Bar Exam: First Timers vs Overall Percentage Rate of Passing Statistics

[Weigommamyday]

Why is it that the first time percentage rate for the law school bar exam is always much higher than the overall passage rate? Is this because those who have failed the first time are likely to do so again? It appears that those who have tested before would have a better chance of passing. Thus, resulting in a higher passage rate for "all takers."

[Quomnuant]

Unfortunately your initial assessment is statistically the correct one. It seems failing one time correlates with failing subsequently. I don't think statistics are determinative, however. If you don't make it the first time, you can certainly learn from your mistakes. I think it is silly to predicate readiness for lawyering solely on a written test that requires short-term retention of a bunch of stuff lawyers will either never look at again or can look up in a code book or via case law anyway; but I digress....

[Oceajenaigecy]

What typically happens is that the people who have put the work in to pass get it on the first try. The people who just missed by a few points make it on the second try and everyone else repeating the bar exam over and over never gets it.

The pass rates on third attempts and beyond are extremely low.

The further removed you are from the school environment and studying the less likely you are to pass. In many cases if you fail the February exam, you do not know until May. It may be too late at that point to take the June exam. That means you have a year to wait. What happens then is that the examinee has to spend that year making a living and doesn't find much time to study or tells themself that they have plenty of time and the next thing they know is it's Christmas and they have not begun to prepare for the exam.