Login | May 10, 2025
Akron Law ramps up efforts to help students pass the bar
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: January 30, 2019
In recent years students who graduated from The University of Akron School of Law and were preparing to take the bar exam received a stipend of up to $2,250 to be used toward a commercial bar review course of their choice.
Now educators at Akron Law are ramping up their bar preparation efforts with the goal of having all graduates pass the bar exam on their first try.
On Dec. 17, 2018, the law school entered into a comprehensive four-year partnership with bar review leader BARBRI.
Under the agreement, BARBRI will be the exclusive provider of bar preparation courses, with Akron Law students being able to access a wealth of materials from the moment they begin law school.
“Studies have shown that students really benefit when they start preparing for the bar exam much earlier than the traditional post-graduate bar review course,” said Akron Law Dean Christopher J. (C.J.) Peters. “In the past, however, we have not always sent that message as clearly as we should have.
“As a result of the new partnership, students will have access to bar preparation materials as 1Ls, allowing them to begin right away.”
The Akron Law-BARBRI Partnership for Student Success got underway at the start of the spring semester, with the school incorporating BARBRI materials into existing classes in Advanced Legal Analysis and Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) Strategies and offering a new online course consisting entirely of BARBRI materials.
“Akron Law students have always learned basic legal skills like writing, analysis, and communication as part of their doctrinal courses. These courses will help them hone these skills with a specific focus on the bar exam,” said Peters.
Students can also attend workshops and access other BARBRI resources, which likely will include subject-matter videos and outlines for core 1L and 2L courses, multiple-choice training tools for all subjects tested on the MBE and a question bank designed to simulate the questions on the MBE.
Diagnostic tests will be employed by Akron Law educators to assess students’ subject matter mastery and analytical skill competency. The tests will enable early intervention to address weaknesses and educators and administrators will be able to use analytics to track student progress and trends on both the individual level and the larger cohort level.
“This data will allow us to see the progress an individual student is making toward preparing for the bar throughout his or her entire law school career,” said Peters. “We will be able to provide additional help to those who need it, improving the chances that the student will pass the bar exam, while helping the student to be more successful in law school overall.”
In addition to providing students with a comprehensive wealth of materials during their law school careers, graduates will be able to take BARBRI’s bar review course at no additional cost.
“The only out-of-pocket expense will be the $250 refundable deposit and the $30 shipping fee for the course materials,” said Peters. “The cost of the bar review course and all these other resources is included in the tuition that students already pay.
“As time goes on we will be developing more tailored materials for our students,” Peters said. “Other law schools have partnered with BARBRI with successful results. One advantage of the BARBRI partnership is that it allows the flexibility for each school to develop programs that work best for its students.”
Akron Law 3L Nick Karam, a current student representative for BARBRI, said he’s been using their course materials since his second semester as 1L. He said the benefits he received are among the reasons he decided to become an Akron Law student representative for the company.
“BARBRI’s programs are very helpful,” said Karam. “The BARBRI lectures helped me with my Constitutional Law class. The book we were using in class was written by the same guy who did the lectures so getting his perspective helped me learn the material much quicker.”
Karam began studying for the bar exam last December.
“I signed up for BARBRI’s early bar study plan and I have been using the materials since then,” said Karam, who plans to practice corporate law. “I am not worried about the bar exam because I know I am using the best program out there.
“Now that the school has a partnership with BARBRI, I imagine other students will have access pretty soon.”
“The ability to read or hear a fact pattern, quickly identify the issues in the pattern, apply the appropriate law to the fact pattern and effectively communicate the solution are all skills that are tested on the bar exam, and that also are necessary for success in law school and in law practice,” said Peters. “I believe this partnership will allow us to focus more specifically and consistently on building these skills than in the past.”