What Is The California Baby Bar Exam?

What Is The California Baby Bar Exam?

Hopefully, you never have to take the “Baby Bar,” also properly known as the First-Year Law Students’ Exam.  But many students will face the exam. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about the baby bar exam and whether it’s something you’ll need to sit for!

What Is The California Baby Bar Exam?

Who Needs To Take The Baby Bar?

The Baby Bar is required in five situations in California.

1. The Baby Bar is an exam required for entry into California law schools that are State Bar-unaccredited registered law schools.
2. The Baby Bar is required if you’re enrolled in a JD program through the California Law Office Study Program.
3. The Baby Bar is required for those without two years of college work and who attend certain law schools.
4. The Baby Bar is required for those without two years of college work and attending an ABA-accredited school.
5. Lastly, some California law schools will require academically disqualified students to pass the Baby Bar in order to return.

What’s Tested On The Baby Bar?

The Baby Bar tests examinees on three subject areas. Specifically, those subject areas are 1) contracts, 2) criminal law, and 3) torts. Students are not required to have a detailed knowledge of California law. Instead, answers are based upon legal theories and principles of general applicability. The Baby Bar is administered over a single day and is approximately seven hours long. Students spend four hours answering essay questions and three hours answering multiple-choice questions.

If you’re studying for the Baby Bar Exam now, take this short quiz to gauge just how ready you are!

What’s The Pass Rate?

The Baby Bar is administered twice a year in June and October. Results from the June Baby Bar are released in August, with results from the October administration released in December. Unfortunately, the pass rate for the Baby Bar is notoriously low. For example, in the June 2020 administration of the Baby Bar delivered a pass rate of only 22.5%. In the exam preceding the June 2020 administration, the pass rate was only 22.1% of students.

How Is the Baby Bar Graded?

A student’s assigned grade on an essay question can range between 40 and 100 points. Total raw essay scores can, therefore, range between 160 and 400 points. A student’s total score on the Baby Bar is the sum of the scaled scores on the multiple-choice and essay sections. Equivalent weight is given to each of the two sections in arriving at the total scale score. A total scaled score of 560 (roughly 70%) or higher is required to pass the examination.

What Happens If I Pass/Don’t Pass?

Credit for law study completed after passing the Baby Bar is governed by two California authorities. Those authorities are the California Business and Professions Code and the California State Bar Admissions Rules. The Admissions Rules state that no credit for any law study will be awarded until the exam is passed. After an applicant becomes eligible to take the exam, the applicant must pass within the first three consecutive test administrations. If the applicant passes subsequent to that, credit will be received only for the first year of law study.

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