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10 ¦ OCTOBER 26, 2020 NEWS

Connecticut, 3 Other States Plan
Online Bar Exam for February

By Karen Sloan

New York’s February bar exam will be online.
The New York State Court of Appeals an-
nounced Wednesday that the upcoming exam
would not be offered in person due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic, making it among the first
jurisdictions to commit to another online test in
February. That decision came just two weeks after
the state administered its first-ever remote exam,
which earned mixed reviews. The court and the New
York State Board of Law Examiners have deemed
the test a success, while many test takers said it was
unfair and riddled with glitches. will score and scale the Multistate Bar Exam, which
“While the Board of Law Examiners continues to is the 200-question, multiple-choice portion of the
gather and study the data, our preliminary assess- test. It did not offer those services for October’s on-
ment is that, despite the novel procedure, this was line exam, which was taken by more than 30,000 in
a very successful administration 20 different jurisdictions.
of the bar examination,” reads the Pennsylvania, Connecticut and
court’s Wednesday announce- Maryland have also announced
ment. “Of the 5,167 applicants this week that they will give online
who downloaded the exam soft- New York, Pennsylvania bar exams in February.
ware and were scheduled to take and Maryland have also
According to the announcement
the remote exam on October 5 said their February exams from the New York State Court of
and 6, 2020, all but 17 successfully will be given online. The Appeals, jurisdictions are required
completed the entire exam.” to choose either an in-person or
Earlier this week, the National National Conference of online exam for February. A hand-
Bar Examiners is letting ful of states, including Texas and
Conference of Bar Examiners, jurisdictions choose either Arizona, this summer gave exam-
which develops the exam, an- a full-length in-person or inees the option to take the test in
nounced that it will provide a online exam Feb. 23 and 24. person in July or September, or
full set of questions for both an
online and in-person exam on take the online test in October.
Feb. 23 and 24. Unlike the online “Although the Court originally
exam given this month, which was anticipated that a remote exam
shorter than the traditional licens- would be administered on a one-
ing test, the February online exam will be full length time basis, the threat posed by the pandemic has
and considered a Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) for par- not abated sufficiently to permit the Board to safely
ticipating jurisdictions, including New York. (People conduct in-person testing of large numbers of bar
who take the bar in UBE jurisdictions may transfer applicants in New York, and it is therefore necessary
their score to other UBE states without having to re- to again consider a remote option,” reads the court’s
take the exam.) The national conference also said it announcement.

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