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

[bluebayou]

Generally speaking, Hastings still has a strong reputation in the Bay Area in practice, which I think offsets that conclusion.

Yes it does.

But the fact is that only Yale can circumvent basic math that shows that the high LSAT scorers are no longer applying to law school.

Per Paul Campos, who has crunched the numbers;

In 2010, 87,900 people applied for the fall term. 35,863 of them had LSAT scores of 160 or higher. (160 is the 80th percentile on the test.). Approximately 53,500 people have or will apply for admission to ABA law schools this fall.* About 14,065 of them will have LSAT scores of 160 or higher. This is a 61% decline.

Note, 2010, was back in the dark ages when Hastings has a high pass rate of the bar (`80%). 2010 was also when Hastings had a bottom quartile LSAT score of 160. (see above for relevance) Today, Hastings top quartile is 161, with a bottom quartile coming in at 156, which is the 56th percentile. In other words, the top quartile of today’s Hastings class would have been at the bottom quartile just a few years ago. Is there any wonder that pass rates have declined?