BridgeTower Media Newswires
Michigan’s February bar exam will be conducted remotely, according to a Michigan Supreme Court announcement.
What’s not changing is the traditional two-day format: the Board of Law Examiners, or BLE, will administer the online test Feb. 23-24, 2021. It will consist of 15 Michigan law-based essays and 200 multiple choice questions in the Multistate Bar Exam offered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Those applicants who qualify for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act can take the test in person. A location has not yet been determined.
Administrative Order 2020-22 was entered to implement the decision.
As with the July 2020 test — the first ever remote bar exam in the United States — those who need to access a quiet space or reliable internet should contact their law schools to determine what arrangements may be available with appropriate measures to protect their health.
The BLE recommended this action based on the following considerations:
• The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services restrictions on indoor groups of more than 50 people and the increasing COVID-19 cases in Michigan and nationwide.
• The NCBE is providing the full 200 question MBE for remote testing.
• The Multistate is only available for one set of dates in February, which would not allow the BLE to hold the exam on an alternative date if current restrictions were still in place at that time.
• The software provider of the BLE’s in-person laptop exams — the same provider used by the NCBE for the Multistate portion of the exam — and the July 2020 remote exam has confirmed its ability to conduct an online exam in February 2021.
• Technical problems resulting from a denial of service attack during July 2020 exam period were quickly resolved, affected applicants were given extra time, and all test takers were able to complete the test.
• Expert evaluation of July 2020 test scores revealed that the technical problem did not have an impact on test scores.
Michigan was first to use an online bar exam in July 2020, with less-than-ideal results for the 773 participants. The test crashed, which ExamSoft Worldwide Inc. blamed on a cyber attack. That snafu locked test takers out at the start of the second module of this year’s five-module online test.
But for the July 2020 exam, an applicant with an average essay score (6.71) passed the exam. This overall essay average was slightly higher than the July 2019 average.
The Supreme Court also is moving to employ the Uniform Bar Examination, or UBE, for future testing.
By next year, the UBE, which allows an applicant’s score to be transferred between UBE jurisdictions, will be used by nearly 40 jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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