Passing the Bar Revisited

In October of last year, I wrote a blog about passing the bar. In that blog, I emphasized how I would concentrate my electives on subjects that are actually tested on the Florida Bar Exam. I also expressed doubts about the bar prep courses such as BarBri and PMBR as a reliable means to pass the bar.

But as a professor here said to me, FSU College of Law does not want to be a law school that teaches you to pass the bar.

Strange as the above statement might sound, I am learning that law schools which only teach students to pass the state bar exam are typically held in lower esteem by those in the profession of law. Without mentioning specific names or schools, I had the opportunity to speak with a Justice on the Florida Supreme Court this week. The Justice criticized certain schools in Florida as not being of the caliber of law schools like FSU, where we learn about the philosophy behind laws rather than simply learning what the law is.

Still, however, I have to figure out a way to pass the bar exam. Now I'm also beginning to realize that the material covered in a specific law course on a bar exam subject may not be the same material on which I am tested on the bar. In Criminal Law, for example, the professor freely admitted that he did not know anything about Florida criminal law. The course was more about the theory behind criminal law.

For those students who just graduated from Florida State Law, many are still coming to class every day as part of the BarBri course to pass the Florida Bar. The bar exam is in July, and they are in this bar prep course most of the day. I see students in the BarBri class who are on Law Review, the Mock Trial Team, the Moot Court Team. Many of the students in that class are some of the smartest students in the school, and yet they still feel the need to take a bar prep course.

It makes the impression on me that I need to enroll in a bar prep course and do the same thing. Even faculty and administration have recommended the bar prep courses.

Coming into law school, I never would have thought that the learning needed to graduate is not necessarily the same learning you need to pass the bar. Perhaps I should become a sales representative for one of the bar prep companies next year. This would give me a discount on the tuition cost for the bar prep course. I wasn't sold on the bar prep courses myself back in August and September, but I think I am sold now.

Universal Health Care Now,

Nathan Marshburn