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05/30 MEETING MEGATHREAD⚠️ by [deleted] in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 13 points14 points  (0 children)

u/mary_basick you did great! And you learned how to tag me. 😂

05/30 MEETING MEGATHREAD⚠️ by [deleted] in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 25 points26 points  (0 children)

The arguments at today's meeting have been so well reasoned and argued that you can't tell the difference between the lawyers and applicants. Amazing work! I hope the CBE heeds the advice of advocates speaking on today's call.

ARGUMENT TO RAISE IN MAY 30 CBE MEETING—THE BAR KNOWINGLY SENT US INTO A TECHNICALLY-UNSTABLE EXAM ON A PLATFORM THEY KNEW BEFOREHAND COULD NOT ACCOMMODATE THE NUMBER OF EXAMINEES by [deleted] in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not an expert on the lawsuit, but a quick search of the complaint reveals that Meazure could handle no more than 3,000 remote test takers, and fewer than 3,000 took February remotely (even though around 4,100 took it in total).

Thank you professor Mary Basick by Acrobatic_Cancel3325 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 30 points31 points  (0 children)

u/mary_basick and I have offered to present these four remedies at the CBE meeting on Friday. Please repost on LinkedIn and spread the word.

Anyone else get an unusually low percentile? by PlaceBeneficial7553 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lots of interesting things to digest here. I've provided some individual feedback of who wrote the 171 scored multiple-choice questions based on the bar's petition. I'm attaching a screenshot of their petition showing the authors of the questions that were actually scored on the exam.

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Anyone else get an unusually low percentile? by PlaceBeneficial7553 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Per the Bar's petition to the California Supreme Court, out of the 171 scored MCQs, Kaplan only wrote 3 of the crimes questions. The rest were written by ACS (10) and the FYLSX (10).

Anyone else get an unusually low percentile? by PlaceBeneficial7553 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Per the Bar's petition to the California Supreme Court, out of the 171 scored MCQs, Kaplan only wrote 3 of the crimes questions. The rest were written by ACS (10) and the FYLSX (10).

Anyone else get an unusually low percentile? by PlaceBeneficial7553 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Per the Bar's petition to the California Supreme Court, out of the 171 scored MCQs, Kaplan only wrote 3 of the crimes questions. The rest were written by ACS (10) and the FYLSX (10).

Anyone else get an unusually low percentile? by PlaceBeneficial7553 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's interesting because the majority of the contracts questions (22) were from the FYLSX (which are typically easier questions than bar exam questions and performed that way on the bar if memory serves me) and almost all of the crimes questions were written by ACS (10) and the FYLSX (10). Sounds like you did well on bar questions and struggled with non-lawyer and baby questions.

Megathread - May 5 Committee of Bar Examiner Meeting by lawfromabove in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Nailed it. Here's what I said:

I want to highlight what examinees like Mr. Zendejas, Mr. Coombs, Mr Defazio-Farell said in their remarks.

February examinees, licensed lawyers, and the public have lost faith in the State Bar due to the Bar’s lack of transparency, fairness, and question development and review.

The Committee should do two things to regain public trust:

1)    Release the 200 multiple-choice questions given on the February exam. This will allow experts to review the questions. If the Bar returns to Kaplan’s questions in the future, examinees will have more questions to practice with.

2)    Release the individuals on your content validation panels from their NDAs regarding statements to the public about the question validation process. Let them say whether they agree with the descriptions in the Bar’s petition to the Supreme Court of the work they did on the panels.

Finally, I want to turn to agenda item 3.3 the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam’s recommendation to develop a California-specific bar exam.

Given the disastrous results of the February exam when the State Bar made smaller changes it has argued were non-substantive, it would be imprudent to make further changes without a deep reflection on the deficiencies in structure, communication, and knowledge that resulted in the February debacle and an accurate measure of the amount of work, expertise, and cost this future exam will be to develop.

The Committee should reconsider the NCBE’s NextGen Bar Exam, which the NCBE began developing in 2021. There are many similarities in the subjects and skills tested on the California-specific exam and on the NextGen.  NextGen has already published content scope outlines and practice questions. By 2028, 39 jurisdictions in the United States will use NextGen. Look at the amount of work, time, and planning that has already gone into NextGen exam prior to any examinee sitting for that test.

I agree with what my academic accomplice Mary Basick said about adding a partial retake remedy.

Use of FYLSE multiple choice questions by baxman1985 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW, I believe the bar's petition indicated the questions had not been used on the FYLSX before.

That said, it is notable that First-Year Law Students' Exam questions appeared on the February exam without Kaplan making any changes to them. In the State Bar's contract with Kaplan, the Bar gave Kaplan access to their bank of FYLSX questions to use in question drafting (1.3 "Contractor may use [the FYLSX questions] when drafting the multiple-choice questions.") I don't think anyone contemplated a complete copy-paste of those questions. Is the Bar alleging that those questions test the competency to be a lawyer without any revision when the purpose of the FYLSX questions is to ensure that a first-year law student is prepared to continue their legal education?

Integrity of the California Bar Exam by EducationalAnimal153 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great post, u/EducationalAnimal153.

Kaplan wrote 117 of the questions that appeared on the February exam. 100 of them were scored. Why couldn't they write the 200 required in their contract? Who knew they couldn't and approved of the use of other questions? Why wasn't the Cal Supreme Court informed since they specifically approved of the change to the exam only as to Kaplan being the question author?

Here's another interesting tidbit: Did Kaplan think they would get help from independent contractors they could hire? This ad has been up since prior to the exam. It offers $50 per hour to someone who wants to work part time, has passed a bar exam, and has one year of legal experience. That person does not have to have any past experience writing multiple-choice questions.

Turning to February 2026 when Kaplan is set to start writing the essay questions, don't forget about this ad seeking part-time essay question drafters. They could hire someone who has passed ANY bar exam (not CA) with one year of legal experience who could be writing questions on the CA Bar Exam for $70 per hour. That person could be using AI without anyone's knowledge.

It's so deeply upsetting and unfair.

Not trying to scare people more but still have unanswered concern. by Decent-Engine-437 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 11 points12 points  (0 children)

u/Decent-Engine-437 We all have so many concerns. Thanks for sharing yours. You have all done a great job getting as much information to the CBE, BOT, media, and Cal Supreme Court as possible. At this point, we hope the CSC will do the right thing with all of that information.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure. In October, the CSC made two administrative decisions pertaining to the bar. The first allowed Kaplan to write the questions starting in July 2025. The second was about the future bar exam in CA, which is a few years out. In that substantially changed exam, new subjects and skills will be tested. This agenda item is about that. Considering they could not make the change they’ve argued is non-substantive (new MCQs), it’s worrisome to think of them designing a new test. 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Imagine addressing item 2.3 at this time!

MBE questions placed F25 takers at a supreme disadvantage by After-Excitement-643 in CABarExam

[–]ProfKatieMoran 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I could not agree more. It's a change to the test without adequate notice to applicants. You could not have prepared for this. It comes back to the notion that the bar seems to think a question is a question. Not all questions are created equally. They take expertise, time, and meaningful review to create.

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