By ALISA ULFERTS
St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE -- It's the SAT on steroids: two days of essays and multiple choice
monsters that separate lawyers from mere law school graduates. Tales abound of
test-takers bolting from the room in mid-answer, gagging with fear and anxiety.
So how hard is the Florida Bar Exam? Tough enough that three candidates for
Florida attorney general failed at least once.
But the board that gives the test says it's not hard enough, and it wants to
raise the passing score.
Charlie Crist, the state education commissioner, widely seen as the Republican
front-runner for attorney general, had to take it three times before he passed.
He says that fact gives him greater compassion.
His opponents in the Sept. 10 Republican primary, however, see Crist's test
performance as a good reason not to elect him. One of those opponents, Tom
Warner, even says so on billboards around the state.
"Sorry, Charlie," Warner's billboard blares. "These grades aren't
good enough for attorney general."
Two Democrats running for attorney general, Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox and
former Deputy Attorney General George Sheldon, also acknowledge failing the exam
their first time, although both say they passed it on the second try.
The Board of Bar Examiners does not verify how many times a person takes the
test, so the candidates' admissions are the only way to know. The other
candidates, Democrats Walter Dartland and Buddy Dyer and Republicans Warner and
Locke Burt, passed the first time, they say.
Denis DeVlaming passed the exam in 1972. Thirty years later, the well-known
Tampa Bay area defense attorney still recalls the day. "I remember the
sweaty palms, the weak knees and wondering, damn, what am I doing?" he
said.
The recent trend among firsttime test takers is for just under 80 percent to
pass, or four out of every five.
Florida's exam has been described as "a hard test that's graded easy."
The material is comparable to that of many other states, but the passing score
ranks in the bottom third -- low enough for the Board of Bar Examiners to ask
the Supreme Court to raise it.
The board says its complicated passing score translates roughly to a 56 on a
scale of 100, a grade that would earn an F on a high school geometry pop quiz.
The board wants to raise that to about a 59, at least bumping Florida out of the
bottom third.
Lawyers are divided over what failing the test really says about a lawyer. Some
say great lawyers aren't always great test takers, while others say being able
to perform well in a stressful environment is critical.
Former Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan said it's unimportant when choosing an
attorney general.
"There are a lot of people who have difficulty taking a standardized
test," said Kogan. A friend of his, a judge, failed the test four times
before passing.
It might say something about a law student's life.
Crist characterized the years when he graduated from law school and took the bar
exam as "a traumatic time." Crist was married briefly in 1979 while
attending law school and had come through what he said was a difficult divorce.
Maddox juggled law school with duties as a Tallahassee city commissioner while
preparing for the test. Sheldon said he failed one part of the test, but had to
retake the entire exam.
Dyer, meanwhile, is being asked by critics to prove his claim that he got the
highest score when he took the test in 1987.
Although he doesn't have a document to prove it, Dyer said he got a call a
couple of weeks after the test from the Board of Bar Examiners, telling him he'd
tied for first place with Andrew Meyers, now chief appellate counsel with the
Broward County Attorney's Office.
Meyers confirms Dyer's account.
