No do-over on bar exam

Updated 5:08 p.m.

The board met Wednesday morning in Raleigh, two days ahead of its previously scheduled meeting, to decide how to handle a power outage at the Tuesday afternoon session of the July bar exam.

“I know if I had taken the exam I’d want to know as soon as possible, that’s why we accelerated the process,” said board chairman James Van Camp.

The decision: Graders will scale all 12 essay questions and the MBE as they have in previous years. Each test will get two scores. One score will count all 12 questions. The other score will count just the Tuesday morning questions. If either score is a passing score, the applicant passes.

Van Camp said the board consulted the National Board of Law Examiners and one another before Wednesday morning’s meeting. About a dozen options were on the table. The national board’s recommendation was similar to the two-score proposal the local members were leaning toward, so they approved that option.

“We’re going to take their answers and work it two ways. That gives everyone the advantage,” Van Camp said. “To those people who had a bad afternoon, we’ll not consider those answers.”

He said applicants will be told whether they passed or failed, but not which methodology the graders relied on, he said.

In the wake of the disrupted testing session and uncertainty about the scores, many applicants complained that administrators provided conflicting information during the test. Van Camp said the incident has prompted the board to devise a protocol to follow in the event of future calamities. And they may consider a new venue. He said rules of the North Carolina Supreme Court require that the test be given in Wake County or an adjoining county, but the board could offer the test in multiple venues sites within the county.

The board’s announcement is at http://ncble.org/

Related stories:

The bar-takers speak: No do-over of the exam
When it comes to taking the bar exam – or even just part of it — once is enough, thanks. So say respondents to our online poll regarding how the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners should address a power outage during Tuesday afternoon’s exam. Read article.

The 2012 bar exam: a storm, a wood chipper and (maybe) a rat
Here’s one question bar prep didn’t address: When the power goes out during the afternoon session and you’re in the middle of completing an essay on your laptop, what is the appropriate response? Answer: Keep calm and sweat. Also, be prepared for a possible repeat of part of the test. Read article.

By Amber Nimocks
Published: August 1, 2012
Time posted: 2:58 pm
Tags: Bar Exam

POST A COMMENT

8 Responses to “No do-over on bar exam”

OhhKayy?? Says:
August 1st, 2012 at 4:11 pm

So…I don’t get it. So we get two scores? Does that mean they are allocating the 346 passing score? for instance, it says “from prior years…” This is not clear. 346 or 350?

furious Says:
August 1st, 2012 at 5:09 pm

Ummmmm. How exactly is removing 6 essay questions from the grading going to help? Will the passing score under option 2 be a lower number than 350? Nice job NCBLE..this makes no sense. Besides…the morning questions were horrible. I will venture to guess that people will be upset about that. If someone can make sense of this for me…please do.

Spazing Out Says:
August 1st, 2012 at 6:39 pm

OH MY GOODNESS, are you serious. The morning session was: Civil Pro – Family Law – Evidence – Property – Professional Responsibility…these topics were tough, and they are grading them twice. WOW – this isn’t right. Oh well. It’s in God’s Hands now. We will be ok. Thank God for the Board and may He bless us with favor in the grading process.

no one Says:
August 1st, 2012 at 6:51 pm

(1) If the announcement doesn’t say the passing score was lowered, it means they did not lower it.
(2) Please figure out what the word \scaled\ means before attacking the decision. Maybe the NCBLE assumed a certain level of logical reasoning on the part of test takers/future attorneys reading its press release.

2012taker Says:
August 2nd, 2012 at 8:47 am

No idea what that means, but whatever. Maybe it would be clearer if they read it to us through a livestock auction microphone.

Nice to hear that they might consider selecting a venue other than a cattle barn. There’s probably not enough room in the state bar’s new $13 million office building, but maybe between NCSU, Duke, the Raleigh Convention Center, the Durham Convention Center, and the PNC Arena, they can find a place.

Lawyer2009 Says:
August 2nd, 2012 at 8:56 am

This seems a reasonable solution, except it creates a group which could pass this year, but not prior years. If a test take passes the morning, the test taker passes the test. This seems to give an extra “break” to those you did well in the morning, but not quite as well as the afternoon. It also gives this same “break” to the writers – which keeps them from being excluded. All-in-all a decent compromise. It will be interesting to see passage rates for this test.

furious Says:
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:58 pm

I still don’t understand how they will score the exam with only the morning essays? Will they count them twice? And to the poster “no one” above, I would argue that we applicants deserve a certain amount of specificity in the decision. Case in point, no where in the decision does it mention that applicants will not “know which methodology” was relied on. That is ridiculous! In the past, folks who failed have had an opportunity to see the break down of their scores. SO, now, they wont? Hmmmm. I also resent Van Camp characterizing the events of that day as “having a bad afternoon”. That is insulting. For those who were writing this exam, sitting in the pitch dark for a painstaking 45 minutes, watching as others typed away…it was more than “a bad afternoon”. It was torture.

middleaisle Says:
August 2nd, 2012 at 1:29 pm

Furious, you are correct that the NCBLE’s press release didn’t state whether one will be informed of the method used in arriving at a passing score; I do imagine they will provide failing applicants their essay submissions and select answers, as is past NCBLE practice. However, in this article’s sixth paragraph, it specifically states:

“He [Van Camp] said applicants will be told whether they passed or failed, but not which methodology the graders relied on [....]”

At this point, I think it’s safe to say most of us are a little anxious about the whole matter. In reality, there’s not much one can do except contact the NBCLE to express their specific and personal concerns.

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