Bar Exam

Harvard Law will accept GRE as entrance exam

Harvard Law School will accept the Graduate Record Examination in lieu of the Law School Admissions Test, starting this fall. The change is part of a strategy to expand law school access domestically and internationally.

Mar 9, 2017 8:35 AM CST

Will delaying the exam, adding training help Arizona Summit students pass the bar?

Corrected: A year ago, Kelly Blake was stressed out. The Arizona Summit School of Law graduate was studying for the state bar and suspected that her chance at passing was about 50 percent.

Feb 27, 2017 8:30 AM CST

ABA House rejects proposal to tighten bar-pass standards for law schools

The ABA House of Delegates on Tuesday voted against a proposal to tighten bar passage rate standards for accredited law schools. Under ABA rules, the house can send the proposed rule, Resolution 110B, back to the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar twice for…

Feb 6, 2017 3:33 PM CST

LSAT scores at high-risk schools getting worse, according to analysis by law school reform group

Despite increased attention to admissions standards for ABA-accredited law schools, LSAT numbers and bar-pass rates are getting worse at those schools seen as the most at risk for exploiting students, according to an investigation released Thursday by Law School Transparency. The group, which focuses on law school reform, first published…

Feb 2, 2017 2:25 PM CST

Proposal to tighten ABA bar-pass standards criticized by deans and state bar president

A group of 90 law school deans asked the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar to pull a proposal that would tighten accreditation requirements on bar passage rates. Under the proposal, being in compliance with Standard 316 of the section’s law school accreditation…

Jan 19, 2017 3:50 PM CST

How to prepare for another try at the bar exam (podcast with transcript)

It’s not terribly unusual for a law grad to need to take the bar exam more than once to pass. But the experience of failing the bar can be crushing to one’s confidence–and concentration. After failing the bar exam, many students have a hard time studying for a retake. This…

Jan 4, 2017 8:30 AM CST

Georgia bar exam mistake takes toll on 90 law students

Imagine that you spend countless hours studying for the bar exam. You take the exam. You are told that you failed. Then you find out that you did, indeed, pass the exam after all.

Jan 1, 2017 3:10 AM CST

Conflicting views on proposal to link accreditation to bar passage results

No ABA-accredited law school has ever been out of compliance with a standard regarding bar passage percentages, and that may indicate that the standard is not working well. The ABA House of Delegates is expected to consider a proposal to revise the standard.

Jan 1, 2017 1:10 AM CST

What’s the best way to share a school’s bad bar exam results? These deans have some thoughts

David Faigman, the acting dean at University of California Hastings College of the Law, didn’t know that he’d get individual notice of bar passage rates. But one Friday afternoon in early December, his assistant brought him a letter informing him that Hastings’ July 2016 first-time pass rate was 51 percent.…

Dec 16, 2016 2:10 PM CST

With question of accreditation looming, Texas OKs bar exam for UNT Dallas law grads

Corrected: While the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law is pursuing ABA accreditation, the state supreme court on Tuesday granted a request from the dean that its graduates be able to sit for the July 2017 bar exam. Texas law prohibits graduates from non-accredited law schools from talking…

Dec 15, 2016 11:45 AM CST

Would adoption of the UBE lead to more job options? 89% of surveyed 2016 law grads think so

Out of 1,000 recent law school graduates surveyed by Kaplan Bar Review, 91 percent wanted all states to adopt the uniform bar exam. Eighty-nine percent thought that the change would provide more employment options, and 38 percent reported that it was easier to study for the UBE. In 2013, a…

Dec 8, 2016 2:40 PM CST

Some states see increase in bar pass rates, while others witness declines

Updated: As the July 2016 bar results are released, it appears that nationally, there’s a slight uptick with scores, says Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. “The big picture item is that we have looked for scores to continue to drop, and they didn’t,” she told…

Nov 21, 2016 5:25 PM CST

For-profit Concord School of Law seeks more state bar exam opportunities for its grads

The Concord Law School of Kaplan University, which offers online courses, in the past month has filed petitions in Arizona, New Mexico and Connecticut, asking the states to change existing rules that restrict its graduates from taking bar exams. California is currently the only state that allows Concord graduates to…

Nov 18, 2016 4:50 PM CST

Judge denies law prof’s request for bar-exam racial data

A judge in California has denied a law professor’s request for racial data on would-be lawyers who took the state bar exam. Judge Mary Wiss of San Francisco said the anonymous data would violate personal privacy rights because it could be used to identify individuals, report the Wall Street Journal…

Nov 8, 2016 9:03 AM CST

Legal ed council approves stricter ABA standard for bar passage rates amid diversity concerns

A proposal to tighten bar passage rate standards for ABA-approved law schools was passed Friday by the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

Oct 21, 2016 3:05 PM CDT