{"id":158777,"date":"2026-07-29T08:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/29\/the-california-bar-exam-was-a-disaster-ncbe-and-missouri-hold-my-beer\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T16:37:30","slug":"the-california-bar-exam-was-a-disaster-ncbe-and-missouri-hold-my-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/07\/29\/the-california-bar-exam-was-a-disaster-ncbe-and-missouri-hold-my-beer\/","title":{"rendered":"The California Bar Exam Was A Disaster, NCBE And Missouri: \u2018Hold My Beer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[READ MORE HERE: About bar exam horrors in Washington<\/a> and Maryland<\/a>]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The most credulous voices in legal spent the last year dunking all over California\u2019s haphazard effort to administer its own bar exam. California\u2019s initiative admittedly moved too fast \u2014 a byproduct of waiting until the licensing entity faced such a dire deficit<\/a> that it made desperate decisions before it should have. As a result, the state ended up spending more money than it should have only to be ordered to throw out the lessons<\/a> of its painful brush with independence might have gained.<\/p>\n

No one lapped up California\u2019s pain like the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the \u201cnon-profit\u201d now sitting on $187 million in assets<\/a> against a mere $7 million in liabilities and picking up an additional $20 million or so in non-profit-profit every year. California had broken with the cartel that caused its near bankruptcy, and ended up slinking back.<\/p>\n

Somehow, media treated this as though California screwed up by trying to walk away from the \u201cprofessionals\u201d who understand how to run a \u201creal\u201d bar exam.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the NCBE massively fucked up across the country yesterday. Somehow I don\u2019t expect nearly the same breathless coverage of their mistakes that California got. Let\u2019s start with Missouri because, why not?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, this will NOT be the last article of the day on this:<\/p>\n

\n

Missouri:<\/strong>\u00a0Site-specific network bandwidth issues delayed the start of testing for many standard-time applicants (those testing under the standard examination schedule). Once the bandwidth concern was addressed, testing resumed. The jurisdiction has modified tomorrow\u2019s testing schedule to accommodate today\u2019s delayed administration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the official NCBE assessment of the situation. Here\u2019s one from a source closer to it who is NOT sitting on 187 million reasons to mislead the public about it:<\/p>\n

\u201cBar takers in MO were sent to lunch at or about 10:30 AM because the morning exam could not be delivered,\u201d our tipster explained. \u201cThey were told that they would have to complete all six hours in the afternoon.\u201d Another noted, \u201c7 hour delay to start, with most of that time locked in ballroom with no Internet\/phones. And then we take 3 hours of Next Gen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reddit thread about this is titled \u201cMissouri Bar Exam tech disasterclass<\/a>\u201d and I\u2019m officially mad I didn\u2019t invent the word \u201cdisasterclass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute circus. Half testers testing, half kicked to lunch without testing,\u201d a Redditor notes. \u201cNo signs of clear fixes.\u201d Another relays \u2014 and take this with grains of salt \u2014 \u201cDuring NCBE\u2019s \u2018diagnostic testing\u2019 which they did not do to scale at all, about 3% of people got kicked off midway through the exam\u2026 IT told them today that if they implemented the solution of logging in and starting in two separate stages, it would most likely kick off all the users in stage 1 when the users in stage 2 logged on.\u201d Good heavens.<\/p>\n

See, California tried to put together a new test in a year. The NCBE took its time over years<\/em>, so they know what they\u2019re doing:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And we\u2019re not the only ones reaching for that analogy. A tipster wrote in overnight:<\/p>\n

\n

Long story short it was a complete dumpster fire. Very unprofessional environment to even attempt to take an exam in. Dozens of people up and walking around talking. My exam started around 9:30. Everyone started at different times. The guy in front of me didn\u2019t start until 10:40. Another lady I spoke with said she sat there until 2:00 and never got her exam to work. Procters talking on cell phones and making announcements mid exam over the PA system. We were all told to come back to the exam at 3:00 we were then told the afternoon section was cancelled and we will attempt to do the afternoon exam in the AM and the next part after lunch.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Look, bar exams are a monument to the stupidity of the profession. If we could get our act together, we\u2019d tighten our law school credentialing to guarantee that graduates are ready to practice (or, at worst, need a specialized practice area certification). That said, these closed-book, doctrinal, generalist exams present huge logistical problems that stymie the NCBE as much as if not more than they stymied California.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not defending how California tackled its exam, but I spent the last year pushing back against what felt like uniform smugness<\/em> that NCBE knew what it was doing and had built a scientific solution to vetting lawyers. Like Cassandra before Clytemnestra took her out, I saw every bit of the NCBE\u2019s failure coming. It\u2019s a bloated, money-grubbing cartel with a test that fails to protect the public<\/a> that has somehow created a bubble around itself that leads people who should know better<\/em> to reflexively overlook its never-ending stream of constant cock ups. <\/p>\n

Good luck today, folks. You deserve better than this.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post The California Bar Exam Was A Disaster, NCBE And Missouri: \u2018Hold My Beer\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[READ MORE HERE: About bar exam horrors in Washington<\/a> and Maryland<\/a>]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The most credulous voices in legal spent the last year dunking all over California\u2019s haphazard effort to administer its own bar exam. California\u2019s initiative admittedly moved too fast \u2014 a byproduct of waiting until the licensing entity faced such a dire deficit<\/a> that it made desperate decisions before it should have. As a result, the state ended up spending more money than it should have only to be ordered to throw out the lessons<\/a> of its painful brush with independence might have gained.<\/p>\n

No one lapped up California\u2019s pain like the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the \u201cnon-profit\u201d now sitting on $187 million in assets<\/a> against a mere $7 million in liabilities and picking up an additional $20 million or so in non-profit-profit every year. California had broken with the cartel that caused its near bankruptcy, and ended up slinking back.<\/p>\n

Somehow, media treated this as though California screwed up by trying to walk away from the \u201cprofessionals\u201d who understand how to run a \u201creal\u201d bar exam.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the NCBE massively fucked up across the country yesterday. Somehow I don\u2019t expect nearly the same breathless coverage of their mistakes that California got. Let\u2019s start with Missouri because, why not?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, this will NOT be the last article of the day on this:<\/p>\n

\n

Missouri:<\/strong>\u00a0Site-specific network bandwidth issues delayed the start of testing for many standard-time applicants (those testing under the standard examination schedule). Once the bandwidth concern was addressed, testing resumed. The jurisdiction has modified tomorrow\u2019s testing schedule to accommodate today\u2019s delayed administration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the official NCBE assessment of the situation. Here\u2019s one from a source closer to it who is NOT sitting on 187 million reasons to mislead the public about it:<\/p>\n

\u201cBar takers in MO were sent to lunch at or about 10:30 AM because the morning exam could not be delivered,\u201d our tipster explained. \u201cThey were told that they would have to complete all six hours in the afternoon.\u201d Another noted, \u201c7 hour delay to start, with most of that time locked in ballroom with no Internet\/phones. And then we take 3 hours of Next Gen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reddit thread about this is titled \u201cMissouri Bar Exam tech disasterclass<\/a>\u201d and I\u2019m officially mad I didn\u2019t invent the word \u201cdisasterclass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute circus. Half testers testing, half kicked to lunch without testing,\u201d a Redditor notes. \u201cNo signs of clear fixes.\u201d Another relays \u2014 and take this with grains of salt \u2014 \u201cDuring NCBE\u2019s \u2018diagnostic testing\u2019 which they did not do to scale at all, about 3% of people got kicked off midway through the exam\u2026 IT told them today that if they implemented the solution of logging in and starting in two separate stages, it would most likely kick off all the users in stage 1 when the users in stage 2 logged on.\u201d Good heavens.<\/p>\n

See, California tried to put together a new test in a year. The NCBE took its time over years<\/em>, so they know what they\u2019re doing:<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And we\u2019re not the only ones reaching for that analogy. A tipster wrote in overnight:<\/p>\n

\n

Long story short it was a complete dumpster fire. Very unprofessional environment to even attempt to take an exam in. Dozens of people up and walking around talking. My exam started around 9:30. Everyone started at different times. The guy in front of me didn\u2019t start until 10:40. Another lady I spoke with said she sat there until 2:00 and never got her exam to work. Procters talking on cell phones and making announcements mid exam over the PA system. We were all told to come back to the exam at 3:00 we were then told the afternoon section was cancelled and we will attempt to do the afternoon exam in the AM and the next part after lunch.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Look, bar exams are a monument to the stupidity of the profession. If we could get our act together, we\u2019d tighten our law school credentialing to guarantee that graduates are ready to practice (or, at worst, need a specialized practice area certification). That said, these closed-book, doctrinal, generalist exams present huge logistical problems that stymie the NCBE as much as if not more than they stymied California.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not defending how California tackled its exam, but I spent the last year pushing back against what felt like uniform smugness<\/em> that NCBE knew what it was doing and had built a scientific solution to vetting lawyers. Like Cassandra before Clytemnestra took her out, I saw every bit of the NCBE\u2019s failure coming. It\u2019s a bloated, money-grubbing cartel with a test that fails to protect the public<\/a> that has somehow created a bubble around itself that leads people who should know better<\/em> to reflexively overlook its never-ending stream of constant cock ups. <\/p>\n

Good luck today, folks. You deserve better than this.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[READ MORE HERE: About bar exam horrors in Washington and Maryland] The most credulous voices in legal spent the last year dunking all over California\u2019s haphazard effort to administer its own bar exam. California\u2019s initiative admittedly moved too fast \u2014 a byproduct of waiting until the licensing entity faced such a dire deficit that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Headshot-300x200-TUCQBB.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}