Multi-State Bar Exam Scores Lowest Since The 70s

The average score for prospective lawyers who took a multistate bar exam in February 2017 was 134.1, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which is the lowest level since the exam was first administered in 1972. The average score in February 2016 was 135. That decline likely signals another drop in overall passage rates, according to the Excess of Democracy blog. Bar passage rates were already on the decline, falling to just 58 percent in 2016, the lowest point in 10 years. Erica Moeser, president of the NCBE, attributed the decline in scores to differences in law school admission patterns. With law school applications declining, “without a consistent decline in terms of the number of students enrolled,” that may mean law schools are taking on students with less academic prowess.