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California Bar Exam Point Scandal?
Some Southern Cali exam takers may have the earthquake to thank for passing.

Monday, November 24, 2008 2:01 PM - By Kashmir Hill

earthquake California bar exam.jpgCalifornia bar results are now available for viewing by the general public. As we noted when the private results first went up Friday, the California bar passage rate was 61.7%. Our thoughts:

The NY passage rate was 74.7%. So either the California bar is harder or New Yorkers are smarter.

In fact, the California State Bar notes that the pass rate is “the highest it has been since the July 1997 administration of the examination.” The pass rate in California is usually [PDF] in the 40s and 50s. So were California lawyer wannabes smarter this year?

Perhaps. Or maybe the earthquake that struck on day one of the exam was a godsend instead of a disaster. According to the California State Bar, extra points were doled out to certain test centers. See the matrix and more wild speculation, after the jump.

In its press release accompanying the July exam results, the California State Bar acknowledges the earthquake’s impact on exam-takers:

During the morning session of the first day of the July 2008 administration of the California Bar Examination, an earthquake struck the Southern California area. There was approximately 15-20 minutes time left in the session. Timing at the test centers continued as scheduled, although the examinees at one test center were given an additional 5 minutes to complete the session.

We know some of you were already upset by the idea of those extra five minutes. But what about the idea of extra points being given out?

Shouldn’t you just get normal points for being able to “man up” during an earthquake, staying focused on your exam despite the rumbling and resisting the urge to dive under your desk?

Immediately following conclusion of the examination, the Committee asked its psychometric consultants to investigate whether the earthquake may have had an impact on examinee scores. The Committee’s consultants found that the earthquake appeared to have impacted some of the nine Southern California test centers differently.

Based on the calculations and recommendations of its experts, the Committee decided to adjust the scores of some examinees, by test center, with additional points as a function of how much, if any, the test center where they were taking the examination was impacted.

No extra point love for the northern California exam takers, who did not feel the quake. Their results were assessed independently of the nine southern California test centers who did feel it. According to the state bar experts, “the degree of shaking (and staff and candidate reactions to it) varied across the affected sites.” The experts crafted a fairly complicated matrix [PDF] to figure out which scores should be padded. According to the psychometric experts:

[S]ome candidates at one center ducked under their desks and some acoustic tiles fell off the ceiling. At another site nearby, the candidates continued to work normally until time was called. Thus, the overall effect of the quake on candidate scores on Essay questions 1 through 3 could vary across test centers as a function of what the candidates at those centers experienced and the actions they took in response to the earthquake.

After determining that the sites where the quake was allegedly felt most strongly had lower exam scores, the experts gave out extra points according to regression models:

  • Those who took the test at the San Diego Concourse were the big winners, with 5 extra points.
  • Those who took it at the San Diego Convention Center and 319 of those who took it at the Ontario Convention Center got 3 extra points.
  • Anaheim Convention Center and California Market Place test-takers got 2 extra points.
  • The 1708 chumps in a different room at the Ontario Convention Center got just 1 point.
  • Those who took it at hotels (Century Plaza, LAX Radisson and the Sheraton Four Points) may as well have been in Northern California. No extra points for you.

    One exam taker is nonplussed:

    I still don’t know how I got 3 points added to my score for 30 seconds of alarming but harmless shaking at the SD laptop site, when the Century Plaza Hotel site that ACTUALLY HAD PIECES OF A GLASS CHANDELIER FALLING (edit: so I have heard) didn’t get any adjustment because their scores were higher than expected.

    Also, I guess there were 2 rooms at the Ontario site or something? and one got 1 point added and the other got 3 points? Even though they were at the same location? I guess maybe the one that got 1 point was probably the room where they gave test takers an extra 15 minutes, because I think not everyone at Ontario got the extra 15. To be fair, the Ontario site was the closest to where the quake hit.

    I see some lawsuits in the offing from those at Century Plaza in West LA that were distracted by the quake and only failed by a few points.

    What do people think? Fair? Not fair? Is litigation in the works? Maybe your esquired friends who took it at the San Diego Concourse can help you draft those legal documents.

    ADJUSTING FOR THE IMPACT OF THE JULY 2008 EARTHQUAKE ON CALIFORNIA BAR EXAMINATION SCORES (PDF) [California State Bar]
    GENERAL BAR EXAMINATION PASS RATE SUMMARY (PDF) [California State Bar]

    Earlier: Parting Thoughts And West Coast Hippie Bar Results
    Bar Exam Open Thread: So How Was Day One? (Earthquakes aside.)

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