A Call for Transparency about the Bar Exam Results by Law Schools or the State Board of Bar Examiners

In choosing a law school, a vital consideration for a law student must be the bar exam rate of the law school. If a law student chooses to go to a law school that struggles with its bar exam passage rate, then the likelihood of passing the bar for that student decreases when it becomes his/her turn 3 years later. Conversely, the higher the bar passage rate for your school, the chances of you passing the exam is increased.

Some law schools use its bar passage rate as a marketing tool. For example, Michigan State University, after scoring first on the July 2009 Michigan bar exam, immediately posted its numbers on its website. Other law schools obscure or hide its numbers, hoping the law school won’t be called out for a low bar passage rate. Still others schools, not only hide its numbers but claim the bar exam passage rate is actually higher than it is. For example, FAMU COL routinely scores only 50% on its bar, but, unbelievably, tells its students and the public that its overall bar pass rate is 77% when all statistics show that repeat takers normally do more poorly than first time takers on the bar. In fact, FAMU COL’s overall rate is closer to 37%.

Regardless, it is incumbent upon all law schools to practice transparency when it comes to its bar passage rate. If the school won’t publish its bar passage rate, then the state must publish it.

Let the public, the potential law students and the students at the school have all information available as to the school’s bar exam passage rate.

For repeat bar takers in Florida and California, please note that Bar Professors is offering a tutorial course for February 2010.

California Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Are Now Posted

The State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners reported today that 56.4 percent of the applicants passed the July 2009 General Bar Examination (GBX). If the 4,888 people who passed the July 2009 exam satisfy other requirements for admission, they will become members of the State Bar.

Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 8,667 applicants who took the GBX, 71.0 percent were first-time takers. The passing rate for 6,152 first-time applicants was 70.0 percent overall. The passing rate for the 2,515 applicants repeating the examination was 22.0 percent overall.

Here are the statistics for first time takers and then repeat takers:

California ABA: 79%/31%
Out-of-State ABA: 69%/27%
CA (but not ABA) Accredited: 32%/12%
Unaccredited:Fixed Facility: 4%/10%
Unacredited:Correspondence/Distance Learning: 32%/11%
All Others: 44%/20%

All Applicants: 70%/22%

California Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Will Be Posted at 6:00 pm Today

California bar exam results are expected to be posted today on Friday, November 20, 2009 at 6:00 pm.

Bar Professors wishes good luck to all applicants!!

Waiting for the July 2009 California Bar Exam Results

On Friday, November 20, 2009, California will release its bar exam results for July 2009.

For those who are unfamiliar with the Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, the play follows two days in the lives of a pair of men who divert themselves while they wait expectantly and unsuccessfully for someone named Godot to arrive. To occupy themselves, they eat, sleep, converse, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate suicide — anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay".

I'm sure this sounds familiar to approximately 8000 law school graduates who lives are on hold until 6:00 pm on Friday, waiting for the results of the hardest bar exam in the nation.

Unfortunately for the bar applicants who are waiting for the California results to come in, they still have a few more days to pass the time and are trying anything to "hold the terrible silence at bay" as they wait for their attorney lives to resolve successfully or, at least this time, unsuccessfully. Regardless of the result, your life changes dramatically in just a few days. Will you be successful or will you have the fortitude to go at it again if you are not?

In my experience, these last few days are probably the worst of the wait - knowing its coming in as the time seems to go by infuriatingly slowly. Your parents, your friends, your family, your co-workers are also taking that slow wait with you, hoping and praying that you will be successful.

Good luck for those who wait and we here at BarProfessors hope your legal dreams come true on Friday.

Georgia Has Posted its Bar Exam Results for July 2009 by Law School

Georgia has posted its bar exam results for July 2009 by law school. Here are the statistics:

Total of All Taking Examination – 1213

•1002 or 82.6% Passed
•1066 First Timers Took Exam and 948 or 88.9% Passed
•0147 Repeaters Took Exam and 0054 or 36.7% Passed


By Law School:

Mercer Law School: 87.3% of first time takers passed; 86% of all takers passed (including repeat takers)

Emory University: 92.5% of first time takers passed; 92.7% of all takers passed (including repeat takers)

University of Georgia: 94.5% of first time takers passed; 93.6% of all takers passed (including repeat takers)

Georgia State University: 93.0% of first time takers passed; 91.9% of all takers passed (including repeat takers)

John Marshall Law School: 83.1% of first time takers passed; 89.4% of all takers passed (including repeat takers)



Also interesting is the average MBE scores of the schools:

Mercer: 147.1

Emory: 150.5

Georgia: 151.5

Georgia State: 150.1

John Marshall: 138.9

For Repeat Bar Takers and Foreign Lawyers Taking the California and New York Bar Exams

Bar Professors has expanded its bar review course for repeat takers from California and New York. A special course will be offered to foreign lawyers and/or LLM and ESL students taking the New York and California Bar Exam.

Private tutorials for the 2010 February Bar Exam are extremely limited and you must sign up by November 21, 2009. Classes will be offered in both California and New York starting May 1, 2010 for the July 2010 Bar Exam.

Please go to barprofessors.com for more information

New Jersey Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Are Posted

New Jersey has posted the results from the July 2009 New Jersey Bar Examination. Of the 3183 candidates who sat for this examination, results have been mailed to 3072 candidates. Of the 3072 applicants, 2538 (82.6%) passed. The ID numbers of all applicants are posted on the website.

Congratulations to all who passed from BarProfessors.

New Jersey Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Will Be Posted at 4:00 pm Today

Bar results are expected to be mailed on Monday, November 9, 2009. Results are expected to be posted by Candidate ID number on Monday at 4:00 pm.

July 2009 Bar Exam Results Coming Out - New Jersey and California

New Jersey bar exam results for July 2009 will be coming out on Monday. California will be coming out on Friday, November 20th.

Barprofessors will post the results as soon as the results are out.

The New York Bar Exam Pass Rate Has Been Posted

The New York State Board of Law Examiners announced that grading has been completed
for the July 2009 bar examination. The graduates of American Bar Association approved law schools taking the bar examination for the first time achieved a passing rate of 88.2%, believed to be the second highest passing rate ever recorded for that group.

The Board examined a record 11,532 candidates during the two days of testing conducted on July 28-29, 2009. The passing rate for all candidates, including U. S. domestic-educated candidates and foreign-educated candidates, first time and repeat takers, was 72%. The passing rate for candidates who took the bar examination for the first-time was 80% The number of foreign-educated candidates sitting for the New York bar examination continues to rise. This July, 2,955 (25.6%) of the 11,532 candidates taking the examination were foreign educated.

The passing rate for all foreign educated candidates who took the examination was
38.5%.

A list of the successful applicants is now posted.

Congratulations to all who passed from BarProfessors.

July 2009 Texas Exam Results by Law School

Here are the statistics for the Texas Bar Exam Results for July 2009 by law school:

Baylor: 94.12% - first time takers; 0% - 2nd time takers

St. Mary: 82.80% - first time takers; 56.25% - 2nd time takers

South Texas: 89.66% - first time takers; 58.97% - 2nd time takers

SMU: 90.99% - first time takers; 35.71% - 2nd time takers

TSU: 71.11% - first time takers; 41.54% - 2nd time takers

U of Houston: 91.63% - first time takers; 85,71% - 2nd time takers

U of Texas: 92.36% - first time takers; 72.22% - 2nd time takers

Texas Tech: 94.52% - first time takers; 66.67% - 2nd time takers

TWU: 93.29% - first time takers; 59.09% - 2nd time takers


The overall bar pass rate for Texas is: 83.12%

Texas Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Are Now Posted

The results of the July 2009 bar examination for Texas were released to applicants today. The Board of Law Examiners have posted the individual names on its website.

Congratulations to those who passed from Bar Professors.

New York Bar Exam Results for July 2009 Are Out Today

The results from the July 2009 bar examination will be made available to candidates, by e-mail, on November 5, 2009. You must ensure that you can accept emails from barresults@nybarapply.org. There will also be a link on the website to privately view your individual result by mid-day.

A list of the candidates who passed the examination will be made available to the general public on Friday, November 6, 2009.

Michigan State University College of Law Claims Number One Spot in Michigan Bar Exam

Michigan State University College of Law recently announced the passage rate of Spring 2009 graduates who took the Michigan Bar examination for the first time in July. Reported results show 95 percent of MSU Law Spring '09 graduates passed the Michigan Bar examination (before appeals), which was the highest passage rate among law schools in Michigan, and well above the state's 88 percent average.

Michigan Has Updated Its Website to Name the Successful Applicants of the July 2009 Bar Exam Results

Today, Michigan has updated its website with the names of the successful applicants of the July 2009 bar exam results.

Again, congratulations to all those who passed from barprofessors.