As you may know, our Partnership for Student Success with Barbri includes First and Second Year Diagnostic Exams (so-called “Baby Bar” exams). The Baby Bar diagnostic tests are designed to assess student strengths and weaknesses in particular subject areas and to give students experience taking an MBE-style multiple-choice exam. They are an important part of our program for preparing Akron Law students to succeed on the bar.
The Baby Bar diagnostics will be administered on the following dates in 2020. Please note these dates and plan to take the exam on a date that is assigned to your cohort.
Spring 2018 and Spring 2019 starts:
- Saturday, January 25, 2020, 9 a.m. to noon.
- Wednesday, January 28, 2020, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Summer/Fall 2018 and Summer/Fall 2019 starts:
- Saturday, September 5, 2020, 9 a.m. to noon
- Thursday, September 10, 2020, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The diagnostics consist of 120 multiple-choice questions. Like on a real MBE exam, it is estimated that it will take you 1.5 minutes to complete each question. No preparation is required to take the Baby Bar exam – the diagnostics are designed to be taken without advance studying. After the exams are administered, each student will receive an individual diagnostic report that will show where you are doing well and where you might benefit from additional work. The school will also receive each student’s individual report as well as a cohort report. We will use this information to help determine what we teach and how we teach it.
In order to ensure the completeness and integrity of the diagnostic results, every student in one of the above cohorts is required to take the Baby Bar exam. You also are required to give your best effort while taking the exam – failure to do so would make the results less reliable and defeat the purposes of the diagnostic. For these reasons, failure to take the diagnostic or to put forth your best effort may result in referral to the student disciplinary committee.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Dean Janoski-Haehlen.Charles W. Oldfield | Assistant Dean of Student Affairs