Florida leads the way on the Bar exam
UF leads the way on the bar exam
Graduates from the University of Florida had the highest passage rate for those taking the February Florida bar exam. The Florida Board of Bar Examiners released the results from the exam on April 11.
A total of 873 people took the exam, 452 from out-of-state and the remainder in-state graduates.
UF topped those who took the general bar exam; 31 of the 34 Florida grads passed, or 91.2 percent.
“I’m pleased that our graduates performed well, of course. But I’m always surprised how results on the spring exams are sometimes described since so few graduates take the February/March tests compared to the summer exams,” said UF Law Dean Robert Jerry. “Any mathematician knows the law of small numbers makes these results highly unreliable as a basis for comparing schools.”
Jerry said he is particularly disappointed that publicity tends to stress percentages rather than numbers, since that gives underserved validity to the results by implying that similar numbers of test-takers participate in the spring and summer exams.
This year, 873 law graduates took the February 2011 exam, compared to 3,360 who took the July 2010 test.
Next was Florida International, where 30 of 34 graduates passed, or 88.2 percent. Stetson University was next, with 67 of its 77 graduates passing, or 87 percent.
Of the other law schools: 33 of the University of Miami’s 38 students passed the exam, or 86.8 percent; 35 of 41 graduates from Nova Southeastern University passed, or 85.4 percent; 26 of 31 students from Florida State University passed, or 83.9 percent; 49 of 60 graduates from Florida Coastal passed, or 81.7 percent; 23 of 32 from Barry University passed, or 71.9 percent; 29 of 44 from St. Thomas University passed, or 65.9 percent; and 14 of 26 from Florida A&M University passed, or 53.9 percent.
Four graduates from Ave Maria Law School took the bar — none passed.
Three hundred and fifty seven of the 452 applicants from out-of-state law schools passed, or 79 percent. Overall, 79.5 percent of those who took Parts A and B passed.
That figure was 81.7 percent for the MPRE portion of the exam. Passage rates by school were 100 percent for Ave Maria; 93.9 percent for FIU; 92.6 percent for UF; 87.9 percent for FSU; 85.3 for UM; 85 for Stetson; 84.8 for NSU; 73.8 percent for FAMU; 68.8 percent for Florida Coastal, 67.1 for St. Thomas, and 66.7 for Barry. The rate was 83.9 percent for out-of-state test-takers.
