The Bar Exam - Griffin Pivateau, J.D., Oklahoma State University

My name is Griffin Pivateau. I'm a professor of legal studies in the Department of management. So, we have another video of you touching on all things law school, and you had mentioned the bar exam. 

One of the things that you will discover in law school is that graduation is sort of a a mixed set of emotions, because on one hand very happy occasion you finished grad school, on the other hand you're still not an attorney. You're still not a licensed to practice law. You have to go take this bar exam, which is a test usually a two-day test, after you've finished law school. 

One of the surprising aspects of. the bar exam is that law school doesn't really prepare you for it. In fact you have to take an additional course, of what we call a bar review course, to take the exam. Now some people do take the exam without going through. the bar review course, but that's a that's a risky tactic. The reason why is that if you fail the exam, you cannot practice law. 

So they only give the exam twice a year in July and February. If you failed July exam, you don't get to take it again until the following February and your results don't come out for two months after that. So even if you pass it on the second occasion, you're looking at April, well almost a year since you graduated law school. 

Most graduates will take a bar review course. The bar review course, there's a several different options ranging from a couple of hundred dollars up to thousands of dollars to the course. If you are already hired by a law firm sometimes those law firms will pay for your bar review course, but that's probably not the norm. Ordinarily that's one more expense that you have to bear in order to get a job. 

In 2011 I think we saw the first instance of what's called the "uniform bar exam." Uniform bar exam is a it's a two-day test. There's two parts to it. One is a multiple choice part and the other. is an essay part and what they do is they test the major subjects, the kind of subjects that you will take in your first or second year of law school. The good news about the uniform bar exam is I think most people will agree that it is easier than the state specific exams. That's one good aspect of it the two sections, the essay and the multiple choice are weighted equally. 

What you get through the uniform bar exam is the ability to move from state to state much more easily than you would otherwise do. Historically, to move to another state you had to pass that state bar exam and so with the uniform bar exam, you may be able to make your your test portable. Meaning, you could take the exam in Oklahoma but then start practicing law in Texas. 

Now every state can set a different passing score for the exam. In Oklahoma, the passing score is 264. In Texas the passing score is 270. So you could take an Oklahoma exam and practice in Texas but you must score higher than 270. The way the numbers work is that 400 is a perfect score, but 300 will put you in the top 90th percentile.

One of the good aspects of the bar exam is that you can take it multiple times. There's no time limit, you could take it a dozen times if necessary to. pass the test. However again, they only give it twice a year, so you do have to be cognizant of that. The other aspect of the taking it multiple times is that most people will pass the exam eventually. So in Oklahoma for instance almost 90 percent of applicants will eventually pass the bar exam. So you have that on your side, most people will pass. 

Does this exam ever expire? like once you pass you're good to go? You don't have to retake it? You do not unless you retake the exam right now. Now every state can set its own rules and so we may see in the future, they won't accept it before, you know that was more than a few years ago, but as of now, your score is going to be valid for whatever state that you want to try to get licensed in.