South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 1, Ed. 1, August, 2002 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4
Special
Aueust 2002
BAR, from pg. 3
In addition, the February
Bar is more likely to include
students who are still taking
classes towards the degree.
The Board of Law Examiners
allows you to sit for the Bar if
you're within four hours of
graduation. Students who are
taking classes while studying
for the Bar must split their
preparation time.
Because fewer people take
the February Bar, students
preparing during January and
February may feel more
isolated. More of their friends
are not studying for the Bar,
but are instead carrying on
life-as-usual.
To the extent that the
February Effect is due to
relatively poorer studying
conditions, one would
expect that weaker students
would tend to be more
strongly affected. We know
from internal studies that
part-time students tend to
have lower Bar passage
rates than full-time students
with similar STCL GPA's
andLSAT's. Moreover, this
effect is more pronounced in
February than in July. We
also know that February
Bars generally have higher
percentages of part-time
students.
Chart 7 shows the
February Effect-the amount
by which recent February
first-time Bar passage rates
were lower than recent July
passage rates. For STCL
GPA's above 2.4 or so, the
size of the February effect
increases as STCL GPA's fall
towards 2.4. Moreover,
within that STCL GPA range
(2.4 and above), students with
lower LSAT's have larger
February Effects.
Eventual Bar passage rates
Many of the students who
fail the Bar on their first
attempt pass on later attempts.
For students taking the Bar
between July 1998 and
February 2001, oer 95%
eventually passed the Bar.
These eventual passage rates
are consistent with the 94.8%
overall passage rate found by
the Law School Admission
Council in its LSAC National
Longitutde Bar Passage
Study.
Chart 8 compares first-
time Bar passage rates and
eventual passage rates after
Chart 3
8TCL vs. All Texas Law Schools (State)
February Bar Passage Rates (First-Time Takers)
95*
■STCL
- State
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Year
1999 2000 2001 2002
Chart 4
July 2000 & 2001, First-Time Takers
Fitted Probability of Passing Bar by LSAT
LSAT 154
LSAT 148
STCL GPA
Chart 5
February 2001 & 2002, First-Time Takers
Fitted Probability of Passing Bar by LSAT
S 05
-k-LSAT154
LSAT 148
2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.8 2.7 2.8 2.9 3.0 3.1 3.2
STCL GPA
multiple attempts (through Bar passage rates varied STCL Bar passage rates
February 2002). From from just over 80% to just werc consistently over 95%.
July 1998 through July under 90%. During that As shown in Table 4, the
2000, the STCL first-time same period, the eventual February 2001 first-time
Bar passage rate of 68.5%
was 15.1% below the July
2001 rate of 83.6%. After
one opportunity to retake
the Bar, the eventual pas-
sage rate for February 2001
had risen to 87.6%, only
1.6% below the 89.4% July
2001 eventual passage rate.
After a second retake
opportunity, the February
2001 eventual passage rate
had risen to 91.1%. It
remains to be seen whether
the February 2001 through
February 2002 eventual
passage rates will reach
Table 3
First-Time and Eventual Bar
Passage Rates by
Number of Subsequent Bars
Passage Rates Feb. 2001 July 2001
First-time 69.5% 83.6%
Eventual (IX) 87.6% 89.4%
Eventual (2X) 91.1%
For most students, the
question is not so much
whether you are going to
pass the Bar, but how many
tries it will take you to pass -
how many times your bell
will toll. Nevertheless, there
is still that 5% or so of
STCL students who never
pass the Bar.
Internal studies have
shown that the primary
factor affecting a student's
eventual Bar passage rates is
STCL GPA. Chart 9 shows
the estimated probability of
eventually passing the Bar
for persons first taking the
Bar between July 1998 and
February 2001. As shown
in Chart 9, students with
STCL GPA's of at least 2.37
have at least a 0.90 esti-
mated probability of eventu-
ally passing the Bar. Below
a STCL GPA of 2.37, the
estimated probability drops
off quickly, with students
with a STCL GPA of 2.0
having only a 0.65 estimated
probability of eventually
passing the Bar
Improving Your Chances
Current Students
If you're still enrolled,
how can you improve your
chances? The best thing
you can do is to try to raise
your STCL GPA. The
more you learn in law
school, the easier it will be
for you to study for the Bar.
You may have been disap-
See BAR, pg. 5
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Washington, Natherral J. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 33, No. 1, Ed. 1, August, 2002, newspaper, August 2002; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144551/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting South Texas College of Law.