ABA passes new bar exam pass standards for law school accreditation

March 21, 2016

THE NEW YORK TIMES – The American Bar Association’s accrediting body put law schools on notice Monday that it intended to tighten a rule that sets a deadline for graduates to pass state bar exams — a near-universal requirement for becoming a practicing lawyer.

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Oklahoma makes changes to bar exam scoring after declining bar passage rates

March 14, 2016

ABA JOURNAL – The Oklahoma Supreme Court has reacted to a decline in bar pass rates with a change in bar exam scoring.

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ABA committee considers changes to bar-passage requirements for law schools

February 16, 2016

ABA JOURNAL – An ABA committee will take up a proposal that would toughen—and greatly simplify—the bar passage requirements of the law school accreditation standards.

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ABA House of Delegates supports two resolutions related to universal adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam

February 16, 2016

ABA JOURNAL – Law students seeking a more mobile practice got some encouragement from the ABA’s House of Delegates when it adopted two resolutions concerning the Uniform Bar Examination.

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California Bar exam pass rate dips for second year in a row

December 7, 2015

LOS ANGELES TIMES – For the second year in a row, the percentage of people who successfully took the summer California bar exam fell to a historic low, with less than 47% passing, according to state statistics. Last year, only 48.6% of those who took the exam made the grade, the first time the passage

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Additional states see decline in bar exam pass rates

December 7, 2015

ABA JOURNAL – The drop in bar pass rates follows a drop in law school applicants.

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California law school deans respond to decline in bar exam passage rates

November 25, 2015

LOS ANGELES TIMES – Eight out of California’s 21 law schools have recently admitted classes that have a “high,” “very high” or “extreme” number of students who have a poor chance of passing the bar, based on their LSAT scores, the study showed.

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1,600 new lawyers join Illinois Bar

November 9, 2015

MADISON RECORD – Sixty-eight new lawyers took the attorney’s oath Thursday in Carbondale, as part of the 1,605 who were sworn in to practice law in Illinois during ceremonies across the state.

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New York bar exam pass rate falls to 35-year low

November 2, 2015

ABOVE THE LAW – The passage rate for graduates of ABA-accredited schools who took the test for the first time was 79%, the lowest figure since at least 2004. That’s four percentage points below the July 2014 rate, and it’s more than an 11 percentage-point drop-off from 2008 when 90.5% of candidates in that grouping

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Bar passage rates at law schools may not be reflective of legal education quality

October 26, 2015

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT – Graduates’ own willingness to buckle down and study – or not – can also heavily influence their chances of passing the bar, experts say. Because so many factors influence what happens when J.D.s take the bar exam, experts say it’s not best for applicants to put too much weight

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