Earlier this year I sued the State Bar of California for incorrectly stating that their “First Year Law Students Exam” consists of two sections — a multiple choice and a written section — that were graded equally. In fact, the scaling methodology used to attempt to normalize the scores against previous sittings of the exam effectively made the written worth 37% more than the multiple-choice on the exam I sat for in June 2016.
Today I’ve reached a settlement agreement with the State Bar to re-write their grading policy to more accurately describe how the exam is actually graded. The updated policy description will disclose to all preparing for the exam that:
Through a process known as “equating”, the multiple-choice raw scores will be converted to a scale with a theoretical maximum of 400 points. Because there are multiple forms of the examination, this process adjusts for the possible differences between forms and administrations of the examination in the average difficulty of the particular version of the examination that the applicant takes.
. . .
The raw essay scores will be converted, or “scaled” to a distribution that has the same mean and standard deviation of multiple-choice scale scores.
Although the process of normalizing to a mean and standard deviation is far from standard (math described here) and every mathematician I’ve spoken with has told me the accepted practice for grade scaling is to take the highest score earned, create a formula that makes it the highest score possible, and scale all other scores in line with that formula, the State Bar is free to use whatever formula they want so long as they don’t mislead exam takers.
Anyway, I’m pleased with the outcome and hope that future law students benefit from knowing that they better hit the sample essays much harder than the practice MCQ’s! If you’re currently preparing, I also made a detailed post of study tips.
November 8, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Rad, thanks!!
November 8, 2017 at 1:35 pm
Congrats! You’d think lawyers would get this without being strong armed 🙂
November 8, 2017 at 4:37 pm
Wow! That is a significant difference! The State Bar that preaches ethics has been lying to the unsuspecting public all along. Unbelievable. Their dubious grading process remains suspicious and warrants further investigating.
I commend you for your convictions and courage to stand up to this ugly giant, and greatly appreciate your efforts. 🙇
Congratulations! 🙌
February 2, 2018 at 12:56 am
never thought u were gonna be this serious, i remember supporting you like 4 yers ago i think, my help didn’t go out for nothing, congratulations, please keep it up, i would like to be your first client because TSA abused me in questioning 4 times now whenever i traveled to europe and came back, they made me go through the secondary and took my phone and asked me stupid questions, even went through my wallet and counted how many few dollars i had in addition to read all papers i had with me, i know i should have called a lawyer but the fuckers try to make your day miserable by making wait for hours before they even talk to you, i will keep following you until u become a lawyer and would like to hire you for a big law suit.
thanks
February 2, 2018 at 12:55 pm
Thank you for the kind words and continued support, Sam!
One note: TSA (the people searching you on the way into an airport) and CBP (Customs — the people you show your passport to in order to enter the country) are different groups with different rules. In theory, TSA is only looking for weapons, while CBP is looking for smugglers. If I were you, I’d put that phone they took on eBay and buy a new one.
August 11, 2018 at 11:31 pm
The description they give for grading is still not accurate. The total max score for Oct. 2017 was 780 something not 800. If the pass score is always 560, and the total score possible changes every time (and it does) this is improper grading because it’s always a different percent.
I don’t think I passed this time, my 3rd time and I will also be filing suit if I didn’t.
August 13, 2018 at 3:59 pm
So, did you get your money back for the second attempt at the exam?