| Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | State Bar Home |
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| Public Comment | ||||||||||||||||
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SUBJECT: Proposal to increase the passing score required for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) from a scaled score of 79 to a scaled score of 86, out of a maximum scaled score of 150. DISCUSSION: The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination is a sixty question, two-hour multiple-choice examination based on the law governing the conduct of lawyers, including the disciplinary rules of professional conduct currently articulated in the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the American Bar Association’s Code of Judicial Conduct, as well as controlling constitutional decisions and generally accepted principles established in leading federal and state cases and in procedural and evidentiary rules.The MPRE is produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and is administered by NCBE three times a year at a multitude of sites in the United States, including 18 sites in California during 2004. Applicant scores are reported to the various jurisdictions as directed by applicants. Each jurisdiction has established its particular passing score, which in California is and has been since inception of the MPRE in the early 1980's, a scaled score of 79 or approximately 28 to 32 correct responses to the fifty items that originally comprised the examination. Applicants who intend to seek admission to practice law in California may take the examination after completing one year of law study. Once California applicants receive a passing score, their scores are valid for however long it may take them to meet the other requirements for admission. In March 2004, the Committee sought and was granted authority to circulate for public comment a proposal to increase the minimum passing score on the MPRE to a scaled score of 100, which depending on the particular examination translates to approximately 32 to 37 correct answers. Public comment was mixed but generally favored an increase in the required score but to a point less than 100. Nevertheless, the Committee recommended to the Regulation, Admissions and Discipline Oversight Committee and through it to the Board of Governors that the required minimum scaled score be raised to 100, which would require that applicants correctly answer at least 64% to 74% of the questions on the test. The Board declined to approve the Committee’s recommendation and referred the matter back to the Committee for further review of an increase in the required scale score to a score less than 100. After reconsideration of the matter, the Committee determined to recommend that the minimum passing score required for the MPRE be increased to a scaled score of 86. Utah is the only other state that has a required passing score of 86, which is the highest score required by any state. Having one of the highest required scores signals California’s emphasis on professional responsibility as a topic of education and examination and as an essential element of practice. SOURCE: The Committee of Bar Examiners COMMENT DEADLINE: October 22, 2005 DIRECT COMMENTS TO: Gayle Murphy |
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