July 2006 Bar Exam Results Are In
Article Date: Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Written By: Russell Rawlings
The N.C. Board of Law Examiners has completed the arduous two-week task of grading a record-setting 1,015 bar exams. The results of the July 2006 bar exam have been mailed and will be posted Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 30, on the NCBLE Web site.
Applicants are reminded not to call the NCBLE as it does not have sufficient staff to handle the barrage of calls.
At the conclusion of the grading process, NCBLE officials said, the essay results were merged with the results of the multistate bar exam; once that process was completed and the overall results approved, the names of applicants were merged with their exam numbers under the supervision of a representative of the Supreme Court.
The final results were approved by the Board of Law Examiners on Friday and letters were mailed to applicants later that day.
The passage rate among first-time examinees was 80 percent overall and 69 percent for applicants from out-of-state schools. Campbell University led a strong N.C. law school showing with a 97% passage rate among first-time examinees, followed in order by Duke University (92%), Wake Forest University (88%), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (87%) and North Carolina Central University (86%).
As is usual, those repeating the exam were less successful: only 26% passed. The overall bar passage rate, including both those who were being examined for the first time as well as those who were repeating the exam, was 72%.
The names of persons who have passed the bar exam but still must take and pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam are not included in the posted names, since they are not yet eligible for licensure. Those persons have, however, been sent letters notifying them of their results.
In addition, the scores of an unprecedented number of applicants remain sealed as a result of large numbers of exam security violations and questions concerning other character and fitness issues. A total of 115 examinees' results remain sealed. Hearings have been scheduled for these persons, and will take place over the next several months.
Nationally, there have been unfortunate incidents with persons using electronic devices to obtain and transmit exam information. The devices have ranged from pen scanners to cell phones. As a result, the board requires that examinees only bring items necessary for taking the exam and bans other items.
A large number of exam violations this year involved bringing banned items into the exam site, ranging from cell phones to watches and bar review materials, despite advance written warnings and posted signs. Other incidents involved reported violations of exam timing requirements – for example, continuing to write after time had been called.
The NCBLE investigates all such reported violations and holds hearings concerning them as rapidly as possible.