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California fails new bar exam, offers retake

By Julianne Hill

February 26, 2025, 10:27 am CST

Updated: After the first day of California’s new bar exam resulted in technical difficulties and problems accessing the test for many candidates, the State Bar of California is weighing options for a retake, according to an email sent the evening of Feb. 25 to all examinees.

The email acknowledged that many examinees “faced significant technical and customer service challenges, and for that we are truly sorry.”

“These technical and support issues were and are unacceptable,” according to the message.

Unlike the widely used Uniform Bar Examination and its components administered and developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the new test written by Kaplan Exam Services and deployed by Meazure Learning can be taken remotely and at test centers.

“Most troubling was the lack of cut-and-paste functionality in-person test-takers reported experiencing,” said Leah Wilson, the state bar’s executive director, in a statement sent to the ABA Journal. “Other test-takers reported a range of technical issues and poor proctor performance impacting their ability to complete portions of today’s exam.”

As the state bar monitors the second day of the exam Feb. 26, it is weighing specific options of what that would look like, according to the email. March 3 and 4 had been earmarked for makeup opportunities even before the test launched Tuesday, the email said. But according to an email the state bar sent late on Feb. 27, the initial retake of the exam will be March 18 and 19 instead of March 3 and 4 because of “a prohibited online disclosure of an essay question.”

Options being explored include retaking the performance test or the essay questions that couldn’t be accessed or making scoring adjustments, according to the email.

“We understand the uncertainty this situation creates,” according to the Feb. 25 email, adding that more guidance will be available as soon as possible.

“Maybe I’m overstating this, but I feel like if someone were to have predicted the worst-case scenario for the rollout of the new California bar exam, that prediction would have been slightly better than what ended up as the reality,” wrote Sean Silverman, owner of Silverman Bar Exam & LSAT Tutoring, to the Journal. “What a mess!”

Test-takers who faced technical issues not resolved by Meazure Learning support were encouraged to contact the state bar through the applicant portal or email [email protected].

The retake offer follows what the state bar board of trustees termed “a tumultuous few weeks” in a Feb. 21 press release that offered free retakes for those who fail the February exam. That came a week after the state bar’s refund offer for those who withdrew from the February exam, along with an apology that information from the state bar and testing company Meazure Learning was not aligned.

Since the 100% refund policy was announced Feb. 14, the state bar had received about 600 requests to withdraw by Feb. 20, according to a spokesperson.

California tests the second-highest number of bar examinees, according to the NCBE, behind only New York. In 2024, 3,944 examinees took the California bar exam in February.

For 2025, 5,100 initially signed up for the test’s February maiden voyage, according to a state bar spokesperson, 13% more than anticipated.

“The transition away from the National Conference of Bar Examiners was never going to be easy, but vendor failures and the [California Supreme] Court’s implementation delays and rejection of better alternatives created this untenable situation,” wrote Susan Smith Bakhshian, director of bar programs at the Loyola Law School at Loyola Marymount University, to the Journal. “Exam takers deserve better.”

See also:

California bar hunts for who leaked bar questions, applicants sue test administrator

Updated Feb. 28 at 7:23 a.m. to change the proposed retake dates.

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