Out of State Attorney Exam - Seat Number mailings will be sent out on or about Friday, January 27, 2012
Following are four documents providing pertinent details of the revised grading system (see Board Rule 4) which became effective with the July 2000 Maryland Bar Examination:
1. Passing Criteria for the Maryland Bar Examination>
2. The Purpose of Scaling Essay Test Scores
3. Criteria to Assess the Quality of Essay Answers
4. Description of the Six Point Scoring Guide
Passing Criteria for the Multistate Bar Examination
Multistate Bar Examination
1. There is no "passing" Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) score because pass/fail determinations will be based on a combination of the MBE scale score and the Essay Test scale score.
2. MBE scores and Essay scores for each examination must be earned during the same administration of the examination. In other words, an applicant must take the MBE in Maryland at the same time that the essay test is taken or transfer a concurrent MBE scale score from the same administration of the MBE in another jurisdiction. Scores from prior administrations of the MBE will not be accepted.
Board's Essay Test
1. There will be 12 questions on the Board's Essay Test. Questions numbered one (1) through six (6) will be administered in the morning session, and questions numbered seven (7) through twelve (12) will be administered during the afternoon session. Each question may have one or more subparts. There will be twelve (12) answer booklets: one for each Essay question.
2. Each question will be allotted twenty-five (25) minutes. The morning session of the Essay Test will have 2 hours and 30 minutes writing time, and the afternoon session will have 2 hours and 30 minutes writing time. The total duration of the Essay Test will be 5 hours.
3. The Board intends that each Essay question carry equal weight. No point values will be assigned on the printed test questions. Questions will be graded on a relative range of one (1) to six (6) points, and a score of zero (0) will be assigned only if an answer booklet is blank or the answer is otherwise totally unresponsive to the question. The maximum possible raw score on the Essay Test will be 72 points.
4. There will be no "passing" Essay Test score because pass/fail determinations for the examination will be based on a combination of the MBE scale score and the Essay Test scale score.
5. There will be no carryover of Essay Test scores. An applicant who is unsuccessful on a Maryland Bar Examination will have to repeat both the MBE and Essay Test when the applicant sits for a subsequent examination.
6. Total Essay Test raw scores will be converted to the MBE scale and used to determine pass/fail status as described below.
Examination Scoring and Pass/Fail Determinations
1. An applicant's Total Scale Score for the Maryland Bar Examination will be computed using the following formula:
Total Scale Score = (Essay Scale Score x 2) + MBE Scale Score
This formula weights the Essay Score twice as much as the MBE Score.
2. To pass the Examination, an applicant must achieve a Total Scale Score of 406 or higher.
3. An applicant's Essay Raw Score will be converted to the MBE Scale using the following formula:
Essay Scale Score = [(A-B)/C][D] + E, where
A = the sum of the applicant's raw
scores on the 12 Essay questions
B = the mean of the A values across
all applicants
C = the standard deviation of the
A values across all applicants
D = the standard deviation of the
Maryland applicants' MBE scale scores
E = the mean of the Maryland applicants'
MBE scale scores
The Purpose of Scaling Essay Test Scores to the Multistate Bar Examination Scale
Scaling addresses two problems:
1. It is possible that the questions on successive Essay tests, in the aggregate, may differ in degree of difficulty. Furthermore, graders, as a group, may be stricter or more lenient, in the reading of one administration of an examination than on another administration of the examination. Scaling corrects for variations in test difficulty and grader leniency.
2. A one point increase in the grader assigned score on the Essay test does not necessarily indicate the same improvement in applicant performance as a one point increase on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). (A useful analogy: a one degree change in temperature measured in Fahrenheit degrees does not equal a one degree change in temperature in Celsius degrees.) Scaling eliminates this difference by expressing the Essay and MBE scores in the same units of measurement.
How is Scaling Done?
Scaling converts Essay raw scores to the same "scale"(units of measurement) as that used by the MBE. Conceptually the conversion is accomplished by assigning the highest Essay raw score on a given Maryland Bar examination the same numerical value as the highest MBE scale score earned in Maryland on that same examination. The second highest Essay raw score is assigned the same numerical value as the second highest MBE scale score, and so on. To perform the scaling accurately, a statistical formula, rather than rank ordering, is used to convert the Essay raw scores to scale scores. The process is done independently for each administration of the Bar examination.
The MBE scale is used as the standard because the MBE scale scores are already adjusted so that a scale MBE score on one administration of the MBE corresponds to the same level of performance as that same score on another administration. In addition, statistical studies have demonstrated that there is a strong correlation between Essay and MBE scores. Therefore, scaling Essay scores to the MBE scale produces Essay scale scores which indicate about the same level of performance regardless of the examination on which a particular Essay scale score is earned.
Commonly Asked Questions About Scaling
1. Did the Board decide to use scaling to make the examination more difficult or easier to pass?
No. The Board is adopting procedures which are now used in the majority of jurisdictions in the United States to better assure that the passing standard is consistent over successive administrations of the Bar examination. An applicant's total score on an examination will be calculated by multiplying the applicant's Essay scale score by two and adding the resulting product to that applicant's MBE scale score. The passing score or "cut score" of 406 was established with the assistance of a psychometrician (an expert in the statistical procedures that are used with tests and measures). This score is intended to maintain the historical standard which has prevailed in recent Maryland Bar Examinations. The Board does not expect dramatic changes in overall annual examination pass rates as the result of adopting the new grading procedures.
2. Does scaling control the passing rate? No. The passing rate is determined by the passing score, also known as the "cut score". It is possible, theoretically, to have a 100% pass rate if all applicants score 406 or more on the Maryland Bar examination.
3. Does an applicant's individual MBE score affect that applicant's essay scale score? No. The formula for computing an applicant's essay scale score does not include that applicant's MBE score.
4. Will MBE scores in other states affect the percent passing in Maryland? No. Only the distribution of MBE scores in Maryland affects the pass rate in Maryland.
5. Do other jurisdictions scale their essay grades? Yes. Most states scale their essay scores to the MBE scale.
Grading Criteria for the Maryland Essay Test
Bar Admission Rule 7(b) sets out the purpose of the Bar Examination and states in pertinent part: "...the examination shall be designed to test the examinee's knowledge of legal principles in the subjects on which examined and the examinee's ability to recognize, analyze, and intelligibly discuss legal problems and to apply that knowledge in reasoning their solution. The examination will not be designed primarily to test information, memory, or experience." The Essay Test subjects are set forth in Board Rule 3.
1. Grading Anonymity. All Essay Test grading will continue to be accomplished on an anonymous basis, using only randomly assigned seat numbers as identifiers, until all pass/fail determinations are completed.
2. Factual Analysis, Application of Legal Principles, and Reasoning to a Conclusion. Assignment of a raw score to an Essay answer will be evaluated on the basis of how well the examinee:
- Demonstrates an understanding of the significance of relevant and material facts
- Applies legal principles to the relevant and material facts
- Articulates appropriate reasoning for reaching conclusions which respond to the question
3. Holistic Assessment. The raw score for an Essay answer will be based on an assessment of the quality of the answer as a whole, considering the elements described above in paragraph 2.
4. Organization and composition. The raw score for an Essay answer will not be diminished by the examinee's failure to use proper grammar and spelling. On the other hand, an answer which is well organized, concise, and well written shall be accorded a higher score than an answer which is comparable in terms of factual and legal analysis, but which is inferior in terms of its organization and composition.
Essay Test Scoring - Guide Maryland Bar Examination
The Maryland Essay Test raw score for each question will be assigned based on a relative range of 1 to 6. The scores assigned to an applicant for a particular Essay Test are intended to rank the performance of that applicant on each question relative to the performance of all other applicants taking the same set of Essay Test questions. The characteristics of an answer which are evaluated in ranking the relative performances of applicants follow:
| Score | Description of Demonstrated Performance |
| 6 | While not necessarily perfect, an answer receiving a score of 6 demonstrates a full understanding of the relevant and material facts, a complete recognition of the issues presented, and an excellent grasp of the applicable principles of law. The reasoning is thorough and amply supports all conclusions. An answer receiving a score of 6 is clear, concise, complete, and responsive to the question. |
| 5 | An answer receiving a score of 5 demonstrates a fairly complete understanding of the relevant and material facts, a recognition of most of the issues, and a good grasp of the applicable principles of law. The reasoning is basically sound and supports most of the conclusions necessary to respond to the question. |
| 4 | An answer receiving a score of 4 demonstrates an adequate understanding of the relevant and material facts and a recognition of the most important issues and principles of law. The reasoning is adequate and supports the main conclusions necessary to respond to the question. |
| 3 | An answer receiving a score of 3 demonstrates an incomplete understanding of the relevant and material facts and misses, to some degree, significant issues and key principles of the applicable law. The reasoning is partially incomplete or incorrect and does not fully support the main conclusions necessary to respond to the question. |
| 2 | An answer receiving a score of 2 demonstrates little understanding of the relevant and material facts or law. The reasoning is seriously flawed and fails to support the conclusions. The conclusions are not adequately responsive to the question. |
| 1 | An answer receiving a score of 1 demonstrates fundamental deficiencies in understanding of both the relevant and material facts and law. The answer is largely unsupported by reasoning, any conclusions drawn are unsupported and/or incorrect, and the answer is not responsive to the question. |
| 0 | An answer will be assigned a zero only if the answer book is blank or the answer is totally unresponsive to the question. For example, copying the question into the answer book is unresponsive and will result in an assigned score of zero. |