It is always an intense day for me when bar results come out. Not only do the hopes and dreams of our students rest on those ATLAS-generated emails, but so do the hopes and dreams of this program. Law Success has a three-part mission — to prepare students for law school, practice, and the bar exam. For me, the bar exam arm of that trinity is the most emotional, because we put so much time and energy into getting each student ready for the exam.
This cycle, I greeted the bar results with a lot of joy. We have some MAJOR successes in the numbers to celebrate.
- Our first time pass rate was: 62.5%. That placed us at #7 in the state, beating SMU to move out of our traditional spot in 8th place. Considering our projected pass rate was in the low 50s, this is a phenomenal success.
- The time and energy put into the repeat taker pool paid off big time. Our repeat taker pass rate was 45.59% — making us #4 in the state! I credit Prof. Afton Cavanuagh and Prof. Sigrid Vendrell Polanco for this success. Their time spent with the repeat taker pool paid off in spades.
- Our Raise the Bar students passed at a rate of approximately 74%. Not only is this higher than the total testing pool by about 12%, but it means that Raise the Bar students passed at a 20% higher rate than non-Raise the Bar students!
- We have re-claimed the MPT! 55% of our testing pool (repeat and first time takers) was in the top half of the state on the MPT. For our first-time takers, 57% of St. Mary’s takers were in the top half in the state. You might recall that 75% of our testing pool used to score in the bottom 25%.
While these numbers are a huge success, the story behind the numbers is even more important. Looking through the testing pool and those who passed, and those who did not, a few themes appear:
- Students who disappeared were more likely to fail, despite their predicted pass rate. If a student dropped off our radar, they were more likely to fail (period). This means we need to work hard to make sure every student stays connected with Raise the Bar. We cannot help them if they ghost.
- High contact hours helped. Students who spent the most time — getting feedback and meeting with Raise the Bar — saw increased results. For every instructor, spend time with the students. Get to know them. Walk through an essay with them. Run through an MPT intensive. Try to get students to commit to weekly check in meetings. The more contact hours we have, the more results we see.
- Use ambassadors. Looking through the pool, those who stuck together passed together. Students who worked in groups that reinforced the Raise the Bar data-driven benchmarks went on to pass as a group. Encourage students to hold each other accountable.
- Hit benchmarks, It goes without saying, but hitting benchmarks predicts success. Each student should be completing, at minimum, the minimum number of MBE and essay practice questions. As one student put it best: “Get ahead in the beginning, do at least 2,000 adaptibar questions, use Raise the Bar to focus on improving your essay writing, don’t put off P&E notecards, and just put in the time. We stayed from 8am to 8pm everyday in my study group and we all passed.”
This July we have an amazing opportunity to continue to move the needle. Winter 2019 was a great cycle for us, and even better things are on the horizon!