The Delaware Supreme Court is reducing the minimum score, length, and practice areas covered by Delaware’s bar exam, citing a desire to make the legal profession more racially diverse.
This is occurring in tandem with lower-quality applicants: fewer applicants have been passing the Delaware Bar exam have also fallen. A larger percentage of applicants are black or Hispanic than used to be the case.
The minimum passing score for the multiple choice portion of the exam has been reduced. The number of essays included in the exam will fall from eight to four, and the practice areas covered by the exam will be reduced from 14 to 10. And instead of the exam taking two and a half days, it will take only two, reports Reuters.
Also, the exam will be offered twice a year, rather than once, giving applicants who fail more opportunities to retake it.
A recent report notes that bar pass rates have fallen to “around 52%, the lowest rates recorded since 2004.”
Expanding racial diversity has become a big goal of many in the legal community, and it has been cited as a reason for getting rid of the use of other tests, such as the LSAT.
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