15-205. Administration and grading.
  1.     Policies and graders. Subject to the approval of the Supreme Court, the board may adopt such grading policies as it deems appropriate for the examinations. Graders shall be appointed by the Board of Bar Examiners for the grading of examinations.
  2.     Nonidentity grading. Every applicant shall be assigned an examination number at random. Grading shall be strictly anonymous, and the information matching the names and code numbers of the applicants shall be kept in the custody of the secretary of the board, or such other person as is designated by the board until all papers have been finally graded, all numerical or percentage grades for each applicant have been compiled and each applicant has been determined by examination number to have either passed or failed the written examination.
  3.     Essay and performance test portion of bar exam. The grades for the essay and performance test portion of the examination shall reflect the relative quality of each answer (ranging from non-responsive to well above average) and shall be calculated using the standard deviation method, which ensures that each essay question receives the same weight, and each performance test question is weighted 1.5 times that of each essay. Each applicantıs essay and performance test grades shall then be scaled to the MBE portion of the examination using the standard deviation method. Scaled scores shall be used to assure that the standard used to measure competence is not affected by the difficulty of the particular test or the ability of the applicants sitting for a particular examination.
        A combined average scaled score of 130 on the MBE and essay parts of the examination shall be the minimum passing score.
  4.     Uniformity of grading. In order to assure maximum fairness and uniformity in grading, the Board of Bar Examiners shall prescribe standards for grading to be used by all graders. To the extent possible, all the answers to a particular question should be graded by the same grader.
  5.     Ethics exam. The Board of Bar Examiners shall test applicants on professional responsibility and legal ethics by separate examination. Regardless of test results on the other examination parts, applicants must receive a minimum scaled score of 75 on the MPRE to be eligible for admission. The ethics examination part of the bar examination must be passed by the applicant within one (1) year after the date of notification that the applicant has passed the essay and MBE parts of the examination. For purposes of this paragraph, the date of notification shall be the date notification is mailed to the applicant by the secretary of the board.

[As amended, effective November 14, 1988; November 1, 1994; July 17, 1995; July 24, 1996, July 6, 1998; February 28, 2002.]



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