February 2012 California Bar Exam Information
February 2012 California Bar Exam
The next administration of the California Bar Exam is February 28, 29, and March 1, 2012. The "Final Filing Deadline" is January 17, 2012. Applicants must file online to take the examination at http://www.calbarxap.com/.
July 2011 California Bar Examination Results
Results from the July 2011 examination were mailed on Friday, November 18, 2011. The July 2011 California Bar Examination pass list is available at http://members.calbar.ca.gov/exam/.
Format of the California Bar Examination
The California Bar Exam includes both the General Bar Examination and the Attorneys' Examination.
General Bar Examination
The General Bar Examination lasts 3 days and contains 3 parts: the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), 6 essay questions, and 2 performance tests. On the 1st and 3rd day of the General Bar Examination, 3 hours are allotted for 3 essays questions and 1 performance test (6 hours total per day). On the 2nd day of the General Bar Examination, the 200-question, 6 hour MBE is administered.
Attorneys' Examination
The Attorneys' Examination consists of the 6 essays questions and 2 performance tests from the General Bar Examination. The Attorneys' Examination does not include the MBE.
Scope and Subject Coverage of the California Bar Exam
The California Bar Exam covers the subjects of Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Community Property, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, Real Property, Remedies, Torts, Trusts, and Wills and Succession. Except for portions of Civil Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, and Wills and Succession, the California Bar Exam does not test California-specific law. Instead, the exam tests "legal theories and principles of general application."
Grading of the California Bar Exam
On the written portion of the California Bar Exam (essays and performance tests), there is 1,000 possible raw points, including 100 points for each essay (600 essay points total) and 200 points for each performance test (400 performance test points total). To obtain the raw written score, each essay and performance test is assigned a raw score in 5-point increments on a scale of 40 to 100. The raw written score is then translated to a 2,000 point scale. Likewise, the raw MBE score is scaled to a 2,000-point scale. An applicant's total score is the scaled MBE score (on the 2,000 point scale) multiplied by .35 plus the scaled written score (on the 2,000 point scale) multiplied by .65. This scaling process results in the written portion being weighted at 65% and the MBE weighted at 35%. A total of 1,440 points (72% scaled average) is necessary to pass the California Bar Examination.
Recent California Bar Exam Passing Rates
The July 2010 All Takers passing rate was 54.3%. The February 2010 All Takers passing rate was 37.6%. Complete California Bar Examination statistics are available from the California Bar.
