Buckle up, because there's a score scaling thread coming your way. Disclaimer: did our best to figure this out, but it's complicated; please be kind.
Also, spoiler alert, but this thread is another reason why we need #diplomaprivilege
1/

Big, standardized multiple-choice tests are "scaled" from administration to administration. The idea is that one test might have, on average, harder questions, and nobody should be penalized for that. Your MBE score (or SAT, or LSAT, etc.) is a scaled score. 2/

In contrast, "raw" scores are just the number you got right out of the total number of questions. For an in-person bar exam, this is x/175 for the MBE, because there are always 25 experimental questions in the 200 total. 3/

Usually, the NCBEX takes all the MBE scores for a given administration and uses a process called "equating" to compare it with previous administrations. This gets you from raw to scaled score. The scaled scores range from 40 to 200: this is what your state gets from NCBEX. 4/

The algorithms aren't public, but scaled scores are generally 10-15 points higher than raw scores.
Here's the first problem: NCBEX is NOT reporting scaled scores for the October exam because—get excited for a quote from their official website . . . 5/

"scores from an abbreviated version of the MBE administered by remote testing cannot be considered comparable to the standard, paper-based, full-length MBE administration . . . ." 6/

So, what are states going to do with these raw scores? Beats me. But if you're in a state with an October exam, you need to contact your bar examiners and ask. If bar examiners use raw scores and apply the same cut scores, huge numbers of people will fail. 7/

There's lots more to this (in particular, the fact that writing scores are scaled to MBE scores) but studying isn't going to do itself.
On that note, how about #DiplomaPrivilegeNow instead? 8/8

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