11.20.2006

And speaking of exams…

Am I the only one disheartened by the fact that Texas came out fourth in terms of bar passage rates for the July bar?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trust me when I say that the bar exam has little to do with one's understanding of the law or intellectual acumen. It's much more of a memorization marathon.

Also, a lot of regional schools focus their curriculum specifically in preparation for the bar exam. Students are required to take more bar-subject classes, they study blackletter law (not legal theory), and they often take their exams in the same format that's used on the bar. Last, because UT is the big dog in Texas, I'm sure it's more common for its grads to slack a little more.

Ex.Coll. said...

Regardless of the inherent faults of the exam, I think that it should be the school’s top priority. While legal theory is nice and important, your clients won’t give a damn about legal theory, they care about black letter law. And isn’t the Bar the reason that most of the students are in law school? It sure is for those that are actually taking the bar. Granted, UT’s rate has remained at around 90-92% over the last few years, but if SMU and U of H can raise their passage rate, why not UT? Personally, I think it is sad that the top school in the state is fourth of nine.

Anonymous said...

Nah. Studying for the bar exam for two or three months sucks ass. Really, I couldn't stand the bone-dry nature of that shit. So, in that regard alone, I'm glad that the experience was concentrated into one shitty summer rather than three years of law school.

Also, while I'm not a huge fan of the law school academy, I do think that studying the legal theory behind tort law, etc. makes you a much better lawyer than simply knowing the blackletter law. Few real-world cases fit so cleanly into a multiple-choice format.

As for our bar-passage ranking, I could give a shit. I'm much more interested in how UT grads do for jobs (good) and clerkships (okay).

Of course, I'm biased. I hated the bar exam, avoided bar-prep courses in law school as much as possible, and actually liked the legal theory stuff.