Improve Your Law School GPA and
Pass the Bar Examination:
a little planning can go a long way!

Law Student Realities—You are busy people, who are already overloaded and don't want to/can't add too many more hours to your week.

Solution: Set small attainable goals, but move forward making realistic but continual changes and adjustments to hike up that GPA and boost your changes of Passing the Bar.

1. Complete a self-assessment if you get a grade below a C in any one law school class.  Go to your law school's administrative offices and ask to look at your final exam and any issue outline or sample answer that the professor/school may provide. Do a self-critique of your final exam. Determine why you got the grade you got: Did you not know or understand the law well enough? Did you not spend enough time studying? Did you spend enough time but not use your study time effectively? Were you stressed, ill or going through some personal crisis at the time?
   
   Write at least one paragraph on what you will do to avoid the problem(s) next semester. Ideally, put a "tickler" in your own calendar or ask someone you trust (perhaps a study buddy or a school administrator or faculty member) to meet with you mid-way through the next semester to follow up.
   
   

2. Ask your professor or a legal research and writing instructor to see a copy of past exams that received A-F grades so you can see why a paper would get a certain grade from a particular professor. Suggest the professor excise the student name or number, or use some other method for maintaining confidentiality.
   
   

3. Do beginning, mid-semester and end of the semester self-assessment forms, similar to "time sheets" where you log in the number of hours you studied each week (and times of day), number of practice exams completed, number of hours you participated in study group, and the number of times you visited a TA or Prof.
   
   

4. Do a "Study Plan" (like a business plan) that outlines your goals and calendars what steps you will take to implement all those goals, in order to advance your legal career. Think about including in your Plan the efforts you will take to improve your academic standing, obtain legal work experience, and plan for passing the Bar Examination.
   
   Bar Exam planning obviously includes things like deciding on and signing up for review courses, and studying, but it also includes financial planning —i.e. saving up or obtaining the loans you need to pay for the courses you want to enroll in and to take off time from work to do nothing but study, preferably for two full months prior to taking the Bar Exam.
   
   

5. If you feel you are weak and not getting the information and guidance you need to do well in a particular substantive subject, get help. Academic support can help you boost your GPA and thus improve your chances for success on the bar. PASS offers academic support lectures, practice exam writing with professor feedback and student counseling directly to law students just like you, in over 10 different substantive law courses.