Connecticut Bar Exam Pass Rate Falls Below 60%
The Connecticut Bar Examining Committee released the results of the July 2021 remote bar exam on September 24, 2021. This time, the overall pass rate for the remote bar exam stood at 59%. Among a total of 365 candidates that took the exam, 214 candidates passed and 151 candidates failed. The pass rate jumped by 12% from the February 2021 remote bar exam that had more candidates failing the exam when compared to the candidates who cleared the test. Out of the 198 applicants that appeared for the February exam, 105 candidates had failed and 93 candidates had cleared the test.
Among the 365 examinees, 336 had completed their JD from ABA-approved law schools. 266 candidates appeared for the Connecticut Bar Exam for the first while 99 candidates were repeat takers. Among the first-time test takers, 200 candidates passed, implying a pass rate of 75% among the first-time examinees. Among the 99 repeat test-takers, 14 candidates passed, implying a pass rate of 14% among the repeat examinees. The pass rate among the first-time test takers from ABA-approved law schools stood at 77%.
Further, among the total 365 examinees, 284 were Connecticut residents and 81 candidates were from other states. The pass rate among Connecticut residents stood at 64%. The University of Connecticut School of Law (UConn) had the maximum number of candidates among the total test-takers. Out of the 93 UConn School of Law graduates that sat for the July 2021 bar exam, 72 examinees passed, implying an overall pass rate of 77%. The pass rate for UConn graduates among the first-time test takers stood at 80%.
The next highest number of candidates were from Quinnipiac University School of Law. Among the 81 Quinnipiac graduates that took the exam, 55 candidates passed, implying an overall pass rate of 68%. The pass rate among the first-time test takers from Quinnipiac stood at 77%. The third-highest number of candidates for the Connecticut July Bar Exam 2021 were from Western New England University School of Law. Out of the 35 candidates appearing, 13 cleared the exam, implying an overall pass rate of 35%.
A few law school graduates from other states were able to achieve a 100% pass rate for their law schools. All 7 Yale Law graduates that took the exam were first-time test takers and all of them cleared the test, implying a pass rate of 100%. Similarly, candidates from the University of Berkeley School of Law, Stanford Law School, Boston University School of Law, Boston College Law School, Cornell Law School, University of Dayton School of Law, Georgetown Law, Loyola Law School, and NYU School of Law were a few other that were able to achieve a 100% pass rate for their law schools.
Last year, the pass rate for the Connecticut Bar Exam held in October 2020 stood at 67.5%. The pass rate for the July 2019 exam was 60% and the pass rate for the July 2018 exam was 55%. The pass rate for the February 2020 exam stood at just 34% and the pass rate for the February 2019 exam was 40%.