The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown myriad challenges at 2020’s law graduates, but it appears that the first wave of new J.D.s to sit for the bar exam crushed the test.
The average score on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE)—which is the daylong, 200-question portion of the test—shot up five points for those who took the bar in July as compared to July 2019, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which designs the test. That’s the largest year-over-year gain in recent history. July’s average MBE score was 146.1, while the averages between 2015 and 2019 ranged from a low of 139.5 to 141.7.
