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Post-Graduate Bar Exam Success Interventions - Literature Review

Table of Contents of All Academic and Bar Success Literature Reviews by Subject

Overview
Academic Success Interventions
In-School Bar Exam Success Interventions
POST-GRADUATE BAR EXAM SUCCESS INTERVENTIONS

Post-Graduate Bar Exam Success Interventions

 

How do essay-focused post-graduate interventions influence bar exam success?

A few studies examined the effects of essay-focused post-graduate interventions on bar exam success. These interventions involve answering sample Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) or Multistate Performance Test (MPT) questions for feedback (either alone or as a group), as well as taking mock bar exams under timed conditions. Two of the studies examined the relationship between the number of practice essays written and bar success.

Each study asserts that essay-focused, post-graduate interventions are effective at improving bar exam success. The two studies that looked at the number of practice essays written found that writing more essays boosted the chances of bar passage.

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Jellum and Reeves

University of Richmond School of Law provides weekly individual tutoring sessions to all interested graduates during the bar preparation period. Graduates prepare answers to bar exam-style essay questions and then receive feedback from their tutor for the first 8-10 weeks of the program, and they answer essay questions under exam-style conditions in the final two meetings.[293]

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Jellum and Reeves analyzed Virginia bar passage data from July 1997 through July 2004 (eight administrations before the program was implemented in Spring 2001, and seven administrations after).[294] Richmond also offers a 3L bar success intervention, and the effects of the two interventions were not evaluated separately, but as a full program.

Jellum and Reeves performed proportions tests comparing the bar passage rate of students before and after the program was implemented for the overall classes, as well as for the upper and bottom halves of the classes. They found that bar passage rates improved after the program’s implementation, with especially large improvements in the bottom half of the class.[295]

Jellum and Reeves also found that after the program was implemented, graduates in the bottom half of the class who participated in the program had higher bar passage rates than those who did not (71.6% for participants versus 55.7% for non-participants).[296] “Participation” was defined as attending at least half of the 3L course classes or at least one tutoring session.[297]

Jellum and Reeves note that the University of Richmond enacted an LSAT admission floor of 150 beginning with the class of 2000, but this was unlikely to be the cause of the bar passage rate increase because very students had been admitted below that floor in the past.[298] There was also little change in median LSAT or UGPA over the period.[299]


[293] Linda Jellum & Emmeline Paulette Reeves, Cool Data on a Hot Issue: Empirical Evidence That a Law School Bar Support Program Enhances Bar Performance, 5 Nev. L. Rev. 646, 663 (2008), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1098473 

[294] Id. at 669.

[295] Id. at 671.

[296] Id.

[297] Id. at 669-70.

[298] Id. at 673-75.

[299] Id. at 676.

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Johns

University of Denver Sturm College of Law implemented a post-graduate Bar Success Program that is available to all graduating students. The intervention is intended to supplement the independent learning provided by commercial bar preparation programs.[300] It is primarily focused on the bar exam essay and MPT writing skills because the law school believed commercial bar preparation already provided sufficient multiple-choice practice.[301] The Bar Success Program includes a series of workshop, where graduates work through sample bar exam questions as a group, and mock bar exams.[302] The program also includes one-on-one coaching to improve study skills.[303]

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Scott Johns analyzed bar passage data for 642 Denver students who graduated in May 2008-2010 and immediately took the Colorado bar exam that following July, with 75.2% having participated in the post-graduate Bar Success Program.[304]

Graduates who had a 1L GPA at or below 2.9 and who participated in the post-graduate Bar Success Program passed the bar exam at a higher rate than graduates in that 1L GPA range who did not participate in the intervention.[305]

Johns utilized linear regression analysis to test the relationship between participation in the post-graduate intervention, LSAT score, law school GPAS, and bar exam score. Variables tested were: age, sex, underrepresented minority status, enrollment status, LSAT, 1L GPA, final GPA, and participation in the three interventions.[306] Participation in the post-graduate Bar Success Program was measured by the number of essays submitted. Johns found that each essay submitted in the Bar Success Program increased bar exam score by 1.404 points (or 7.02 points for a full mock bar exam).[307]


[300] Scott Johns, Empirical Reflections: A Statistical Evaluation of Bar Exam Program Interventions, 54 U. Louisville L. Rev. 35, 38 (2016), https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/branlaj54&i=41.

[301] Id. at 39.

[302] Id. at 40–42.

[303] Id. at 42.

[304] Id. at 48–49.

[305] Id. at 54.

[306] Id. at 57.

[307] Id. at 60.

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Mainero

Chapman University offers a post-graduate bar preparation program that is available to all graduates. It is offered both right after graduation and in mid-December for repeat-takers.[308] The program includes three mock bar exams, followed by six sessions after each bar (one to cover each subject tested on the mock exam), then a final mock bar exam.[309] Graduates can also submit up to 30 essays for feedback from faculty.[310]

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The post-graduate program was first offered in a rudimentary form in 2007 and expanded in 2008. Chapman University had a July bar passage rate higher than the California ABA-accredited law school average in 2009 and 2011-2014.[311]

Mainero performed a chi-square analysis to examine the relationship between the number of practice essays written during the post-graduation period and bar passage, looking at data from 2011-2013. He found that writing more essays had a positive and statistically significant relationship with bar passage.[312] There was an especially large jump in pass rate between the students who wrote 0-9 essays and those who wrote 10-14.


[308] Mario W. Mainero, We Should Not Rely on Commercial Bar Reviews to Do Our Job: Why Labor-Intensive Comprehensive Bar Examination Preparation Can and Should Be a Part of the Law School Mission 43 (Chap. U. Dale E. Fowler Sch. of L. Legal Stud. Rsch. Paper Series, Paper No. 15-01, 2014), https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2546001.

[309] Id. at 41-42.

[310] Id. at 42.

[311] Id. at 45-46.

[312] Id. at 53-55.

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University of San Diego School of Law

University of San Diego School of Law implemented a dedicated Black bar taker study group.[313]

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The Black bar taker study group was focused on the 3L spring MBE course offered at USD. The study group met weekly over Zoom during 3L spring of 2021, and continued to meet after graduation to focus on essay and MPT practice.[314] Participants also received Adaptibar memberships.[315] The study group had nine participants, with seven students on average attending the weekly meetings.[316]

The school reported that the 2021 study group had an 87.5% bar passage rate, compared to 40% in 2019 and 27.2% in 2018.[317] The report notes that the California bar exam cut score was lowered during that timeframe.[318]

The school is expanding the study group initiative to graduates in the bottom third of the graduating class and students from other underrepresented demographic groups.[319]

The school also analyzed data from 2018 and 2019 bar exam results and found that the following other bar interventions had a positive effect on bar passage: completing the bar exam simulation, submitting practice bar exam essays for grading, attending all the bar essay workshops, using certain commercial bar preparation programs, and scoring over 50% on a mock MBE.[320]


[313] USD Directed Grant Program 2020 Final Report 3-4 (2022) (on file with AccessLex Inst.).

[314] Id.

[315] Id.

[316] Id.

[317] Id. at 4.

[318] Id.

[319] Id.

[320] Id. at 5-6, 14-15.

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How do post-graduate mentoring or coaching interventions influence bar exam success?

One study examined the effects of a post-graduate mentoring or coaching intervention on bar exam success. Mentoring and coaching interventions pair graduates with faculty or alumni to provide advice and encouragement during the bar preparation period.

The study found some evidence that participation in a post-graduate mentoring intervention improved chances of bar exam success, with three quartiles of the law school class having higher bar passage rates for participants than non-participants.

 

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Elon University School of Law

Elon University School of Law’s Bar Mentorship Program, established in 2013, is an intervention that takes place during the post-graduation bar preparation period.[321] The program matches graduates with alumni, faculty, and staff mentors to provide guidance and encouragement to the bar-taker. It is open to all Elon graduates. Mentor-mentee matches are made based on similarity of backgrounds, legal practice area interests, and law school quartile ranks. Mentors check in with their mentees on a weekly basis.[322]

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Elon University analyzed data from program participants who graduated in 2021. Of 116 graduates, 102 (88%) participated in the program.[323] Students of color were slightly more likely to participate in the program than White students (94% versus 88%).[324] The first quartile of the class had the highest participation rate (93%), followed by the fourth (89%), third (88%), and then second with the lowest (82%).[325]

Class of 2021 graduates sat for the bar exam for the first time in February 2022 (Elon University has a 2.5-year program). Overall, students who did not participate in the mentorship program had a higher bar passage rate (53% with a mentor versus 57% without a mentor).[326] However, the bar passage rate was higher for program participants in the first, second, and fourth quartiles.[327]

Elon University used a logistic regression model to examine the relationship between bar passage and mentoring program participation. The model included class of 2021 graduates who took the bar exam for the first time in North Carolina in February 2022.[328] The model was limited to the middle two quartiles of class rank because there was not enough variation in bar passage rates and program participation in the first and fourth quartiles.[329] The model included 43 students, seven of whom did not participate in the program.[330] Unfortunately, the small number of non-participants made the model too uncertain to determine a relationship.[331]

Elon University also administered a survey to program participants in March 2022, after the February 2022 bar exam but before results were received, to which half the participants responded.[332] Eighty-five percent of the survey respondents said they were somewhat or extremely satisfied with the program.[333] Respondents who passed the bar exam and those with higher class ranks were more likely to be satisfied.[334] Respondents were also more likely to be satisfied if they had a faculty or staff mentor, as opposed to an alumnus.[335] Participants reported that mentors were most helpful with dealing with anxiety, developing study strategies, increasing confidence, and motivation.[336]


[321] Elon University School of Law Breaking Barriers Project Final Report 1 (2023) (on file with AccessLex Inst.).

[322] Id

[323] Id. at 2.

[324] Id.

[325] Id. at 3.

[326] Id.

[327] Id.

[328] Id.

[329] Id.

[330] Id. at 4.

[331] Id.

[332] Id.

[333] Id.

[334] Id. at 5-6.

[335] Id. at 5.

[336] Id. at 7.

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