Bloomberg Businessweek Decides to Traumatize California Bar Examinees...

...by publishing this article, titled Why Did So Many People Flunk the Bar Exam This Year?

It begins:

The most recent bar exam test results are in, and they are ugly. In several states, people who took the bar in July were more likely to fail than those who took it last year, and scores on one portion of the test dropped to their lowest point in 10 years. 

Are America’s law graduates really getting dumber? The people who put together the bar exam seem to think so.

Thanks are due to Paul Caron of the TaxProf Blog for sharing this inspiring piece. It follows other depressing posts on the subject, including this one by Derek Muller on the surprisingly horrible performance of this year's examinees on the Multistate Bar Examination

Back in July, thousands of people took bar exams across the country. I (somehow) documented my own experiences in a series of posts here, here, here, and here. It's a good thing I did, because I have repressed almost all of my memories of those three days. Were it not for those posts, I might have doubts as to whether I even took the bar exam in the first place. By rereading my posts, I feel a little more confident that I am not lying to my coworkers when I tell them that I did indeed take the exam and that it was less than pleasant.

Since July, many state bar associations have already reported the results of their states' bar exams. I suspect that this is how the folks at Bloomberg Business Week are able to compile information on states' passage rates. I have not systematically studied which states have already released results, but based on a survey of status announcements of non-California people I know on Facebook, it seems to me that 49 states have notified students about whether they have passed the bar.

That leaves California, which announces bar exam results tomorrow.

California bar examinees have waited for almost four months to learn whether they have passed the bar exam. As they wait, outlets like Bloomberg Business Week publish articles on the woeful state of bar examination results following the July 2014 exam. Friends from other states joyfully announce their success, while those in the state with the most difficult bar exam anxiously watch the clock tick down.

Best of luck to those who have yet to learn of their bar exam results. And while these well wishes may seem a little self-serving, I give them anyway, since I want all the good luck I can get.