MSU College of Law officials are working with the Michigan Board of Law Examiners to find a solution for an abnormally high failure rate on the state bar exam this year, which might have been caused by a new grading scale.
The grading change could cause law students to take a closer look at how the exam is scored and change the way they prepare for it.
The percentage of first-time test takers in Michigan who passed was 65 percent in February and 62 percent in July, according to the Michigan Board of Law Examiners. Last year, the percentage of those passing was 84 percent in February and 79 percent in July.
Beginning in February, the Michigan Board of Law Examiners established a new grading system that more closely weights the test section about Michigan laws to the section about federal laws.
Previously, the essay portion, which tests specifically about Michigan law, was less significant to the overall score than the Multistate Bar Examination, or MBE, which is a multiple-choice section about general and federal law, said Marcia McBrien, public information officer for the Michigan Supreme Court. This method was meant to keep the results consistent from year to year, or a different score would not have a different meaning each year.
“The Board of Law Examiners (found) scaling was really inflating the importance of the MBE relative to the bar exam,” McBrien said.
College of Law Dean Joan Howarth said in a statement she plans to discuss the new grading system with the board.
“Along with other Michigan law school deans, I have communicated my concerns about the new and different scoring of the July Michigan bar exam directly to the (Michigan Board of Law) Examiners,” Howarth said.
East Lansing Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett, who graduated from the MSU College of Law this past spring and passed the bar exam in July, said he was very relieved when he got his results and also upon seeing the overall results in Michigan, considering the percentage of people who failed.
“I think if there’s a silver lining to the low pass rate this year, (it’s that) it prompted conversation about exactly what the (exam’s) grading is,” Triplett said.
Matt Paradiso, a political theory and constitutional democracy senior who plans to attend law school, said in an email he supports the changes to the exam’s scoring because it increases the focus on state law.
But Paradiso said he also believes the state should have prepared and informed the law schools more on how to avoid the low amount of passes.
“It is unfortunate for those test takers that were not prepared for the new scoring method and failed because of it,” Paradiso said.
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