Sunday, October 25, 2009

Will the New Grading System Affect the Michigan Bar Exam Results for July 2009?

Many applicants are waiting for Michigan’s bar exam results for July 2009. I’m looking forward to seeing the exam results in light of the changes to that bar. I predict the bar exam results will be lower than last year in light of the change to the grading system.

For those not in the know, the Michigan Board of Law Examiners changed the grading system of its bar exam effective to the February 2009 bar exam. In light of the number of takers in July 2009, this bar exam result will be the real test of the grading change.

The Michigan Board of Law Examiners eliminated the practice of not grading the essay answers of applicants obtaining a threshold score on the MBE.

All essay answers in the Michigan bar will now be graded and no applicant will pass the examination solely on the basis of the applicant’s MBE score. The Board of Law Examiners will now scale the essay examination scores to the scoring of the MBE. The combined score still remains at 135.

The Michigan Board of Law Examiners stated that this new grading system will more accurately gauge whether applicants have attained the level of specific competence in Michigan law necessary for the protection of the public. Other reasons include, consistency in the level of difficulty of Michigan bar examination essay questions from one examination another, to more accurately assess whether applicants have attained the level of competence in the law, and conformity to other bar exams.

It will be interesting to see how, in grading the essays, it will affect the applicants. We’ll know any day now.

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