The Massachusetts bar exam is "just getting back to normal" when 80 per cent of those taking it fail, a high Law School official commented yesterday.

Only 140 out of 722 candidates passed this year's exam according to results announced Tuesday by the Commonwealth's Board of Examiners, and Louis A. Toepfer, director of the Law School Placement Bureau, says this is just like pre-war days.

He recalled that a similar percent used to flunk each year before the war. But in recent years, he stated, an effort has been made to give veterans a break.

The men who run the exams are right to maintain high standards, Toepfer declared. He added that Harvard Law School graduates have little trouble with the tests, and he estimated that three-quarters to four-fifths of them pass the first time.

Dean Griswold would not comment on the exams.