If there are any problems with the standards, additional conferences are scheduled and adjustments are made. Graders are Minnesota licensed attorneys, many of whom were admitted to the Bar within the past five years. They have strong academic credentials, practical experience in the law and are recommended by bar associations, judges or other graders. Minorities and women are well represented among the Minnesota Bar Exam graders. Graders rank order the papers from worst to best, assigning grades on a raw scale of zero to seven.
Graders accomplish the grading within a certain number of weeks.
The answer books and grade sheets are returned to the office and the grades entered into the Board's computer. A computer printout with the grades is proofread twice against the graders' reports and corrections made. When grades are entered, the scores are calculated and pass determinations are made for all examinees who have a combined scale score of 260 or greater. Before combining essay and MBE scores, the essay scores are scaled to the distribution of MBE scores all Minnesota examinees received on the MBE administered on this date. Unless the scores are placed on the same scale, they cannot be meaningfully combined into a composite score for making pass-fail decisions.