Acting on another item on its COVID-19 pandemic agenda, the Supreme Court today postponed the summer bar exam — currently scheduled for July 28 and 29 — to September 9 and 10, and it instructed the State Bar “to make every effort possible” to administer the test online with remote and/or electronic proctoring. (Judicial Council press release here.)
The court’s actions, announced in a letter from the court’s clerk and executive officer Jorge Navarrete, also include directing the State Bar to use the June first-year law students exam, aka the Baby Bar, as a guinea pig for September. The June test is to be administered online and proctored remotely and/or electronically, and the court said that the Bar is to “use the experience” of the Baby Bar “to ensure a smooth online administration” of the postponed September exam.
The court also allowed for the possibility that the September exam might not happen even online. If administering the exam is “infeasible,” the letter said, “the court may consider altering or amending [its] directives.”
Finally, the court said that changes to the bar exam, which were being considered before the pandemic, remain on the table “as studies concerning the examination continue to reach their conclusion.”
Related:
State Bar asks Supreme Court to postpone or cancel July bar exam