California Supreme Court Moves to Make Bar Exam Easier to Pass- NYTimes

[bluebayou]

A Law Professor, and critic of law schools in general, Paul Campos disagrees with you:

In fact the real explanation for that collapse is as plain as day: Hastings slashed its entrance requirements in the face of cratering application totals. Here’s the median and 25th percentile LSAT score for the school’s entering classes (keep in mind that almost everyone takes the bar for the first time three years after they matriculate), along with the size of the 1L class in each year:

2007: 163/160 (401)

2008: 163/61 (426)

2009: 164/161 (469)

2010: 164/160 (383)

2011: 162/157 (414)

2012: 162/157 (317)

2013: 159/155 (333)

There’s a moderately strong correlation between LSAT scores and law school grades, and an extremely strong correlation between law school grades and bar passage rates, so . . .

The Cal Bar is changing this summer to a two-day format, but recent iterations have been against nationally-normed and scaled tests.

What is most likely happening is that back when Hastings had an 80% first time pass rate (2010), most of its then students barely passed. (Yeah, I know a pass is a pass is a pass, particularly on the hardest test in the land, at least with pass score.)

But statistically if all of a sudden, the quality of the students decline slightly – and they have been declining everywhere, even at Harvard and Stanford, due to the massive decline in LS apps – those students who used to average barely passing, now end up barely not passing.