Scholarship

Will I Pass the Bar Exam?

33 Pages Posted: 5 Sep, 2016 Last revised: 27 Sep, 2017
Katherine A. Austin

Texas Tech University

Catherine Christopher

Texas Tech University School of Law

Darby Dickerson

UIC John Marshall Law School

Abstract

Texas Tech University School of Law has undertaken a statistical analysis of its recent alumni, comparing their performance in law school with their success on the Texas bar exam. The authors conclude that LSAT predicts bar exam success while undergraduate GPA does not. The study also replicates findings in previous literature that both 1L and final law school GPA predict bar exam success. Going beyond existing literature, this study also conducted more specific analysis of how student performance in specific courses can predict success on affiliated subcomponents of the bar exam; the Article identifies which courses have significant impact on bar exam performance and which do not. Additionally, the Article reports a completely new analysis of whether student participation in curricular student engagement activities (such as journal, clinic, and advocacy competitions) predicts bar exam success.

Keywords: bar exam passage predictors, bar exam passage rate, law school success, law school success indicators, bar exam performance, student engagement
JEL Classification: K19

Suggested Citation:

Austin, Katherine A. and Christopher, Catherine Martin and Dickerson, Darby, Will I Pass the Bar Exam?: Predicting Student Success Using LSAT Scores and Law School Performance (2016). 45 Hofstra Law Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2832835 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2832835