Impact of the Increase in the Passing Score on the New York Bar Examination - February 2006 Bar Administration

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan

Impact of the Increase in the Passing Score on the New York Bar Examination - February 2006 Bar Administration analyzes how raising the New York Bar Examination passing score from 660 to 675 affected candidate performance. The report explains score construction across three weighted components (New York Essay Examination, MBE, and the New York Multiple-Choice Test) and reviews data collection and representativeness. It characterizes the candidate population by education background, demographics, and prior attempt history, then presents score and pass-rate distributions for February 2006 overall and by subgroups. Findings highlight performance differences between domestic- and foreign-educated candidates.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages89

Reading Time3 h 44 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Candidate Characteristics

Characteristics of the Candidates

Characteristics of Domestic-Educated Candidates

Characteristics of Foreign-Educated Candidates

Impact of the Increase in the Passing Score on the New York Bar Examination: February 2006 Bar Administration Report Prepared for the New York Board of Law Examiners by Andrew Mroch, Michael Kane, Douglas Ripkey, and Susan Case National Conference of Bar Examiners June 19, 2007 Executive Summary Total scores on the New York Bar Examination (NY bar exam) are computed by combining three separate “scaled” and weighted scores from three separate components: the New York Essay Examination, which consists of five essay questions and an extended performance task and has a weight of 50%, the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), which includes 190 multiple-choice questions and has a weight of 40%, and the New York Multiple-Choice Test, which includes 50 multiple-choice questions and has a weight of 10% . Scores on each of the three components and on the New York Bar Examination as a whole are reported on a scale with a range from 0 to 1,000 . On September 24, 2004, the New York State Board of Law Examiners (NYBLE) announced that the passing score on the New York Bar Examination would increase from 660 to 675 over a three-year period. The score was to increase five points a year from July 2005 to July 2007. The first of the three increases was implemented in July 2005. The second and third increases are currently on hold. In Section 1, we describe the data collection process and the representativeness of the data. In Section 2, we describe the candidate population for the February 2006 administration of the NY bar exam in terms of candidates’ education (domestic or foreign), the number of times the candidates have taken the bar examination, and the age, gender and race/ethnicity of the candidates. In Sections 3 and 4, we present summaries of score distributions and pass rates in February 2006 for the candidate population as a whole and for various subgroups within the population. Characteristics of the Candidates Section 2 contains a description of the candidates who participated in the study, and by extension, the candidate population as a whole. We present this description in terms of a number of candidate characteristics, including the country in which each candidate graduated from law school, age at law school graduation, age when taking the February 2006 NY bar exam, the number of times the candidate had taken the bar examination in New York, and the candidate’s gender and race/ethnicity. To distinguish these characteristics from the performance measures (bar examination scores and pass rates), they are referred to as demographic variables. Foreign-educated candidates made up about 36% of the respondents in February 2006, and as a group, they differed from the domestic-educated candidates in several respects. They had a smaller percentage of candidates who classified themselves as Caucasian/White and a larger percentage who classified themselves as Asian/Pacific Islander. They had a larger percentage of males and are slightly older than the domestic-educated candidates. As discussed more fully later, the performance of the domestic-educated group, both in terms of scores on the bar examination and in terms of pass rates, was much better than that of the foreign-educated group. Because of the substantial differences between the domestic-educated group and the foreign-educated group, most of the analyses of candidate performance are reported separately for these two groups. Characteristics of Domestic-Educated Candidates Of the candidates who completed law school in the United States, just over 42% were female, and just under 42% were male (16% did not indicate their gender) . Almost 50% of the domestic-educated group was Caucasian/White, 9.6% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 14.4% were Black/African American, 4.1% were Hispanic/Latino, 1.4% were Puerto Rican, 0.4% were Chicano/Mexican American, 0.3% were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 3.8% listed their race/ethnicity as “Other.” Among the domestic-e

FAQs

How was the New York Bar Examination total score calculated?

Total scores combine three separately scaled and weighted components: the New York Essay Examination (50%), the MBE (40%), and the New York Multiple-Choice Test (10%). Scores are reported on a 0 to 1,000 scale for each component and for the overall exam.

What change to the passing score was announced before February 2006?

On September 24, 2004, the passing score was set to increase from 660 to 675 over three years, rising by five points a year from July 2005 to July 2007. The first increase was implemented in July 2005, while the second and third increases were on hold.

How do domestic-educated and foreign-educated candidates differ in performance and composition?

Foreign-educated candidates comprised about 36% of respondents and differed demographically, including a smaller share identifying as Caucasian/White and a larger share identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, along with a higher share of males and slightly older ages. The report states that domestic-educated candidates performed much better than foreign-educated candidates in both scores and pass rates, leading most analyses to be reported separately by these two groups.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Rowan