This article originally appeared in The Bar Examiner print edition, Spring 2021 (Vol. 90, No. 1), pp. 7–9.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt day-to-day life, jurisdictions throughout the country continue to grapple with safely administering the bar exam to ensure that candidates can take the exam and have the opportunity to become licensed to practice law.
July 2020 Exam Recap
In the early days of the pandemic, recognizing the need to assist jurisdictions with options to safely administer the July 2020 bar exam, NCBE announced on April 3 that it would make exam materials available for two fall administrations in addition to the July 2020 administration: September 9–10 and September 30–October 1.
As the pandemic worsened and restrictions for indoor gatherings increased throughout the country, NCBE then announced on June 1 that it would provide a limited set of questions (MBE, MEE, MPT) to jurisdictions for an emergency remote testing option on October 5–6 for local admission.
In sum, 32 jurisdictions administered in-person exams in July or on alternate dates, and 7 of those jurisdictions decided to administer two in-person exams. Twenty-five jurisdictions decided to administer remote exams (20 administered NCBE’s remote testing option in October, and 5 administered remote exams on alternate dates using locally drafted questions). Four jurisdictions administered both in-person and remote exams. Three jurisdictions canceled the exam until 2021.
February 2021 Exam Announcement
On October 19, to provide flexibility to jurisdictions and candidates during the continuing challenges posed by the pandemic, NCBE announced that it would make a full set of bar exam materials available for a remote administration in February 2021, to be held on the same dates as the in-person administration of the exam. NCBE would equate the MBE, calculate scaled scores for the written components, and provide UBE and MBE score transfer services for both the in-person and the remote administrations.
On the day of the announcement, jurisdictions began declaring their decisions to administer the February exam remotely, with a total of 33 jurisdictions deciding to do so using NCBE materials (2 jurisdictions would administer the exam remotely using their own test materials).
The following show an overview of jurisdiction decisions about in-person versus remote administration of the February 2021 exam.
A Timeline of Jurisdiction Decisions to Administer the February 2021 Exam Remotely
February 2021 Bar Exam Status by Jurisdiction
Note: The numbers account for all 56 jurisdictions, including those that did not use NCBE materials for their 2021 exams. (Note that Delaware does not administer a February exam. Palau usually does not administer a February exam but held its exam in February 2021 due to the cancellation of its July 2020 exam. Texas also administered a make-up exam on March 16–17, 2021, for those applicants who were unable to take the exam in February due to severe weather events.)
For tabular format of this information, visit the NCBE website at https://www.ncbex.org/ncbe-covid-19-updates/feb-2021-bar-exam-jurisdiction-information/status-table/
IN-PERSON EXAM
20 jurisdictions decided to administer in-person exams
REMOTE EXAM
35 jurisdictions decided to administer remote exams
Comparison of Jurisdiction In-Person vs. Remote Bar Exam Decisions from July 2020 to February 2021
Note: “July 2020” may refer to an alternate or additional September or October 2020 exam administered due to the pandemic.
| In-Person July 2020 and February 2021 | Remote July 2020 and February 2021 | In-Person July 2020; Remote February 2021 | Both In-Person and Remote July 2020; Remote February 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama Alaska Arkansas Hawaii Kansas Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana New Mexico Oklahoma South Carolina South Dakota Virginia West Virginia Wyoming Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico |
California Connecticut District of Columbia Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York Ohio Pennsylvania Tennessee Vermont Virgin Islands |
Colorado |
Arizona Idaho Oregon Texas |
Delaware: July 2020 exam canceled; does not administer a February exam.
Guam and Palau: July 2020 exam canceled; in-person exam February 2021.Contact us to request a pdf file of the original article as it appeared in the print edition.
