National Jurist - February 2008 - (Page 30) HELP! BY URSULA FURI-PERRY A few years ago, New York Law School took a hard look at their bar exam pass rate. They realized that students in the top half of their class were consistently successful on the bar exam, while students in the bottom half fared worse. “What we know is if you haven’t done well, we have to do some things to help you,” said Dean Richard Matasar. So the school created a customized program for students in the bottom 15 percent of the class, which requires extra coursework in legal analysis, writing, and substantive review. And the program is working: NYLS increased its bar passage rate to its highest ever — 90.2 percent in 2007. That is up from 58 percent in 1999. New York Law School is just one of many law schools that are From your law school ing their efforts on teaching students the skills and techniques they need to know to pass the test. When bar passage rates for graduates of Pace Law School dipped, the school decided to step in to reverse the trend. Faculty and staff at the White Plains, N.Y., school created a two-credit course focused on writing, analytical and organizational skills aimed at helping students score higher on the bar exam. Running for the past two years, the Advanced Analytical Skills course primarily focuses on writing, analyzing essay questions, and organizing outlines, said adjunct professor Beth Wilson Hill, who teaches the course. And the effort has paid off. Mark Padin, Pace’s director of academic support, said the school’s latest passage rates on the Connecticut bar exam have been the best and have a very specific study schedule in which students learn in iterations,” Johnson said. The director of academic success at Thomas Jefferson, she said that most students don’t learn well enough the first time out. Once they graduate, Thomas Jefferson students also have the option of enrolling in the school’s two-month Bar Secrets course. Sacuzzo said Thomas Jefferson reached the average rate of passing among ABA schools in the state once the course was instituted, and passage rates have continued to rise. At the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, bar prep has always been a priority. All students take the school’s intensive six-credit comparison course during their last semester to help them prepare for the Some law schools are taking an active role in preparing students for the bar. “What we know is if you haven’t done well, we have to do some things to help you.” —Dean Richard Matasar, New York Law School PHOTO BY MICHAEL FALCO currently offering additional courses or assistance to help their students pass the bar exam. And since such programs are improving pass rates at every school, they are making enough of a difference that most schools are now paying attention. Law schools have long known that there is a direct correlation between LSAT scores and bar pass rates. This has prompted many schools to focus intently on LSAT scores in admissions, in hopes of admitting students who will ultimately boost their schools’ bar pass rates. But once a student is in law school, the best indicator of bar performance is a student’s grade point average and academic performance, said Susan Case, director of testing at the National Conference of Bar Examiners. That’s why law schools are now focus- since he came on board — 89 percent. In addition to credit and non-credit courses, many schools have begun to offer online and print resources, counseling and informational sessions about the exam. Most schools today portray bar prep courses as something to be taken in addition to — and not instead of — a commercial bar prep course. At Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, students can take a threecredit course that offers 80 hours of class instruction, plus individual feedback and writing help. Professors Nancy Johnson and Dennis Saccuzzo created the course and developed a cumulative memorization technique to help students compartmentalize and automate certain tasks on the exam. “We begin with broad categories 30 THE NATIONAL JURIST February 2008 exam. They must pass the course to graduate. “It made sense to require a competency check at the end of the process,” said Associate Dean Michael L. Coyne. MSL began offering the course when it first opened nearly 20 years ago and was criticized for it at first, he said. Yet as students struggle with exam preparation, as commercial bar exam courses get more and more expensive and since the ABA has done away with its prohibition of forcredit bar prep courses, other schools are following suit. “A law school owes its graduates the proper preparation for the hardest test they’ll ever take,” Coyne said. “Schools should be doing everything they can to make sure students are able to enter the workforce as quickly as possible.”
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