MPRE Scores Continue to Dip

Results to the November 2017 Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam posted to examinees' National Conference of Bar Examiners accounts earlier this week.

Similar to declining MBE scaled scores, MPRE scaled scores have also seen a decrease over the past 10 years, according to statistics published by the NCBE.

The mean scaled score for 2007 (which includes the March, November, and August administrations) was 98.6 while the mean scaled score for 2016 (the last complete results released by the NCBE) was 93.1, the lowest the mean scaled score has been over the 10-year span.

Statistics for the 2017 MPRE administrations will likely be released in the March 2018 issue of The Bar Examiner, the NCBE’s quarterly publication.

According to the NCBE, the MPRE scaled score is a standard score:

The performance information provided for the MPRE is a scaled score which ranges from 50 (low) to 150 (high). MPRE scaled scores are calculated by NCBE based on a statistical process known as equating that is commonly used on standardized examinations. This statistical process adjusts raw scores on the current examination to account for differences in difficulty as compared with past examinations. Equating makes it possible to compare scaled scores across test administrations because any particular scaled score will represent the same level of knowledge/performance from one test date to another. Equating helps to ensure that no examinee is unfairly penalized or rewarded for taking a more or less difficult form of the test.