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max_p

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MEE Grading Question

Post by max_p » Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:27 pm

Been looking all over TLS and still can't figure out how the MEE portion is graded. I got a 134 on my final practice MBE, which will hopefully translate to a scaled score of about 145. That means I need around a 120 to pass in my jurisdiction (need a 266). What does getting a 120 on the MEE require? Kaplan graded all of our essays on a scale of 1 to 6. No idea if that is how the essays are actually graded. Any input is appreciated.


JoeSeperac

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by JoeSeperac » Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:43 pm

Based on NCBE statistics, a July examinee with a written score of 120 did better than only 10-12% of examinees nationwide on the MEE/MPT. To better understand what 120 written score looks like, following is a July 2016 MEE answer that received a score of 42 in NY:
https://ubeessays.com/what-is-takes-to- ... f-the-ube/

If a July NY UBE examinee received a score of 42 for each of his 6 MEE essays and 2 MPTs, that examinee would have received a total written score of 120 (meaning they would have needed a 146 on the MBE to pass with a 266). Please note that this is a single sample essay and some examinees write much less and receive higher scores while other examinees write more and receive lower scores.

adil91

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by adil91 » Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:59 pm

JoeSeperac wrote:Based on NCBE statistics, a July examinee with a written score of 120 did better than only 10-12% of examinees nationwide on the MEE/MPT. To better understand what 120 written score looks like, following is a July 2016 MEE answer that received a score of 42 in NY:
https://ubeessays.com/what-is-takes-to- ... f-the-ube/

If a July NY UBE examinee received a score of 42 for each of his 6 MEE essays and 2 MPTs, that examinee would have received a total written score of 120 (meaning they would have needed a 146 on the MBE to pass with a 266). Please note that this is a single sample essay and some examinees write much less and receive higher scores while other examinees write more and receive lower scores.

Wow..that's a pretty well written essay..and it only received a 42? Now I'm scared

max_p

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by max_p » Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:09 pm

I felt the exact same way lol. I read the actual prompt in Kaplan's essay bank and the person did miss a fair amount. But still. This is frightening.

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JoeSeperac

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by JoeSeperac » Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:54 pm

adil91 wrote:
JoeSeperac wrote:Based on NCBE statistics, a July examinee with a written score of 120 did better than only 10-12% of examinees nationwide on the MEE/MPT. To better understand what 120 written score looks like, following is a July 2016 MEE answer that received a score of 42 in NY:
https://ubeessays.com/what-is-takes-to- ... f-the-ube/

If a July NY UBE examinee received a score of 42 for each of his 6 MEE essays and 2 MPTs, that examinee would have received a total written score of 120 (meaning they would have needed a 146 on the MBE to pass with a 266). Please note that this is a single sample essay and some examinees write much less and receive higher scores while other examinees write more and receive lower scores.

Wow..that's a pretty well written essay..and it only received a 42? Now I'm scared
That essay was well written but didn’t hit the correct issues. To illustrate what I mean by this, take a look at my issue spotting analysis of this essay:

https://seperac.com/pdf/Seperac%20Essay ... %20UBE.pdf

The Issue-Spotting Analysis section of this report shows the words/phrases in the NCBE Answer Analysis that the graders were likely looking for. To make this analysis, I examine the NCBE Answer Analysis for each question (this is the "Point Sheet" NCBE releases with each MEE question) and then I extract the top 50 words/phrases that I expect the graders to look for in the examinee answers. I then report the top 25 (the ones that lead to the best examinee scores). The 'With Word' column reports how many examinees used that word along with the average points these examinees received (green is above passing while red is below passing). For example, only 5% of the examinees used the word/phrase 'market share liability' and received an average of 19.9 points for their essays (whereas a passing MEE essay receives 13.3 points). The W/O Word column shows the average essay points for the examinees who did not use that particular word or phrase. Often, the average score for such examinees is below passing, demonstrating the importance of issue spotting and keywords in achieving a passing MEE score.

Basically, this examinee hit very few of the keywords, which suggests to the grader/grading system that the examinee failed to discuss what needed to be discussed. Had this examinee talked about market share liability and a national standard of care for the doctor, and not talked about RIL (Res Ipsa wasn’t implicated in this question), the examinee’s score would have been well above passing.

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by Wild Card » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:44 am

adil91 wrote:
JoeSeperac wrote:Based on NCBE statistics, a July examinee with a written score of 120 did better than only 10-12% of examinees nationwide on the MEE/MPT. To better understand what 120 written score looks like, following is a July 2016 MEE answer that received a score of 42 in NY:
https://ubeessays.com/what-is-takes-to- ... f-the-ube/

If a July NY UBE examinee received a score of 42 for each of his 6 MEE essays and 2 MPTs, that examinee would have received a total written score of 120 (meaning they would have needed a 146 on the MBE to pass with a 266). Please note that this is a single sample essay and some examinees write much less and receive higher scores while other examinees write more and receive lower scores.

Wow..that's a pretty well written essay..and it only received a 42? Now I'm scared
I wouldn't say it's well written, but it's at least written. You have posters bragging about writing only one or two sentences in response to multiple questions and passing nonetheless.

Findedeux

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by Findedeux » Tue Jul 17, 2018 9:44 am

Well that's slightly scary...neither "fungible" "perishable" or "market share liability" come up as words in the long torts outline for Themis.

And I don't remember anything about market share liability.

JoeSeperac

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by JoeSeperac » Tue Jul 17, 2018 10:34 am

Findedeux wrote:Well that's slightly scary...neither "fungible" "perishable" or "market share liability" come up as words in the long torts outline for Themis.

And I don't remember anything about market share liability.
Following is an essay from the same exam that scored a 59.19 (which was well above passing for J16):

https://ubeessays.com/wp-content/upload ... ID-033.pdf

This examinee hit the proper issues and it was reflected in his score. Also note how he didn't need to add "fluff" to his answer to get a good score.

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by wfstudent » Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:12 am

JoeSeperac wrote:
Findedeux wrote:Well that's slightly scary...neither "fungible" "perishable" or "market share liability" come up as words in the long torts outline for Themis.

And I don't remember anything about market share liability.
Following is an essay from the same exam that scored a 59.19 (which was well above passing for J16):

https://ubeessays.com/wp-content/upload ... ID-033.pdf

This examinee hit the proper issues and it was reflected in his score. Also note how he didn't need to add "fluff" to his answer to get a good score.
how is it possible that that essay had a passing score? probably reached the correct conclusions, but failed to mention negligence (Joe, you said yourself that the other test would have passed if it mentioned the national standard for doctors, and this one didn't even set forth the elements for negligence). in addition, it didn't even lay out the elements of a strict product liability claim in the last answer.

is this an example of the wide subjectivity or graders? I agree that the first example you provided was poor, but this lacks any semblance of legal rules!!

Findedeux

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by Findedeux » Tue Jul 17, 2018 11:17 am

I found it odd that the writer described the learned intermediary rule as an exception for physicians and then combined it with the informed consent rule.

I think his writing was clear and his structure was better.

JoeSeperac

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by JoeSeperac » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:00 pm

wfstudent wrote:is this an example of the wide subjectivity or graders? I agree that the first example you provided was poor, but this lacks any semblance of legal rules!!
According to NCBE, different graders is the primary reason for essay grading unreliability. For example, when the California bar exam studied the reliability of its essay grading in 1977, the bar examiners gave the same essay to multiple graders to see how consistent their grading was. The study found that the PASS/FAIL determination between the graders was consistent only 67% of the time. This means for every two graders that thought an essay was a PASS, a third grader thought it was a FAIL. As far as I am aware, this was the last publicly released study on bar exam essay grading reliability (one has to wonder why).

I started statistically analyzing essays in 2010 because I too was perplexed as to how some essays received the scores they received. I find there are more lessons in what examinees do wrong than in what they do right. If you want to continue down this rabbit hole, email me at joe@seperac.com to participate in an MEE essay grading experiment that you should find insightful.

adil91

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by adil91 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:44 pm

Findedeux wrote:Well that's slightly scary...neither "fungible" "perishable" or "market share liability" come up as words in the long torts outline for Themis.

And I don't remember anything about market share liability.
I noticed that too..

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max_p

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by max_p » Tue Jul 17, 2018 12:47 pm

I doubt they would test that exact topic again so soon. Also, market share liability has a mere two sentences in Kaplan's long tort outline.

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Re: MEE Grading Question

Post by maroon175 » Tue Jul 17, 2018 9:16 pm

Can we abbreviate from the get go without being docked points, or is necessary to indicate the abbreviations with parentheses first?

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