How to Approach and Pass the Bar Exam

By Prof. James C. Gray Jr., Bar Task Force

With the start of a new academic year, I am reminded of an incident that took place a number of years ago when the School of Law was downtown on 13th Street. A new 1L student came into my office to see me — then Dean of Students — shortly after school had started. He wanted to get permission to overload so that he could take Evidence as well as the prescribed first year courses.

My reaction was somewhere between amusement and astonishment at such a request — the first semester of the first year is more than enough for most people. I asked why he wanted to do such a thing (also noting that it was impossible). His reason was that he wanted to get a head start so that he could take a lighter load his third year and begin studying for the bar.

I laughed. Then I told him that he had already started studying for the bar when he began Orientation and Lawyering Process, and that concentrating on mastering his first year courses was the best head start he could have.

In a column last year, I summed this up as follows:

"Bar preparation starts during the 1L orientation and success is the product of perspiration, inspiration, and calculation. One needs to figure out the rules and strategies that one must know to gain points on the MBE and Essay and Performance sections of the bar, [and then] make effective and efficient use of the study materials provided by the bar preparation course(s), and practice, practice, practice."

This seems like a good point to repeat at the start of a new academic year.

The UDC-DCSL Bar Task Force — and those who have carried out similar studies at other schools — have found that the correlation between law school GPA and bar passage is extremely high and is more valid than any correlations with LSAT and/or undergraduate GPA. Thus, my advice to that student appears pretty sound: concentrate on mastering the first year skills and subjects because not only will those subjects be tested on the bar, but more importantly, your skills in terms of identifying issues, understanding rules of law and exceptions to the rules, applying rules to facts, and communicating your reasoning, will be at the heart of the test used to determine whether you can be unleashed on the public as an attorney at law.

The bar exam differs radically from state to state. Even though the approach to take when responding to essays may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, the core skills being tested do not vary that much. On the other hand, even though D.C., West Virginia, and Hawaii, all rely on the three National Conference of Bar Examiners produced tests — the MBE [200 multiple choice questions], the MEE [essays], and the MPT [performance] — they have different passing scores and get to select the actual essay topics to be used.

UDC-DCSL’s first year required courses introduce students to three of the six MULTISTATE (MBE) subjects that will be tested on virtually every bar in the country: Criminal Law and Procedure, Contracts and Sales, and Torts. The remaining three are required in the second year: Constitutional Law, Evidence, and Property. Only two states — Louisiana and Washington State — do not use the MBE; even then, these two states no doubt test in these six areas.

Incoming and returning students should be aware of the following technical matters:

(1) Some states reward early registration for the bar; and

(2) Students with physical or learning disabilities that impact test performance should establish a record of accommodations while in law school, so that there is a historical basis for requesting appropriate accommodations when signing up to take the bar in their third year.

Registering for the Bar as a 1L or 2L

A number of states have special requirements for students that register their intent to take that state’s bar as early as their first year of law school. The penalty for not registering early is usually a much more expensive bar fee later on. Florida, for example, charges a non-registered examinee $875 to take the bar; this is $500 more than the $375 charged to students that register as 1L’s for as little as $75.

California, Illinois, Iowa, and Florida are among the states that have student registration requirements.

Disability Accommodations

Section VI of the UDC-DCSL Student Handbook describes the School of Law’s policy on accommodating disabilities. The purpose of the policy is to "ensure individualized opportunities for students with disabilities."

The various bar authorities also have disability accommodation policies. In fact, this past month a US District Court judge ruled that, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a woman with a history of dyslexia who had failed the NY bar multiple times was entitled to accommodations. This was after some seven years of federal court litigation.

Most bar examiners want to know whether accommodations were provided during law school. Bar examinations are, by definition, highly time-sensitive (1.6 minutes per MBE question). Time accommodations for those with reading or similar learning or physical disabilities can be the critical difference between success and failure.

In the past, I have known students who for "reasons of pride" have preferred to "tough it out" rather than receive accommodations during law school. However, because of the tie-in to the bar, "toughing it out" is not the way to go.