam in New York this winter. If you didn’t pass, don’t despair. Many successful people have failed the bar exam (see our list of famous bar exam failures). Focus on September’s pushed-back exam — and who knows it this will even be able to be held in the fall thanks to COVID-19 — and develop a plan for passing the next time around.

Graduates of New York Law Schools Outperformed Peers in State’s Feb Bar Exam [New York Law Journal]

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.