Bar Exams, Law Schools

Law School Dean Blames Lazy Students For Terrible Bar Passage Rate

Which law school's bar passage rate has taken a turn for the worse?

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From: Jay Conison
Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2015 11:44 AM
To: allstudents
Subject: July North Carolina Bar Results

Dear Charlotte School of Law Students—

Congratulations to the many Charlotte School of Law graduates who passed the July 2015 North Carolina Bar Examination. We are very proud of you and pleased for your success.

We are, however, disappointed in the overall pass rate for Charlottegraduates. Our first-time takers passed at a rate of 47.1%, as compared to a state rate of 67.1%. Repeat takers passed at a rate of 23.7%, as compared to the overall rate of 24.3%.

As you know, we have made substantial improvements in our bar preparation programs and teaching this past year. We have strengthened BEST, among other ways by using mock bars and other testing as a core teaching and assessment tool. We have added two new required bar preparation courses in the second and third years; increased the credits for the required Distinctions courses; incorporated the learnings of educational research into all the courses; and incorporated more bar-related assessment in core courses.  The full impact of these improvements will take several years, but we expect increasingly substantial benefits right away.

I would like to bring attention to two factors that brought down our first time rate, notwithstanding these improvements.

First, some graduates took a bar preparation course offered by another vendor (Themis), rather than BEST, and their pass rate was very low (preliminary data reflect that it was only 15.4%).

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Second, a number of our July bar takers (including some who had performed well in law school) did not do the work. The BEST program centers on a great deal of practice and mock bars, workshops, and counseling. The educational approach is based on learning by testing and doing—the most effective way to reinforce knowledge and competencies. Our data show that unless one participates fully and does the work, you cannot receive the benefits and your chance of success goes way down. For example, students who participated in at least 7 mock bar review workshops and completed at least 750 mock bar practice questions passed at an 84% rate.

We have great confidence in the ability of each and every one of you to pass the bar examination on the first try. And we have great confidence in our ability bring you along to a high probability of passage. Thus, I cannot urge each of you strongly enough to do all the practice tests and practice problems, and give full attention to your courses, whether bar preparation, writing, or doctrinal. We can provide the resources, but your success is ultimately dependent on you. Data consistently show that success on the bar examination is strongly correlated with how well one does in law school.

We are continuing to make further improvements in our bar preparation programs. Our overarching goal is to ensure strong bar outcomes for our students. We look forward to working with all of you on your preparation to pass the bar examination the first time.

Jay Conison

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