New York Bar Exam Results Reveal Worst Pass Rates In More Than A Decade
The results for the July 2015 administration of the New York bar exam are out, and they really aren’t pretty. In fact, they’re downright ugly. It would seem that Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners and newly appointed oracle of the legal profession, was correct: today’s test-takers are simply “less able” than their predecessors.Congratulations to you if you passed the New York bar exam this time around, because many of your peers did not. Please reach out and thank your law school for admitting subpar students, because your colleagues’ failure is making your success look even better.
How bad is the damage? According to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 10,671 examinees — the lowest number of candidates to take a July bar since 2006 — sat for the test this summer. Of those examinees, only 61 percent passed the New York bar exam. The overall pass rate for first-time takers was 70 percent. These are precipitous drops.
Take a look at these New York bar statistics to see how awful the July 2015 results are:
| Year | All Candidates | All First-Time Takers | All First-Time ABA Takers |
| July 2015 | 61 percent passed | 70 percent passed | 79 percent passed |
| July 2014 | 65 percent passed | 74 percent passed | 83 percent passed |
| July 2013 | 69 percent passed | 78 percent passed | 86 percent passed |
| July 2012 | 68 percent passed | 76 percent passed | 83 percent passed |
| July 2011 | 69.2 percent passed | 78.5 percent passed | 86.1 percent passed |
| July 2010 | 70 percent passed | 78 percent passed | 86 percent passed |
| July 2009 | 72 percent passed | 80 percent passed | 88.2 percent passed |
| July 2008 | 74.7 percent passed | 83.2 percent passed | 90.5 percent passed |
| July 2007 | 70.6 percent passed | 79.1 percent passed | 87 percent passed |
| July 2006 | 69.5 percent passed | 79.4 percent passed | 86.7 percent passed |
| July 2005 | 67 percent passed | 75.9 percent passed | 82.7 percent passed |
| July 2004 | 67.4 percent passed | 76.5 percent passed | 83.1 percent passed |
Some will blame the record high number of foreign-educated candidates who took the exam for these horrendous results. For the July 2015 exam, 3,154 foreign-educated examinees sat for the test, accounting for 29 percent of all candidates who took the exam. The pass rate for this group was an astoundingly low 33 percent. While these test-takers dragged down the overall pass rate and overall pass rate for first-time takers, the pass rate for all first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools doesn’t lie. That number dropped by 4 percent between 2014 and 2015, and it represents the lowest percentage of first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools to have passed the exam since July 2004.
What is to be done about this problem? There’s a relatively simple solution that no one will pursue because money matters above all else in this world. Law schools need to stop scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to admitting students to fill their otherwise empty seats. Admission standards must be raised to end this misery.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again because it really bears repeating: “Until law schools realize they’re doing a disservice to everyone — their students, their graduates, and their graduates’ future clients — things will only continue to get worse.”
UPDATE (12:20 p.m.): This post was revised significantly shortly after publication to include additional data on bar exam pass rates prior to July 2007.
UPDATE (9:00 p.m.): According to the New York Board of Law Examiners, the July 2015 overall passage rate of 61 percent is the lowest the state has seen in at least 35 years.
Press Release: NY Bar Exam Results – July 2015 [New York Board of Law Examiners]
Earlier: The July 2015 New York Bar Exam Results Are Out!
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