{"id":119182,"date":"2025-05-15T15:03:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:03:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/15\/california-bar-grading-screw-up-resulted-in-several-false-failures-2\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T15:03:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T23:03:41","slug":"california-bar-grading-screw-up-resulted-in-several-false-failures-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/05\/15\/california-bar-grading-screw-up-resulted-in-several-false-failures-2\/","title":{"rendered":"California Bar Grading Screw-Up Resulted In Several False Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
I forgot to carry the one!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some things happen with such regularity that you can set a clock to them: roosters crowing at dawn, Kant\u2019s ghost strolling through K\u00f6nigsberg in the afternoon, and new news of the California Bar screwing up the bar exam. As rough as it is to read about the Cali Bar\u2019s mishaps, the real victims are the aspiring attorneys who had to sit through the damned thing. Crappy software<\/a> and AI-generated questions<\/a> were bad enough, but takers of the February exam also have to be on the lookout for emails telling them that they were falsely failed despite having passing grades. Bloomberg Law has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Four more people have passed after the Bar said it caught a failure to properly impute scores and a \u201cclerical error.\u201d
\u2026
The Bar said it\u2019s also reviewing some examinees\u2019 Performance Test sections to ensure they are graded based on all the content in the \u201cnotes\u201d section, rather than just the \u201cresponse\u201d window.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t specify how many applicants would be swept into this review, but noted examinees likely to pass with a higher PT score would be prioritized.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe the real alternative to provisional licensing was to score every applicant\u2019s test correctly the first time. As messy as this outcome was, the silver lining is that the outcome came out in the favor of the people the Bar had to contact with upgraded grades. What would happen if some of the test takers got false passes? Do you make the call knowing that they\u2019ll likely lose whatever job they have at the moment, or do you show a little grace and let them fail upward? Hopefully they won\u2019t have to make that call for the next round of tests. <\/p>\n

Three California Bar Exam Takers Were Scored on Others\u2019 Work (1) <\/a>[Bloomberg Law]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: The California Bar Was So Bad That The Exam Vendor Is Getting Sued Over It<\/a><\/p>\n

California Bar Reveals It Used AI For Exam Questions, Because Of Course It Did<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post California Bar Grading Screw-Up Resulted In Several False Failures<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
I forgot to carry the one!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some things happen with such regularity that you can set a clock to them: roosters crowing at dawn, Kant\u2019s ghost strolling through K\u00f6nigsberg in the afternoon, and new news of the California Bar screwing up the bar exam. As rough as it is to read about the Cali Bar\u2019s mishaps, the real victims are the aspiring attorneys who had to sit through the damned thing. Crappy software<\/a> and AI-generated questions<\/a> were bad enough, but takers of the February exam also have to be on the lookout for emails telling them that they were falsely failed despite having passing grades. Bloomberg Law has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

Four more people have passed after the Bar said it caught a failure to properly impute scores and a \u201cclerical error.\u201d
\u2026
The Bar said it\u2019s also reviewing some examinees\u2019 Performance Test sections to ensure they are graded based on all the content in the \u201cnotes\u201d section, rather than just the \u201cresponse\u201d window.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t specify how many applicants would be swept into this review, but noted examinees likely to pass with a higher PT score would be prioritized.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe the real alternative to provisional licensing was to score every applicant\u2019s test correctly the first time. As messy as this outcome was, the silver lining is that the outcome came out in the favor of the people the Bar had to contact with upgraded grades. What would happen if some of the test takers got false passes? Do you make the call knowing that they\u2019ll likely lose whatever job they have at the moment, or do you show a little grace and let them fail upward? Hopefully they won\u2019t have to make that call for the next round of tests. <\/p>\n

Three California Bar Exam Takers Were Scored on Others\u2019 Work (1) <\/a>[Bloomberg Law]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: The California Bar Was So Bad That The Exam Vendor Is Getting Sued Over It<\/a><\/p>\n

California Bar Reveals It Used AI For Exam Questions, Because Of Course It Did<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I forgot to carry the one! Some things happen with such regularity that you can set a clock to them: roosters crowing at dawn, Kant\u2019s ghost strolling through K\u00f6nigsberg in the afternoon, and new news of the California Bar screwing up the bar exam. As rough as it is to read about the Cali Bar\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":119184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Williams-620x620-h1ilnC.jpeg?fit=620%2C620&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}