Massachusetts J18 Retakers Forum

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JoeSeperac

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Massachusetts J18 Retakers

Post by JoeSeperac » Thu Nov 29, 2018 12:31 pm

I’m going to give this one last shot as the window to challenge scores is closing. Usually, I never have a problem figuring out the bar exam scale for a state, but J18 MA has given me fits. Thanks to the wonderful insight of another MA examinee, I separated the scores I have based on Retaker and First-Timer, and it appears there are indeed two different scales. Now I just need more scores from J18 MA examinees to confirm (I have too few to be confident about this). Accordingly, if you are a J18 MA First-Time Taker or Retaker, please enter you scores and submit them. If you include your email address, I will get back to you once I know more. If there are indeed two different scales – one for First-time takers and a lower one for Retakers, I would hope this is a mistake (or else it raises some interesting constitutional questions).

https://seperac.com/zcalc-MA.php

dpcjsa

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Re: Massachusetts J18 Retakers

Post by dpcjsa » Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:28 pm

JoeSeperac wrote:I’m going to give this one last shot as the window to challenge scores is closing. Usually, I never have a problem figuring out the bar exam scale for a state, but J18 MA has given me fits. Thanks to the wonderful insight of another MA examinee, I separated the scores I have based on Retaker and First-Timer, and it appears there are indeed two different scales. Now I just need more scores from J18 MA examinees to confirm (I have too few to be confident about this). Accordingly, if you are a J18 MA First-Time Taker or Retaker, please enter you scores and submit them. If you include your email address, I will get back to you once I know more. If there are indeed two different scales – one for First-time takers and a lower one for Retakers, I would hope this is a mistake (or else it raises some interesting constitutional questions).

https://seperac.com/zcalc-MA.php
Hi Joe,

My BF is waiting on scores from Mass and he is a retaker. I'm researching things online for him and wondering if you ever discovered any new info about the possibility of there being two different scales, one for first time test takers, and one for re-takers?

If that's the case, is the bar lowered or raised for the re-takers?

BF is already licensed in another state (FL) so he was nearly was floored when he failed Mass. last year. On the other hand, they gave him the UBE when he took it last July, so maybe that had something to do with the state no longer being called Passachusetts?

Thanks for any info you may have on this. I'll be taking it some day and it's probably good if we all had a clue about this.


P.S. do you know of other states that set two different curves?

JoeSeperac

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Posts: 507
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2017 3:30 pm

Re: Massachusetts J18 Retakers

Post by JoeSeperac » Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:14 am

dpcjsa wrote:
JoeSeperac wrote:I’m going to give this one last shot as the window to challenge scores is closing. Usually, I never have a problem figuring out the bar exam scale for a state, but J18 MA has given me fits. Thanks to the wonderful insight of another MA examinee, I separated the scores I have based on Retaker and First-Timer, and it appears there are indeed two different scales. Now I just need more scores from J18 MA examinees to confirm (I have too few to be confident about this). Accordingly, if you are a J18 MA First-Time Taker or Retaker, please enter you scores and submit them. If you include your email address, I will get back to you once I know more. If there are indeed two different scales – one for First-time takers and a lower one for Retakers, I would hope this is a mistake (or else it raises some interesting constitutional questions).

https://seperac.com/zcalc-MA.php
Hi Joe,

My BF is waiting on scores from Mass and he is a retaker. I'm researching things online for him and wondering if you ever discovered any new info about the possibility of there being two different scales, one for first time test takers, and one for re-takers?

If that's the case, is the bar lowered or raised for the re-takers?

BF is already licensed in another state (FL) so he was nearly was floored when he failed Mass. last year. On the other hand, they gave him the UBE when he took it last July, so maybe that had something to do with the state no longer being called Passachusetts?

Thanks for any info you may have on this. I'll be taking it some day and it's probably good if we all had a clue about this.


P.S. do you know of other states that set two different curves?
I still am not sure about the possibility of two different scales in any state. I generally need about 100 scores from examinees to concretely figure out a scale, but I am nowhere near that with MA. If anyone who has failed wants to help, here is my scoreform:

http://seperac.com/scoreform.php

If you fill out just the contact and score info, I will send you back relevant statistics on your attempt and once I collect enough scores, I will send you a free 14 page confidential score report. If you fill out the other portions of the form, I will also give you advice on what to do for your next attempt. Using the score info, I will also make score calculators for those states once I receive enough scores. I currently have calculators for NY, CA, DC and FL at http://www.mberules.com. The score calculators are useful because you can see exactly how many points each answer contributed to your final score.

I believe the decreased pass rates in Massachusetts may a measure to protect against forum shopping. By making the pass rates more in line with other nearby UBE states, there is less incentive to forum shop. The decreased pass rate phenomenon has occurred in New Jersey (overall pass rate of 69% pre-UBE versus 56% post-UBE), Massachusetts (overall pass rate of 73% pre-UBE versus 62% post-UBE); Connecticut (overall pass rate of 74% pre-UBE versus 49% post-UBE) and New Hampshire (overall pass rate of 72% pre-UBE versus 66% post-UBE).

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