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Taking Two Bar Exams

More Disadvantages

You will have to pay some extra money to take two bar exams. There are registration fees, hotel and travel costs, and costs for additional study aids. In the end, it might cost $1000-$2000 extra to take an additional exam. That's very cheap when compared to how much I paid for law school, but it is something to consider.

Finally, your chances of passing both exams are going to be lower than passing just one. How much lower? I don't know, but I don't think it's enough to worry about. If you do what I did and only study for one exam, your chances of passing that one will be the same as everyone else's. What do you have to lose? It may be that the easier exam is the one you really care about, but you study for the harder exam (recommended). This puts you at a slight disadvantage for the easier exam. Consider the pass-rate for first-time takers of the easier state and decide whether you would be comfortable with slightly lower rate. If the Massachusetts pass rate is 80%, would you be comfortable with only a 70% chance? You will probably pass.

That said, you should consider your individual chances of passing and not the overall average. If you haven't been doing particularly well on your law school exams, you might not want to risk taking two exams. The bar exam is very similar to law school exams.

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