What happened on the February 2009 Florida Bar?
The Florida Bar released the results from the February 2009 bar on Monday. The three highest ranked Florida Law Schools (UF, FSU, Miami) each saw a 20+% passage rate drop. In what appeared to be a standard form email, the FSU dean’s office stated that the results were “disappointing and puzzling” and that FSU was “going to ask for further particulars so we can further study what happened.” We have broken down the pass rate changes in the chart below:
Passage % |
Passage % |
||
| U. Florida | |||
| FSU | |||
| U. Miami | |||
| Stetson | |||
| Nova Southeastern | |||
| St. Thomas U. | |||
| Florida Coastal | |||
| Barry U. | |||
| Florida A&M U. | |||
| FIU | |||
| Non-Fla. School |
Sources: July 2008, February 2009
As you can see, students from non-Florida law schools suffered the smallest change in passage rate. We have left messages with the Florida Bar Examiners and every major Florida Law school in search of further explanation. Keep posted.
Note: Tallahassee.com has picked up the story, apparently receiving the same form letter from FSU.
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11:55 am on April 20th, 2009
Something about this test was off. They tested on topics not included in the previous tests, yet listed in potential topics. We were all surprised by the material on this test. Unfair.
12:04 pm on April 20th, 2009
You failed the test, accept responsibility.
12:10 pm on April 20th, 2009
Miami Graduate complains: “They tested on topics not included in the previous tests, yet listed in potential topics.”
If the topics were listed in the potential topics, why wouldn’t you study them?
12:35 pm on April 20th, 2009
The focus of my bar review course was past exam questions.
12:36 pm on April 20th, 2009
@Miami Graduate – If it was on the list of potential topics, you shoulda prepped, Bar/Bri or not. Hell, even on the least tested subjects, Bar/Bri still gives you a 1-day lecture and skeleton outline, which should have been good enough for you to fall back on. All you can say is that at least your failure isn’t a statistical anomaly compared to other February takers, if like in most states 80% of test takers prepped with Bar/Bri.
1:39 pm on April 20th, 2009
Wow “Floriduh Lawyer” is a tool huh guys……btw I passed…..ummmm but your still a tool.
3:02 pm on April 20th, 2009
I took this Bar for the first time, I studied for less than 75 hours total, ignoring 4 topics completely (including Wills and FL Crim and Civ Pr0 which were both tested) and passed by 31 points. All I can say is THANK YOU to Florida and its apparent TTT schools.
4:23 am on April 21st, 2009
BarBri was very clear about what was “heavily tested” and what was not. I didn’t take any chances, and studied every subject on the list of possible topics. (I also took as many law school classes as possible in the areas tested.)
Sure enough, the July 2008 exam also contained subjects that were not usually tested.
Sounds like the bar examiners are a step ahead of the prep people these days.
2:39 pm on April 21st, 2009
I totally disagree with Miami Graduate – Bar Flunker. I thought BarBri did a great job in preparing me for the test. What exactly was so surprising?
11:58 am on April 22nd, 2009
In my opinion, the February Fl bar exam didn’t contain surprising subjects. The essay questions were on Family Law/FL Constitutional Law, Contracts and Torts. The multiple choice questions were covered Wills, FL Crim & Civ Procedure and Evidence. All of these subjects are frequently tested on the FL bar.
I studied using past questions and used Barbri materials (no money for prep classes) and found the February questions to be fair.
6:07 am on April 23rd, 2009
By the abysmal law scores across the state, it looks like both Bar Bri and PMBR were one step behind the bar examiners this time.
9:47 am on April 24th, 2009
I crushed both sections of the exam. Did not take a review course (purchased old materials from e-bay). Did a simple statistical analysis of past exams (posted essays) and focused my essay prep on those areas (I correctly guessed each one that appeared and wrote essays on each topic the preceding day), found a video review of the grading process on a FL lawschool website (which was very, very helpful). Found the entire exam, except one half of the MBE (which was typical “leave your brain in a fog difficult”) relatively easy. If you failed it, it is what it is at this point. Go ahead and re-register for the next one and anticipate passage. You will do better next time, just put the time in. Write at least two essays in each area that has been tested by essay. Know FL civ and crim proc, wills and bus entities cold (for the multiple choice) and do the PMBR multiple choice questions. If you failed, don’t let it kill your confidence or distract your focus next time. Good luck.
2:54 pm on April 24th, 2009
[...] we thought the Florida results were brutal… Pass Rate: Overall – approximately 49% First-Time Takers – [...]
3:55 pm on April 26th, 2009
I took the Feb ‘09 Florida exam and PASSED. I attended an out of state school. I thought the test covered a lot of material (MBE was tough) but nothing that I hadn’t been taught at my law school. For the FLORIDA specific topics the BARBRI materials were more than adequate.
Perhaps the Florida Law Schools who have such a high opinion of themselves should maybe go back and revisit their curriculum and maybe focus on teaching and those who attend those schools realize they have to put the time and effort to learn the subjects.
4:03 pm on April 26th, 2009
as to the post about pmbr and barbrbi being behind. I had read about the law suits about PMBR founder stealing/copying mbe questions and stuff. Also on the cover of the exam it had a comment about you agree not to discuss the contents with the bar preps. Those two things made me think that perhaps the bar examiners were trying to prove a thing or two to these companies. I also made it a point to go trough the outlines and not just rest on what barbri told you. There were a number of things on the exam that I felt barbri didnt lecture about but was in the outlines.
11:39 am on April 27th, 2009
Actually – results posted are WRONG and reflect MRPRE professional responsibility results NOT bar passage. Someone should update the article accordingly.
The REAL results show top spot to FIU at 81.5% passing, second place to Stetson at 80%, Third to Nova at 72.5%. U of FL is ranked 7 and Miami 8th for the Feb. 2009 Florida Bar…
12:34 pm on April 27th, 2009
Florida Law Student – our stats match the ones you just gave…
2:19 pm on April 30th, 2009
will add 2 cents:
my plan was to ace the MBE, BS through the essays and give away the FL MC, making up for it with a high MBE. first day, morning, thought the essays were exceedingly easy, left with a false air of confidence. hadn’t seen any FL MC samples, and didn’t have a clue on the FL MC section, felt like i’d narrowed the majority of questions to 50/50 at best, felt there were at least 3 places where the asked the exact same question twice, which annoyed me since I wasn’t sure about them and felt it was penalizing me twice. thought the MBE was kind of difficult, left with the very real feeling I could have failed, didn’t look at my scores for 2 days–161/159, don’t know what the scaling was.
studied for @ 120-150 hours over 5 weeks, using barbri. wasted too much time watching lectures. having passed CA and FL, i think you can just know the mini-review cold, read a few essays to get the sense of how comprehensive they can be and draw up an essay outline for each topic, and you’re good to go. the schools and the curriculum don’t matter when all you have to memorize is a mini-reivew.
6:09 am on May 2nd, 2009
famu-col the lowest bar rate in school’s history
9:06 pm on May 2nd, 2009
I can understand FAMU being at the bottom at 52% but dang– FSU, UM, UF with scores in the 60’s, WOW. What is their excuse? I think their students became passive and arrogant assuming since they graduated from these schools that they were gonna automatically pass the exam. Always lookin and talkin trash about FAMU and Barry. Great institutions like these should not have had scores decrease like this!!! This was not a statistical irregularity. The students simply did not prepare!!!!The game is over. The bar examiners have figured out what these schools have been doing and have thrown them off their game. Maybe bar passage rates can now reflect who knows the substantive law and not which schools have the resources to teach the newest tricks!!!! The Florida portion was not a surprise. Maybe if Trusts was tested then I could agree that something very unusual was going on.
3:44 pm on May 4th, 2009
The legal writing director at famu-col while at TSU-COL helped that school gain a bar rate of 40.7% and her efforts at famu was an all-time low of feb 2009 at 52.3% WOW-LOL
7:08 am on May 8th, 2009
I’m right there with bah killah. I focused more on the essays and MBE, and left the essay portion feeling very confident. Downhill from there. So, my question is, what are people’s thoughts on prepping for July? I took a prep class with a smaller company for Feb (which I can retake for free) and was thinking about doing BarBri this time. Are these results a sign that a more independant approach would be better?
9:55 am on May 13th, 2009
Although I did pass-I agree that this exam-the multistate inparticular was significantly different. The July 08 exam had regurgitated questions from prior exams, which were recognizable had you taken PMBR and BARBRI. The Feb 09 exam did not seem to contain those recycled questions–at least that is what stuck out to me.
I remember the PMBR rep repeat over and over again, in june 08, that the days of the recycled questions were coming to an end–apparently they have.
Additionally there were subjects being tested–or at least disguised subjest, which were not anticipated. In particular, most clear in my mind, was a question relating to mortgages–which completely caught me off guard.
10:48 pm on May 15th, 2009
I think the MBE has changed drastically from the questions PMBR publishes. It’s a much trickier exam now.
10:50 pm on May 15th, 2009
I purchased an outline by a company called PaulLaw on eBay and I used it as a supplement to the Barbri and PMBR materials. I passed the 2009 Florida bar with no problems!
7:36 am on May 18th, 2009
barbri and pmbr did a great job preparing…if you did what they told you to do..2 of the graded practice essays were the exact essays on the bar exam for the most part…the essays were extremely simple compared to what i heard from exam takers the last few go arounds..i know several people in my barbri class who failed and its because they didnt bother to do the work…plain and simple..
6:56 pm on May 28th, 2009
John Q – where did you find the video review of the grading process that you said was “very, very helpful.” By your post, you seem to wish to help others out, and was wondering where I can find this video. Thanks in advance!!
1:43 pm on June 8th, 2009
Arrogance is the downfall of lawyers – not failing to pass a bar exam.
4:08 pm on June 8th, 2009
hold up
12:05 pm on June 10th, 2009
Great stuff #29. 180, etc.
High Five.
2:29 pm on June 12th, 2009
UF starts with the cream of the crop at admissions… like getting nearly all of the best recruits in the draft… and then they finish eighth out of eleven.
Ouch.
9:34 am on July 10th, 2009
“cream of the crop”???
The real talent goes out-of-state.
UF’s admitted students are, on average, only a few LSAT points higher and a few tenths-of-a-point higher in undergrad GPA than the other top 3 schools in FL.
Florida doesn’t have a first-tier school, but UF still acts like they’re Ivy League compared to the rest of the state. That kind of attitude lends itself to complacency. This might be why they haven’t had the highest passage rate in quite a while.
10:08 am on July 14th, 2009
OK this is what happened:
Stetson has a large part time program AND MANY of the students start in the Spring…If you are graduating from UF, FSU, etc in Dec, chances are that you did not do well enough to graduate in time OR you rushed through and took Summer sessions- I gather both probably would not be helpful for the Bar…Aslo, it was a killer bar from what I’ve heard…I imagine UF and FSU will bounce back to Summer levels for this bar…
9:42 pm on July 28th, 2009
WOW!! So many excuses as to why UF, UM, and FSU did so poorly. I have heard them all-my grandma ate my bar prep materials, Michael Jackson taught Torts, too many part-time students ruined the scores,—COME ON!!! You come from great institutions and to make excuses for failure is beneath you. My favorite excuse is -Stetson teaches to the test and that’s why they did so well. OMG if teaching to the test means that someone who graduated from law school can know practice law–I am all for teaching to the test.
9:44 pm on July 28th, 2009
can “now” practice law. . .
9:28 am on September 23rd, 2009
The reason the pass rates were low for UF in February is because we had our dumbest people taking it then.
2:46 pm on January 3rd, 2010
I totally disagree with the unfair comments above. Maybe the test was to test the ability and minds of the schools students. My school test us almost all week and of course we get tired but we keep going and the more advanced we get the more suffisticated we’ll become.
2:44 pm on January 30th, 2010
what were essay topics on feb 08 and july 08, anybody know?