By Carrie May Poniewaz
Journal and News Law Clerk
Any legal education professional will likely attest to this general maxim: Law schools are incubators for budding attorneys, not test preparation centers.
“Our primary purpose is to prepare our students to enter the profession as best we can,” said Sean Goplerud, dean of Florida Coastal School of Law.
Kaci Kohler-Line, who focuses on helping students at Barry University prepare for the bar exam in her position as director of academic counseling and bar preparation, added that “most schools say, ‘We don’t teach you to pass the exam, we teach you to be good attorneys.’ And that’s one important reason for a position like mine, because the faculty needs that academic freedom instead of focusing on a test.”
Yet because bar exam readiness is necessary to produce successful attorneys, professors at Florida’s law schools cannot help but keep the test in mind while they teach broad legal philosophies and comparative rules of law.
“We watch the pass rates carefully on the bar exam because that is one metric of not just the quality of our students but also the quality of their education,” University of Florida Dean Robert Jerry said.
While law school courses “tend to look at rules in all the jurisdictions instead of the specific questions that will be on the bar exam,” Florida A&M University Dean James Douglas said, “From time to time faculty will talk to students about those specific rules in order to help them think ahead.”
Robert Riva, a third-year student at Florida Coastal, said he appreciates instructors’ efforts to help students start thinking about the bar exam.
“A lot of the professors will make a point to highlight areas that are either heavily tested on the bar or just useful to know about for preparation for the bar,” Riva said. “I think that’s important because when it’s all said and done, law school really is preparing you to think like a lawyer and also to pass the bar. You want to be as well-equipped as you possibility can going in.”
Modeling class tests on the bar exam is another way professors start getting students ready for the big one.
“To a certain extent, our faculty is encouraged to give bar-type multiple choice questions on part of their exams,” said Linda Harrison, dean of Critical Skills at Nova Southeastern University law school. “That is not mandatory, but it is encouraged so students can see while they’re going through law school what they’ll need to focus on for purposes of the bar exam.”
Florida International University Dean Strickman said a fair number of faculty members at FIU also include multiple choice testing to boost the awareness of the skills necessary for the bar exam.
According to Bob Butterworth, dean of St. Thomas, law school curriculum is not as remote from the bar exam as it may seem.
“I don’t think any law school teaches to the bar exam, but if you cover all the general material, you will have covered 85 percent of what will be on the bar,” he said.
[Revised: 10-25-2017]