Bar exam scores are the lowest they’ve been in 30 years, which is bad news for the law school industry. The most popular reason seems to be blamed on a decline in student applicants leading to law schools accepting lower caliber students. I personally believe that there is a fundamental problem with law schools if their students can’t pass the bar exam after three grueling years of study, particularly if they’ve graduated from a decent law school.
I can’t speak for every school, but I personally know several extremely intelligent people who did not pass the July bar exam. I spent time studying with them over the summer and I know they put the hours in. They’ve worked in law firms and have great legal jobs but didn’t pass the bar. I also know they took Barbri or Kaplan’s courses — the two bar prep powerhouses. Costing around $3,000, these courses are a tough nut to swallow. But to most, not taking a bar prep course is a recipe for failure. And besides, after paying for three years of law school, $3K is just another drop in the bucket of student debt.