Statistics on the 2014 Bar
(Part 9)
by
Thads Bentulan
thadsbentulan@gmail.com
Confusing
answers
Another possible
source of injustice, is the answer itself. The U.P. Law Center often gives
three different answers to a single question, either because the question is
vague, or there is no established correct answer. Will the examiner favor an
answer different from his?
Scoring
issues
Of the all the
possible injustices done to the examinees by entire bar process, nothing stands
out so egregiously as the process of scoring.
First off, does the
examiner really have time to correct each and every answer to each question,
totaling 30 questions, of each of the 6,000 examinees? Or does he just skim
through it? Even law professors have trouble checking the answers to 5
questions of 40 students.
Usually, each
problem is worth 4 points. Does the examiner write down a score for each and
every problem? Such as “3 points out of 4?” How generous is the examiner? For
example, even if your answer is correct in a given problem, will the examiner
credit you with a “4 points out of 4” which is 100% for that problem, or merely
“3/4” which only just a passing grade of 75%?
So, it’s either you
get 100% (4/4) or 75% (3/4)! No wonder only 5% get the grade of 75. A grade of
75 means that the examinee is almost perfect, getting 3 points of 4 in each
problem.
Thus, if the
examiner religiously uses the point system for each problem, there are only
five grades in the bar: 4/4 (100%), ¾ (75%),
2/4 (50%), ¼ (25%), and 0/4 (0%). Although, it is the doubtful that this
scoring system is used, given the short time to check 6,000 notebooks. But if this point system is not
used, what’s the point of assigning points to a problem?
With this
illustration, can you see why getting a grade of 79 is almost like getting a
perfect 4/4 in most of the problems and getting ¾ in others. No wonder a grade
of 79 belongs to the top 3% in the 2014 bar. Ah, you’re still wondering why we
choose an odd grade of 79 as an example in the beginning of this article?
So, who’s to say,
that even with a perfect answer, the examiner will still refuse to give you 4
out of 4, but only a 3 of 4? This minor stroke has an huge deleterious effect. Your
grade is either 75% barely passing or 100% topnotcher.
Anyway, I could
write more about this issue, and if given a chance to share my ideas with the Supreme
Court; I would gladly do so.
(End of Part 9)
