Which States are Delaying the July 2020 Bar Exam and Offering a Fall Bar Exam Instead?
Which states are delaying the July 2020 bar exam and offering a fall bar exam instead? As noted in prior posts, the NCBE has decided to administer a fall bar exam. States have until May 5 to determine whether they wish to administer a July bar exam or delay it (likely about two months) until the Fall. At that time, the NCBE will decide whether it will administer both a July bar exam and a fall bar exam or whether it will only administer a fall bar exam (assuming there is not enough interest in a July bar exam). The questions will be different if both exams are administered.
NEW: check out this post for which states are delaying or modifying the February 2021 bar exam!
New: check out this post on where to take the bar exam in 2020!
Update 7/23/20: If your state is administering the remote NCBE exam, check out these NCBE FAQs for more helpful details on this online exam! Also, make sure to check your state bar’s website for any other details!
Update 6/29/20: 60% of states have changed their July 2020 bar exam in some way.
Update 6/14/20: Most jurisdictions (31, in fact) are planning on administering a July bar exam (with the vast majority of jurisdictions administering the exam in-person). However, in total, these states represented only 37.3% of July 2019 bar takers. Many of the states with the largest number of bar exam takers in July 2019 (California, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, among others) have decided instead to administer a fall bar exam. You can see a breakdown of which states are offering a July v. Fall bar exam option below.
UPDATE 6/1/20: The NCBE is offering a limited MBE, MEE, MPT exam online on October 5-6 for jurisdictions to use as an “emergency option” if the July or fall exams cannot be administered. This exam would be completely remote. It would not constitute a full bar exam; it would be shorter than the traditional bar exam. Further, any score would not be eligible to be transferred as a UBE or MBE score to other jurisdictions or released to candidates via NCBE score services. Scores will not be equated or scaled as a traditional standard full-length pen-and-paper bar exam would be.
UPDATE 5/5/20: the NCBE states on its website that it will make materials available for a July exam AND both September exams, and it is up to the states to choose an administration or even multiple.
Update 11/9/20 on the October 2020 MBE: the national mean was 137.2 for October in-person MBE, according to the NCBE.
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