‘We were essentially guinea pigs’: New California bar exam causes chaos after rollout of hybrid test

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    CALIFORNIA (KCRA) — The State Bar of California has asked the state’s Supreme Court to lower the raw passing score for February’s bar exam after complaints of a chaotic test rollout.

“I would type something and there would be such a lag,” said Andrea Lynch.

Lynch took a new remote option of the California bar exam after the State Bar of California made the rigorous exam a hybrid test, allowing for an in-person or fully remote option with proctors and protocols to prevent cheating.

“I was entering answers and trying to save it, and I would get an error message saying, ‘Your exam is not seeing this response,’ and this happened for about six to seven questions. So I’m in the chat with my proctor saying, ‘Hey, this question, I answered this particular answer,’” Lynch said.

This was her second time taking the bar after failing what many consider one of the most rigorous bar exams in the country last July. Many applicants don’t work during this rigorous and time-consuming process, which can take months to prepare for the two-day exam.

As a full-time HR professional, wife and mother of two, that wasn’t an option for Lynch.

On top of work and taking care of her family, she said for six months she woke up at 4 a.m., studying late into the night, and sacrificed her weekends, all to pass the bar exam.

But she describes this virtual test as “a nightmare.”

“We were essentially guinea pigs,” Lynch said. “When I tried to open up the session, I get an automatic notification that my final session was submitted to the state bar. So the proctors had submitted my final session to the state bar exam without me even attempting the final 50 questions.”

Out of a 200-question exam, she said 50 of her questions were submitted without her approval.

She’s one of 4,300 exam takers for the California Bar Exam on February 25.

The State Bar of California also hired Kaplan, a different company to oversee portions of the exam.

“So there’s two things going on. The California bar decided to administer the February bar exam in a different format, using a different online vendor and using different questions than what they had used before. So the online vendor, I’m sure you’ve heard, had huge problems with the administration of the exam,” said Mary Basick, Assistant Dean of Academic Skills for the UC Irvine School of Law.

The educator had a number of students complain about the February Bar Exam, an issue she says was fully preventable.

“So, just to give you an idea of why this is so unfair, the people study for the bar exam for months. There’s over 3,000 laws, rules that they have to know from memory for this test and the multiple choice portion, they have to answer those questions in 1.8 minutes each,” said Basick. “You need about 65% correct, so it’s an extremely hard test to begin with. So it makes a big difference when they’ve changed the vendor and have questions that are very different on the exam and what people have prepared for.”

The State Bar of California also admitted this week that artificial intelligence was used for portions of the exam, only adding to the outrage building among the law community.

“It was to save money they wanted to do remote administration. The (previous) vendor that everyone’s been using for decades, refused to allow their questions to be used in a remote administration because of exam security concerns,” said Basick. “They’re not accepting responsibility or acknowledging the impact that some of these decisions have made, which makes me worried for this next bar exam in July.”

But another exam is not feasible for everyone.

“I work full time, I can’t take off again,” said Lynch.

She’s attended a number of meetings held by judicial leadership in the state after the fallout from the February exam.

The State Bar of California is trying to get the passing score lowered from 560 to 534.

The test results come out on May 2. After not being able to answer 50 questions, Lynch is not hopeful that she’ll pass the exam after months of dedication to try again.

The State Bar of California offered applicants a free retake of the bar in July, but Lynch said she can’t afford to take off more time, spend money on test prep courses, and miss out on time with her two young children.

“They just think, at a drop of a dime, based on their negligence, we are supposed to automatically turn around and take a test again,” Lynch said. “I think time is the most important resource that’s the thing I cannot get back.”

KCRA 3 made numerous attempts over the span of two days to contact the State Bar of California, which has not responded to requests for interviews or statements.

A spokesperson for the California Supreme Court said they cannot comment due to pending litigation.

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