Law Students

California Bar Post

The California Bar is famously difficult to pass. In fact, the Wikipedia page for the California bar has a section entitled ?The Famously Difficult California Bar Examination.? I remember fretting over the bar before I even started law school. So what's the big deal? As I mentioned before, this is largely do to the low passage rate, which hovers around 50%. That means half of the test takers, educated at some of the best undergrads and law schools in the country fail this test. The test is comprehensive, covering 13 subjects of law: Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence (Federal and California rules), Property, Torts, Wills & Trusts, Civil Procedure (Federal and California rules), Community Property, Professional Responsibility, Business Associations, and Remedies. While that may seem like a lot to test on, but guess what? We get three whole days to do it! Plenty of time.

What, Me Worry?

The California bar passage rate is artificially low because California, unlike most other jurisdictions, allows non-ABA approved law school students to take the bar, which really brings the passage rate down. Another variable that brings down the passage rate a lot is that California allows you to take the bar as many times as you'd like. First time test takers pass the bar at a much higher rate than repeat test takers.

This means that you have a wonderful chance of passing the bar if you are a first time test taker from a California ABA law school, 75% chance of passing to be exact. In contrast, if you are an unaccredited, non California school, repeat test taker you have an 8% chance of passing. Santa Clara, for example, had a 76% passage rate for first time takers (38% for repeaters). This rate is actually down 3% from last year. As someone comfortably ensconced in the upper portions of my class ranking in a school with close to 80% average passing rate in the last few years, I feel the chances of passing are pretty good. I've heard that many people who didn't pass the bar feel that they just stressed/freaked out in the middle of the test despite knowing the law. Knowing these stats I think has a calming effect; at least it does for me. Obviously, it's not a sure thing, but it's important to counter the disconcerting statistics that intimidate so many test takers with those that show that passing the bar is much more likely than not for many of us.

The Game Plan

Preparation Courses: I told my wife how much it costs to take a bar prep course(s) ($3-4000), and she expressed disbelief at the fact that we have just spent about $150,000 sending me to law school and yet that was somehow insufficient to prepare me for the bar. I think her outrage is well placed. Anyway, I don't know anyone who is not taking at least one bar prep course (and many take two). Here is a list to give you a feel for how many different prep courses there are. I've researched a lot of these programs but they really all seem to be very similar.

The fact is everyone I know is taking Barbri. They suckered me into signing up when I was a first year so I've already put a deposit down. But their MPRE prep course was fine, so I imagine the general bar prep course will be fine as well. The big dilemma faced within the circles I run is whether or not to take PMBR, which focuses solely on the Multistate Bar Exam (the multiple choice portion of the bar). I think I've elected not to take it because Barbri covers it as well and their coverage seems to be comprehensive enough: BAR/BRI course includes two MBE workshops, more than 2,200 MBE-type questions including both actual released and practice questions, as well as our acclaimed StudySmart® MBE software, all at no additional charge. Not only does BAR/BRI give you the most MBE preparation of any course in the nation, our MBE-type questions more accurately reflect the MBE in both their level of difficulty and coverage of issues.

Study Schedule: I've signed up for 9:00 a.m.- 1:00 p.m. class that begins the day after labor day, so I imagine I'll follow my current schedule of waking up at 6:00, study until class, work out and eat and then study for the rest of the day. Piece of cake.

When I finish with trial team (2/16) and moot court (3/9), I'll start a little bar prep by doing some practice tests, and reading some study guides for the subjects I didn't take in school (California Civil Procedure and Community Property).

I think a prep course, a good study schedule before and after I graduate will put me in a good position to pass the infamous yet completely passable bar.

Full post as published by SoapBox Law on January 27, 2008 (boomark / email).