It is still early, but states are now beginning to release the results from the July 2021 bar exam.

Pass rates fell in all but 2 of the 19 jurisdictions that have reported results thus far. Maine has notched the largest drop— its pass rate fell 27 percentage points to 59% compared to last year. West Virginia’s pass rate fell nearly 20 percentage points to 58%, while the pass rate in New Mexico fell 18 percentage points to 71%.

Most of the states that have already reported results are relatively small ones. Florida is the only large bar exam jurisdiction to release its July 2021 results thus far. And among first-time test takers, Florida’s pass rate ticked down just 0.1 percentage point to 71.6%.

For the last year and a half, the bar exam administration has varied from state to state, with some states giving in person bar exams and others opting for online-only exams. In a few cases, some states offered exam takers a choice between the 2 options. Overall in July 2021, 29 jurisdictions opted for a full-length, online bar exam, while 24 gave an in-person exam.

Many have suggested that learning loss from taking online or hybrid classes for more than a year, COVID-19 related fatigue or actual illness, and technical problems that occurred with the online bar exam may have contributed to the apparent pass rates being lower on the most recent test.

Some believe that bar exam scores will rise next year if the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and things return to normal, but of course this is mere speculation at this point.

We find that, regardless of external factors, bar exam takers that use the same preparation they did when they were unsuccessful on the exam during the previous administration can almost always expect the same or similar results.

You can read more about the exam scores released so far here.

If you got back your results are were not successful on the exam, we will give you a completely free score evaluation from our bar exam experts to show you what went wrong and exactly what you need to do to pass on the next try. Submit you score report to us here or email us at [email protected].