In a move that comes on the heels of a drastic decline in bar passage rates among law students, the CUNY School of Law will now offer a free semester to students who plan to take the February bar exam over the July exam.

Even though the February exam has proven to be more difficult than the summer exam, the school still urges students to bypass the summer bar exam.

In so doing, the school has even offered students grants for the fall semester, which are typically only given to students who take the summer bar exam.

Michelle Anderson, Dean of the CUNY School of Law said in an email that, "Similar to other law schools, we are now offering struggling third-year students the option of taking an additional semester of intensive, structured, Bar-oriented coursework, at no cost, to increase their chances of passing the Bar."

An article by the New York Post pointed out the following: "CUNY officials noted that the ABA counts both February and July results in its review of schools' performance, so they have nothing to gain by delaying test-takers."

"But students countered that February 2013's results would be excluded from this year's crucial tally, which comes after two years of disappointing results,"said writers Rebecca Rosenberg and Yoav Gonen.

The American Bar Association (Interpretation 301-6) states that of all the students who take a Bar Exam, at least 75 percent must pass the exam within the five most recent calendar years.

Another requirement that must be satisfied by law schools is that it "demonstrates that it meets any one of the following tests: school is no more than 15 points below the average first-time bar passage rates for graduates," said the ABA.

Anderson also states that students will be able to meet the requirements and standards that are expected of them.

"For some of these students, as well, extending their studies would help them meet the tougher academic standards the faculty passed and the CUNY Board of Trustees approved last semester. We developed this initiative based on successful seventh semester models used at other law schools," said Anderson.

This option of continuing for an extra semester will not cost the student or the school anything.

Anderson said, "The initiative at CUNY Law utilizes existing Bar-related courses and existing bar support staff and, therefore, imposes no additional costs on the school.  It is also offered cost-free to students, and is entirely optional."

In an effort to address other media outlets, which essentially state that the Law School is bribing students to not take the July exam, Anderson explained that both exams factor into the school's passage rates.

"The American Bar Association measures a law school's bar pass rate on an annual basis, which includes both July Bar takers and February Bar takers. Therefore, all students who graduate from CUNY Law, regardless of when they take the Bar, count toward our Bar pass rates," she said.