If you are a first time writer, there is a very good chance that you will pass the Bar exam on your first attempt so you should not stress yourself out. The FACT is that almost 90% of first time writers in most States pass the bar on their first attempt so if you are not used to being in the bottom 10%, there is no reason for you to believe that you will be in the bottom 10% when you sit for the bar exam. Unlike law school, the Bar exams set a minimum standard and the examiners have not set a special number of people they expect to pass. As such, if you meet that standard you will pass. The key to passing of course is studying and doing practice questions. If you study, you most likely will not have anything to worry about and if you did not study, you can always take the exam again in the next sitting.
A complete list of statistics regarding pass rates for 2009 in all States can be found at http://www.ncbex.org/assets/media_files/Statistics/2009Stats110111.pdf and you can see from this table that approximately 88% of first time writers from ABA approved law schools (the 200 or so law schools in the U.S.) passed the bar exam on the first try. In order to find this though, you must go to page 17 of this table and look at a chart called, “First-Time Exam Takers and Repeaters from ABA-Approved Law Schools.”
This table illustrates though that pass rates for Bar examinations are somewhat confusing so you should understand what you are reading. First, the pass rates are broken down in a number of different ways. The overall pass rate is not a very good indicator as it includes people who are second time takers and in some States the pass rate includes foreign trained lawyers. Both of these latter categories score very poorly on the bar exam and bring the overall pass statistic down. For example, for the 2009 bar examination in July, the overall pass rate for New York was 72%. When you look at the detail though, you will see that for first time takers from law schools in the United States, the pass rate was 88%. During that same period, those who repeated the exam in July only achieved a pass rate of 35%. Similarly, those who sat for the Bar examination in New York from Law Schools outside of United States had a pass rate of 34%. All of these combined make up the 72% pass rate.
As you can see, first time takers from law schools in the U.S. do very well on the bar exam. In some States, the pass rate for first time takers is over 90% (and for some it is 100%) and these high pass rates are the norm. As indicated, second time takers and foreign lawyers really bring down the State averages so it is best to look at statistics from the category to which you belong.
That being said, do not let the high pass rates fool you. You must study for the bar! I know of two people from Harvard Law School that failed the New York Bar examination on their first attempt. When I spoke with these individuals they indicated that they had only done a small number of the practice essay and multiple-choice questions where I did hundreds. The key to passing the Bar is preparation and generally this preparation should start with a Bar Preparation course.
