Some 72% of graduates of American Bar Association accredited law schools who took the exam in New York in February for the first time passed, an increase of 3 percentage points and the highest for the group in five years, the New York State Board of Law Examiners announced this morning.

The passing rate for the 347 graduates of New York's 15 law schools who took the test for the first time was exactly the same at 72%, an increase of 2 percentage points from last February, and the highest passing rate since 2013. But the overall first-time pass rate was only 61%.

The overall passing rate of 45% for all test takers on the New York exam is a significant increase from the rate of 38% on the February 2018 exam.