California Bar Exam Managed To Be Even Worse Than Expected

We all knew that this administration of the California bar exam would be a disaster. We just didn’t know how bad it would get. The answer — as Clemenza put in The Godfather — pretty goddamn bad.

The new test employing Kaplan questions and administered by Meazure Learning suffered setback after setback in the lead up to the test, prompting the bar examiners to preemptively offer refunds and then a free retake.

Were they overreacting? Friends, they were not.

Trouble began right out of the gate, with candidates reporting start times delayed by over an hour. Then came the blank exam pages, the copy/paste function breaking, people getting the same question twice, and the software failing to accurately capture every keystroke.

Given everything that happened and having crammed every tort concept into their heads for the last several months, more than a few test-takers are thinking a free retake might not be the proper remedy.

Knock it if you must, but Boeing has made a whole business out of this.

The technical issues with the test somehow managed to top the COVID-era bar exam debacle and those are words no one expected to string together. We embarked on remote living five years ago… how does this still happen?

At least this candidate knew that the test got through? Several other Reddit posts claim the system wouldn’t acknowledge their submissions one way or the other. Some noted that the test didn’t show up under the “History” tab after the fact.

In fairness, epic proctoring failures aren’t unique to this one. The old exam process flagged a third of all applicants as cheaters because the proctors needed proctologists to retrieve their heads. But, again, it’s been five years. How is there not a better process for remote exams after half a decade?

The only thing worse than the remote proctoring might’ve been in the in-person proctoring where posts complained of prohibited materials in the exam room and allowed materials getting barred. There was confusion over bathroom policies at some venues.

And what even is this?

Just failures all around. But late yesterday, the bar examiners delivered the “good” news for screwed-over applicants that they don’t necessarily have to wait until July to take the test again!

The first day of the bar exam is over, and congratulations to those of you who had a successful day.

We know that many of you, however, faced significant technical and customer service challenges, and for that we are truly sorry. These technical and support issues were and are unacceptable. Ensuring a fair and reliable exam experience is our top priority, and we are actively evaluating next steps.

In advance of the exam, the State Bar took measures to ensure that a makeup opportunity would be available, if needed, for applicants who experienced significant technical issues. As such, we had already planned to offer a makeup opportunity on March 3 and 4 for those of you who had experienced technical issues beyond your control and were unable to connect to the platform and launch the exam as well as for those who were unable to complete the exam.

Already. Planned.

On the one hand, it’s nice that the bar exam considered the possibility of mass disaster and came up with a solution. On the other hand, it’s a stupid solution.

Yes. Either they’re asking different questions which compromises the result or they’re asking the same questions and everyone has a week to prepare.

At least there’s another day of this. Surely nothing’s going wrong today!

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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