Cal Bar knew in October 2024 that Kaplan couldn’t draft enough questions for February 2025 exam
Hello everyone,
In its Petition filed April 29 to the California Supreme Court, the Cal Bar indicated that it knew months in advance of the February 2025 exam that Kaplan could not meet its contractual obligation to draft 200 MBE questions that could be properly vetted in time for the February 2025 exam. Page 10 of the Petition states:
“However, in late October 2024, Office of Admissions’ staff
determined that there were not enough multiple-choice questions
for each of the subtopics of the seven subject areas tested.”
So what did the Cal Bar do to solve this problem? Affirmatively ask the psychometrician’s company to draft more MBE questions. Also from page 10 of the Petition:
“As such, staff requested that ACS Ventures, LLC (ACS)—the
psychometric and test development consulting company with
which the State Bar contracts to assist with examination
analysis, grading, and related services—draft additional
questions for the February 2025 bar examination.”
Page 12 of the Petition clarifies this date as approximately October 30, 2024:
“On or around October 30, 2024, State Bar Admissions’ staff
requested that ACS draft additional questions for the February
2025 bar examination to ensure that there were a sufficient
number of questions in all subtopics of the subject areas.”
The Petition confirms (page 12, footnote 3) that a few State Bar staff made this decision and did not communicate this decision to State Bar leadership.
The decisions by Admissions staff to request that ACS
develop questions for the November bar examination study and
for use on the February 2025 bar examination were not clearly
communicated to State Bar leadership. Structural changes within
Admissions have been made to address this issue.
