Louisiana Bar Exam - Grading and Results

Grading and Results

Each of the nine sections has one examiner, who writes both the exam question and model answer, and a certain number of graders who grade the actual answers to the exams. Graders are usually practicing attorneys who are awarded CLE credit for their time. Each individual exam subject is scored on a scale of 0 to 100, with 70 being a passing score. Once a grader determines that a particular applicant has passed a section, his or her decision is final and not reviewable. If a grader determines that an applicant has failed a particular section, then the failed exam is reviewed and re-scored by the examiner for that section. The examiner's decision is final.

"Passing" the Louisiana bar exam is a bit different from most other jurisdictions, as there is no final "score." Instead, a bar applicant must pass seven of the nine sections in order to pass the exam. However, it cannot be any seven of the nine sections, the examinee must also pass four of five "code sections" (as described above) in order to pass outright. If an applicant does not meet that requirement, but passes any five sections is considered to have "conditioned" the exam, and only has to retake the areas he or she failed. An applicant is only given two more tries to pass the failed portions before he or she is required to retake the entire exam. Passing less than five sections is considered failing, and the entire exam must be retaken. Beginning with the July 2012 administration, examinees will no longer be able to "condition" the exam. Rather, examinees must have a total score of at least 650 out of 900 after conversion from raw scores on each of the nine sections of the exam (whereby the "code sections" are weighted more heavily than the "non-code" sections.) The Louisiana Supreme Court has recently placed a limitation on the number of times an applicant may sit for the Louisiana Bar examination. Applicants shall have only five (5) attempts to pass the examination. Results of each examination are mailed to each applicant as well as posted on the front doors of the Louisiana State Supreme Court building and on the Supreme Court's website. Passing applicants are listed by full name, with conditional or failed applicants listed by fictitious name. The fictitious names are chosen by all applicants prior to taking the bar, and can get quite creative. Applicants who conditioned or failed the exam have the opportunity to review the sections they failed and compare them to other "model" passing answers from that administration. After the opportunity to review failed exams is over, all answers are destroyed. Applicants can only appeal mathematical errors in adding up the points for each exam, no substantive appeals are available.