DC has officially cancelled the July 2020 bar exam and will make a decision on a Fall 2020 administration of the exam by May 4th (Could they be star wars fans?). I will continue to post real-time updates as I get them on the DC fall exam as well as all other exams.
Virginia will announce their July 2020 decision in May.
Virginia has posted the results for the Feb 2020 bar exam here. The results are some of the lowest pass rates I have ever seen for the Virginia exam, even for a February administration.
Overall the pass rate was just over half at 57.83%, with about 2/3rds of first time test takers achieving a pass rate of 64.23%. This is a low pass rate for Virginia, as it is normally about 10% higher in February. I won’t speculate as to the low pass rate, but hopefully the VBBE has looked into this as more and more states are canceling their July 2020 bar exams every week.
Congratulations goes out to the University of Virginia for having 100% of all test takers pass the Feb 2020 Virginia bar exam! That is an incredible showing. And of course, congratulations to everyone who passed. If you did not pass, take a look at how you studied and where you feel you fell short on the exam. The questions and sample answers are posted on the W&M website as well as the VBBE website, links are in the link section here as well.
UPDATE 29-APR-2020: There are now too many states that have canceled the July 2020 bar exam to list here as the number grows daily. You can check the NCBE link below for the latest states being added to the list.
As predicted, the number of states canceling the July 2020 bar exam is growing. As they start falling like dominoes, here is the current list of states that have canceled the July 2020 bar exam:
Connecticut (Postponed to Fall 2020)
Hawaii (Will be rescheduled for Fall 2020)
Massachusetts (Postponed to September 30-October 1)
New Jersey (Postponed to Fall 2020) – 2020 Law school graduates will be allowed to temporarily practice law under the supervision of experienced attorneys.
New York (Rescheduled to September 9-10)
Vermont (Postponed to a later date)
Guam (Rescheduled to September 9-10)
Alaska (Rescheduled to September 9-10)
Georgia (Rescheduled to September 9-10)
Maine (rescheduled for September 30-October 1)
Rhode Island has postponed the bar exam indefinitely.
Virgin Islands have postponed until the Fall.
I will continue to update this post as more states cancel, the ncbe maintains a list here
With many people eagerly anticipating the Feb 2020 bar exam results from the DC area, here are the dates they will be (or are anticipated to be) released:
Virginia will be posting their Feb 2020 results on April 17, 2020
Maryland will be posting their February 2020 results on May 1, 2020
DC should be posting on or around May 15th, 2020
There is a chance these dates could slip due to Coronavirus but at this time no jurisdictions have indicated that Feb 2020 exam results will be delayed. Much of the grading that takes place is remote, but the coordination of results and postings is another matter all together. I anticipate Virginia and Maryland will post on time, DC is a wild card as always.
I have received a bunch of questions about the July 2020 bar exam, mostly around whether or not there will be one and for strategies in studying before we have an official answer either at the national or state levels. There are a few possible scenarios, the first is to see what the NCBE does. The NCBE has stated that around May 5, 2020 they will announce if there will be a July 2020 bar exam at all. The NCBE does not control whether or not individual states have a bar exam, that is up to the states, but the NCBE does decide if there will be an MBE, MPT or MEE, which means that if they don’t administer it for July 2020, there will be no July 2020 bar exam anywhere (except maybe Louisiana, which is the only state not to use the MBE).
Regardless of anything, the NCBE has stated that they will do an administration of the MBE, MEE and MPT in the Fall of 2020, even if the July 2020 bar exam still happens. If July does happen, the questions in the Fall will be different. Even if the NCBE decides to administer a July 2020 exam, I suspect many states will choose not to hold a bar exam. This leaves us with what to do.
I suspect that a majority of states will not have a July 2020 bar exam, and I also suspect that the NCBE will not administer the MBE, MEE and MPT in July, although that depends on how many states have committed to have an exam in the next month or so. The NCBE will likely not administer the exam if only a small number of states can commit to having a bar exam.
The good news is that we should have an official answer at the NCBE level by May 5, which means that most students don’t need to worry about it or start studying now. If you feel that you need to study sooner than May 5th, feel free to send me a note and we can chat about your specific situation. The NCBE website will always have the latest information at their website here: http://www.ncbex.org/ncbe-covid-19-updates/
A sincere apology to everyone that has emailed me from a few months ago up until now. I had major web hosting issues and was not receiving emails consistently for a couple months. These emails never made it to me and are not recoverable. If you emailed me and did not get a response, please email me again as the issues are fixed and both this website and my email are working again as of today. I have switched hosting providers and everything is fully migrated. I am accepting a limited number of students for the February 2020 bar exam and will begin tutoring at the end of this month/early January. Happy holidays and happy new year to everyone!