Bar Exams, Law Schools

Law School's Abysmal Bar Exam Pass Rate Improves To... 23.1 Percent

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Pass Fail ExamLast month, after the scoring of the state bar exam was completed, the charter class of Indiana Tech Law School posted what was accurately described as the “worst bar exam results ever.” Out of 12 graduates who had taken the Indiana bar exam, only one of them passed. At the time, the overall pass rate for Indiana Tech Law graduates was 8.33 percent, and a school spokesperson refused to confirm the overall pass rate because five graduates were appealing their scores on the exam.

With the appeals process having concluded this week, the Indiana Lawyer now reports that an additional graduate of Indiana Tech passed the state bar exam on the first try, bringing the school’s passage rate to 16.7 percent. An additional student passed a bar exam outside of Indiana, bringing the law school’s total number of graduates who were successful on an exam to three out of 13, for an overall pass rate of 23.1 percent.

Although this is an improvement, Indiana Tech Law’s bar exam results are still absolutely atrocious, and the dean of the law school knows it — but doesn’t care to explain it to the public. The Indiana Lawyer has some additional details:

Dean Charles Cercone offered little explanation for the 23.1 percent bar passage rate or how the law school will proceed. He said he put together an internal memorandum explaining what caused the low rate and shared that with the Indiana Tech administration. He declined to discuss its findings but said university leadership was satisfied with the “reasonable explanation of what happened.”

He did note more bar exam prep courses and doctrinal classes are being offered to the graduates and 3L students. However, he maintained the school was not going to change its experiential curriculum touted as giving students practice-ready skills.

Dean Cercone also blamed the media for “brand[ing] the members of the charter class, unlike the graduates of other law schools in the state.” With all due respect, other law schools in the state posted more respectable bar exam results, such that coverage of their passage rates was rendered wholly unnecessary because they simply weren’t newsworthy. When only one graduate from a law school — or two, or even three — is able to pass the bar exam, that warrants intense news coverage.

Best of luck to Indiana Tech Law School graduates as they prepare for the February 2017 administration of the bar exam. Perhaps if more doctrinal classes were offered before graduation and before bar failure, this wouldn’t have been such a problematic ordeal.

After appeals process, July bar exam results increase [Indiana Lawyer]
Indiana Tech regroups after disappointing bar results [Indiana Lawyer]

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Earlier: Worst Bar Exam Results Ever? Only ONE Person From This Law School Passed The Bar Exam

Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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