Bar Exam Results Season is Underway

While my law school alma mater, the University of Minnesota, is kicking off its college football season tonight against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the bar exam results season is well underway.

According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ data, some jurisdictions have released their results so far, and the numbers are encouraging. Granted, the data set is small at this point, as the NCBE has only released jurisdiction-specific information for just two jurisdictions. I’ll be keeping an eye on the updated statistics.

Both jurisdictions for which the NCBE has released data show an improvement in first-time bar passage rates compared to July 2022 numbers.

North Carolina, whose results were released August 29, had a first-time bar passage rate of 78%. This is a two-percentage point increase when compared to the July 2022 bar exam. A total of 785 examinees took the North Carolina bar exam in July 2023.

West Virginia, whose results were released August 28, had a more pronounced improvement from a year ago. West Virginia saw a 76% first-time bar passage rate this administration, compared to a first-time bar passage rate of 63% on the July 2022 bar exam. A total of 119 examinees took the West Virginia bar exam last July.

Both North Carolina and West Virginia are Uniform Bar Examination jurisdictions.