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Ask The Professor: The Secret Of Bar Review

What's the secret that the bar review industry doesn’t want you to know?

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I have been helping students pass the bar exam for over four decades. Before me, my father invented the modern bar review course in the 1940s. I mention this so you know that it is coming from good authority when I tell you the secret that those of us in the bar review industry don’t want you to know.

That secret: A bar review course cannot relatively improve your chances of passing the bar exam.

Bar review marketing is gearing up across the country on every law school campus, with bar review reps trying to entice students with giveaways and discounts. But no amount of bar-review-branded swag will improve your chance of passing over your GPA rank at time of graduation.

What’s the best predictor of success on the bar exam?

How well you do in law school is the best predictor of success on the bar exam.

In the early years of bar review up through the early 1980s, bar courses could improve your chance of passing. These were the days before the internet, and back then it was nearly impossible to find outlines and practice questions. There were many courses, each with educators at the helm, who were actively training students to pass the bar exam. However, over the last two decades, bar review has transformed into another big business. Although there are still a handful of courses with educators at the helm, most courses have simply become middlemen that put law professors in front of bar takers. As bar review has become a multimillion-dollar industry, the content of the courses has slowly changed from training students to pass the bar exam to simply “reviewing” the law.

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When everyone takes a bar review course, no one has the advantage. For instance, on the July 2013 New York bar exam, the pass rate for first-time takers who went to an ABA-accredited school was 86%. Contrast that with the pass rates of the major bar review companies. Many hover right around 80%, if not lower.

The reality is that if you did well in school, you are very likely to pass the bar exam. However, if you are in the bottom of the class and think that a bar review course and a few weeks of cramming will get you through the exam, I have some bad news for you. A student who is in the fourth quartile upon graduation at a school that had an 83% pass rate may have only a 65% chance of passing the exam. Those in the first quartile may pass at a 95% rate, while those in the second and third may pass at 90% and 80%, respectively.

Most students simply choose whatever bar review their friends are taking without any real understanding of what makes their course different, or even what bar review really is in the first place. Not everyone learns in the same way. One bar course approach may make more sense for you than another. What part of the class are you in? If it is the lower half, then you need training to outperform the upper half.

My advice is to give it some thought. Do some research. Figure out what kind of student you are and pick the course that best fits your needs. And if you already signed up for a course and want to make a switch, remember that it is never too late to make a change, and many courses will credit you any deposit you may have paid towards their course.

The bottom line is if you want to beat the GPA order of passing the bar exam, put some thought into your choice… and if you are at the top of the class, just buy the cheapest and spend the extra money on your post-bar vacation.

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Professor Joseph Marino has been a fixture in the world of legal education for the past 40 years. Whether you’re just starting law school, about to take the bar, or an attorney in need of CLE, he and Marino Legal Academy are here to help. He is the Director of Marino Bar Review and the Marino Institute for Continuing Legal Education. He writes a bimonthly column, Ask the Professor. Visit the Marino CLE page on ATL, connect with him on LinkedIn and Facebook, or email him via info@marinolegal.com.

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