Students at the Ohio State Moritz College of Law, and others nationwide, await the July 2002 bar exam results being released Nov. 8.
OSU law students’ passage rates have consistently been among the top in Ohio. Other successful schools in Ohio include Case Western Reserve University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Akron.
The bar exam, an extensive test given biannually in February and July, determines whether or not a person is licensed to practice law in the state. The Ohio Bar Exam takes two and a half days to complete and covers massive amounts of information from more than 14 different areas of law.
“We are hopeful that our students will do very well when the results come in,” said Anne Doyle, director of the Moritz College of Law’s Bar Passage Support Program.
“It is a very difficult test, and the preparation process is extremely grueling,” Doyle said. “Someone actually weighed all the books involved in the preparation, and it came out to be somewhere around 22 pounds. So between graduation in May and the end of July, students have to learn 22 pounds of material.”
In July 2001, Ohio State scored a 90 percent first-time taker passage rate, the second highest first-time percentage in Ohio, behind the University of Cincinnati’s 91 percent. However, the results from the February 2002 test showed a significant drop in all schools, placing Ohio State in fourth with 70 percent.
Validating the discrepancy, Doyle said that it is hard to make generalizations, because results vary from test to test, and the test’s date could affect results.
“Anyone can take the test at anytime, and some choose not to take it right away because of different reasons, such as job offerings or other real-world responsibilities,” she said. “While in school, there is a network of support that contributes a lot to the difference in test scores between the two.”
Likewise, Mike Walsh, the director of the trial litigation clinic at the University of Akron Law School, agreed that statistics usually cannot be predicted before results are released.
“There is really no one way or the other,” Walsh said. “There is a myth between some of the students that the February results are always better, but as they show, there is really no truth to that. The results do vary test by test.”
To accommodate for the difficult preparation, many Ohio law schools have started offering additional programs to help alleviate stress.
One possible reason for the Ohio bar exam support group increase is the 1996 Ohio Supreme Court decision raising the passing score from 375 to 405 out of a possible 600 points.
Since the raise, first-time test scores in all Ohio law schools have fluctuated slightly from 78.7 percent in July 1997-going from a height of 83 percent in July 2001, to a low of 67 percent in February 2002.
“Our test is very consistent in that it doesn’t change the way it is graded or how it is weighed,” said Marcia Mengel, clerk of the court and director of bar admissions at the Ohio Supreme Court. “The difference in the passing rate only reflects the candidate.”
The Bar Passage Support Program is one class offered at the OSU Moritz College of Law. Instead of working strictly on subject matter, Doyle said the program looks at study techniques, time management and specific test-taking skills.
