Seventeen of the 22 UNLV law school graduates who took the Nevada Bar Exam for the first time this spring passed, according to results released Tuesday by the Nevada Board of Bar Examiners.

This 77 percent passage rate is 6 percentage points higher than the statewide average for first-time test takers and marks a 14 percentage point improvement over the February 2007 exam results.

"Our graduates continue to have great success in passing the Nevada Bar exam on their first attempt," said John V. White, dean of UNLV's Boyd School of Law. "I am proud of our students, faculty and staff, all of whom work so diligently to help improve upon our successes and further the mission of the UNLV Boyd School of Law."

The Nevada bar is a three day exam consisting of several Nevada essay questions, one Multistate Performance Test (MPT) problem, and a Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). The successful applicant must achieve a total scaled score of 75 on the exam as a whole, as well as passing at least three essays with a scaled score of 75.