The State Bar of California (2024)

FAQs

How hard is California State Bar exam? ›

Yes, the California bar exam is widely considered to be the most difficult of all state bar exams in the US. The California bar exam has a pass rate of 34%.

One of the main reasons the California bar exam is so difficult is its broad scope. The exam covers a wide range of legal subjects, including contracts, torts, criminal law, civil procedure, and professional responsibility.

California's General Bar Exam pass rate of 51.5 percent represented a slight drop from last year's July pass rate of 52.4 percent. Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 7,555 applicants who completed the GBX, 67.3 percent were first-time takers.

Even after previously failed attempts she studied harder and eventually the reality star passed! Kim Kardashian has not passed the California general bar exam yet. However, she did pass the baby bar exam in December 2021, which is a first-year law student's examination.

California is universally regarded as the toughest state for taking the bar exam. This notion is not dissuaded by the state's low bar-pass rate. In addition to the performance test, five essay questions, and the Multistate Bar Exam, the California exam takes two days.

What Is the Easiest Bar Exam? Going by the 2021 bar exam passing rates, Wyoming has the easiest bar exam to pass. However, we don't really get the full picture by just looking at the passing rates. Each state's bar exam can differ in difficulty and content.

For several reasons, the California bar exam is often considered to be the hardest in the country. California's legal system is known for its complexity. The state has its own set of laws, regulations, and precedents that often differ significantly from federal laws and those of other states.

No limit on the number of attempts

In California, there is no strict limit to the number of times a candidate can take the bar exam. In other words, if you don't succeed on your first try, you can retake the exam in the subsequent session, and so on.

A few extra points on the bar exam is significant

MBE score results consistently follow a bell curve pattern for every single bar exam administration. A few students have a very high MBE scaled score and some have a very low scaled score. Most bar takers fall right in the middle, within a few points of each other.

How many people pass the CA bar without going to law school? ›

In law school, you learn to think like a lawyer and you use that critical thinking to help increase your likelihood of passing the bar exam. The California Bar exam has a passage rate of less than 50 percent, and that rate shrinks to less than 5 percent among exam takers who didn't graduate from law school.

Every administration of the exam is different, so a given raw score may translate to a 1390 scaled score on one exam but higher or lower in another. As alluded to above, an average written score of 60-63 will put you on track to pass. So aim to hit at least 60 or 65 on the essays and PT.

The KKW Beauty founder announced she passed the “baby bar” on her fourth try. “I failed this exam 3 times in 2 years,” she revealed via Instagram. “But I got back up each time and studied harder and tried again until I did it!!!”

According to the source, Kardashian, 43, has been too busy with her other business ventures to continue studying the law.

The First-Year Law Students' Examination (also known as the “baby bar”) is a half-day test given twice a year. The exam consists of 100 multiple-choice questions and covers three subjects: Contracts, Criminal Law, and Torts. More than 500 applicants take the exam each year.

Prepare a bar study schedule and share it with your significant others so they know what you're doing. Note that most California Law graduates study for at least 50 to 60 hours per week for the bar exam, each averaging 600 to 800 total hours of study over the summer.

Most states allow 2-4 attempts of the bar exam, but about 35 states, including California, New York, and Florida, don't have any limits on the number of times you can take the bar.

If the applicant's total scale score is at least 1350 but less than 1390 after one reading, their answers are read a second time by a different set of graders. If the applicant's averaged total scale score after two readings is 1390 or higher, the applicant passes the exam.