DC has posted the July 2016 bar exam results here. The most interesting thing is the pass rate, which is the highest I have ever seen by a long shot. First time test takers had a pass rate of 71% with the overall pass rate being 62%. So, we had a total of 684 people take the exam and 422 passed. This is around double the number of people taking the exam and the pass rate is about 50% higher than usual as well. Congratulations to everyone who passed! If you did not pass,
Category: UBE
The July 2016 Bar Exam is over! This was definitely one of the harder exams on the books, with both the MBE and MEEs being more difficult/different than in the recent past. Virginia’s essays were, as usual, fair yet challenging as expected.
In DC we saw about twice the number of test takers due to this being the first time DC has tested as a UBE jurisdiction. Many folks opted against going up to New York or other jurisdictions and decided to stay local and take the exam here. I think yet others opted for DC instead of VA this time as well due to DC being a UBE jurisdiction. As far as the usual chaos that is the administration of the DC bar exam, they did not disappoint, although it was not the worst it has ever been. The main problem this time was delays in starting, which in the grand scheme of things is annoying but not as bad as what we’ve seen before. The morning MPTs were pretty straightforward, with a memo and a brief, but a couple of the MEEs were tricky this year. We had the following MEE subjects:
The District of Columbia will adopt the UBE starting with the July 2016 administration of the exam. These changes were posted a few days ago and will be effective March 1, 2016. For all intents and purposes this does not changes anything about the actual exam itself, meaning the components (MBE, MEE and MPT) as well as the timing and subject matter tested, are unchanged. This does increase the portability and reciprocity of taking the DC bar exam however and is a welcome move. The court has rejected some other changes, including allowing third year law students to sit for the exam in DC, and those details are in the court order. Interestingly, there is now a limit on the number of times someone can sit for the DC bar exam, 4 times. The details of all these changes are
Pretty big news for anyone planning to take the NY bar exam. The New York State Board of Law Examiners has recommended that the existing test (which is generally considered one of the harder bar exams in the nation) be replaced by the NCBE UBE (National Conference of Bar Examiners Uniform Bar Exam). The UBE consists of the 200-question MBE, 6 MEE essays and 2 MPT performance tests.
The Court of Appeals is allowing for Public Comments until November 7, 2014 at the following url:
New York Court of Appeals request for comment
If these changes go through, it would be quite a change as this would be the first “big” state to change their bar exam in favor of the UBE. The target is to replace the existing exam for the July 2015 administration of the New York bar exam. The proposal also states that there would still be a state-specific component. Apparently, the same 50 multiple choice state-specific NY questions would remain as a 1-hour test to be given concurrently with the UBE. The good news is that they are proposing to also offer just the 50 NY questions in December and Early Spring for those who pass the UBE but fail the NY section.
Big changes indeed if this all goes through. Stay tuned…