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Anyone have an idea of how the 25 experimental questions are distributed on the MBE? Do they put them all in the morning section or afternoon? Scatter them throughout both sections? Distribute them by topic?

I think they messed up on my copy of the test and I could tell which ones were experimental from comparing the flaw against other pages while I was answering. I don't want to say which ones because it looks like they ban people for discussing specifics. But very generally speaking they absolutely do use experimental questions and it's possible to determine which ones.

JohnStamos wrote:I think they messed up on my copy of the test and I could tell which ones were experimental from comparing the flaw against other pages while I was answering. I don't want to say which ones because it looks like they ban people for discussing specifics.

Elastigirl14 wrote:Anyone have an idea of how the 25 experimental questions are distributed on the MBE? Do they put them all in the morning section or afternoon? Scatter them throughout both sections? Distribute them by topic?

I can only hope that they were all on the insanely hard session.

I'd guess it'll be very hard to distinguish the experimental questions simply because if the test makers allowed test takers to do so it would completely detract from the purpose of the questions. They are trying to determine the difficulty level of these questions for future exams and if people choose to pick any answer knowing the question doesn't count that would entirely skew the data.

That said, if the questions was testing something that is not currently within the scope of the MBE, that would be a tip-off.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

unsweetened wrote:

Elastigirl14 wrote:Anyone have an idea of how the 25 experimental questions are distributed on the MBE? Do they put them all in the morning section or afternoon? Scatter them throughout both sections? Distribute them by topic?

I can only hope that they were all on the insanely hard session.

Which we all agree was the second one. Right? RIGHT?

I know for a fact that they do it during both the AM and PM sessions in equal proportions. After the exam, my friends discussed among themselves some of the questions that they thought were particularly difficult (I did not take part in this conversation ), and some of the questions that Friend A got, Friend B didn't get, both in the AM and PM sessions (idk if I explained that right?)

So, if this is a curved bar exam, then everyone MUST get the same questions in order to be graded fairly. So the questions that these friends didn't share must necessarily be experimental, and they spanned both the AM and PM sessions.

estefanchanning wrote:I know for a fact that they do it during both the AM and PM sessions in equal proportions. After the exam, my friends discussed among themselves some of the questions that they thought were particularly difficult (I did not take part in this conversation ), and some of the questions that Friend A got, Friend B didn't get, both in the AM and PM sessions (idk if I explained that right?)

So, if this is a curved bar exam, then everyone MUST get the same questions in order to be graded fairly. So the questions that these friends didn't share must necessarily be experimental, and they spanned both the AM and PM sessions.

How do you know, for a fact, that there are the same amount of experimental in each session?

myspiritanimal wrote:

estefanchanning wrote:I know for a fact that they do it during both the AM and PM sessions in equal proportions. After the exam, my friends discussed among themselves some of the questions that they thought were particularly difficult (I did not take part in this conversation ), and some of the questions that Friend A got, Friend B didn't get, both in the AM and PM sessions (idk if I explained that right?)

So, if this is a curved bar exam, then everyone MUST get the same questions in order to be graded fairly. So the questions that these friends didn't share must necessarily be experimental, and they spanned both the AM and PM sessions.

How do you know, for a fact, that there are the same amount of experimental in each session?

by same i meant quite similar. And my friends discussed both after AM and PM sessions. From what I understand, in session A they had 11 different Qs, and session B they had 9 different Qs. To me that realistically means a 12/13 split between AM and PM.

estefanchanning wrote:

myspiritanimal wrote:

estefanchanning wrote:I know for a fact that they do it during both the AM and PM sessions in equal proportions. After the exam, my friends discussed among themselves some of the questions that they thought were particularly difficult (I did not take part in this conversation ), and some of the questions that Friend A got, Friend B didn't get, both in the AM and PM sessions (idk if I explained that right?)

So, if this is a curved bar exam, then everyone MUST get the same questions in order to be graded fairly. So the questions that these friends didn't share must necessarily be experimental, and they spanned both the AM and PM sessions.

How do you know, for a fact, that there are the same amount of experimental in each session?

by same i meant quite similar. And my friends discussed both after AM and PM sessions. From what I understand, in session A they had 11 different Qs, and session B they had 9 different Qs. To me that realistically means a 12/13 split between AM and PM.

I wonder if those questions that purportedly were experiemental were the harder ones in both sessions. Did your friends say?

Elastigirl14 wrote:

estefanchanning wrote:

myspiritanimal wrote:

estefanchanning wrote:I know for a fact that they do it during both the AM and PM sessions in equal proportions. After the exam, my friends discussed among themselves some of the questions that they thought were particularly difficult (I did not take part in this conversation ), and some of the questions that Friend A got, Friend B didn't get, both in the AM and PM sessions (idk if I explained that right?)

So, if this is a curved bar exam, then everyone MUST get the same questions in order to be graded fairly. So the questions that these friends didn't share must necessarily be experimental, and they spanned both the AM and PM sessions.

How do you know, for a fact, that there are the same amount of experimental in each session?

by same i meant quite similar. And my friends discussed both after AM and PM sessions. From what I understand, in session A they had 11 different Qs, and session B they had 9 different Qs. To me that realistically means a 12/13 split between AM and PM.

I wonder if those questions that purportedly were experiemental were the harder ones in both sessions. Did your friends say?

The majority of the questions were difficult, but not all, from what I understood.

Nightcrawler wrote:

unsweetened wrote:

Elastigirl14 wrote:Anyone have an idea of how the 25 experimental questions are distributed on the MBE? Do they put them all in the morning section or afternoon? Scatter them throughout both sections? Distribute them by topic?

I can only hope that they were all on the insanely hard session.

Which we all agree was the second one. Right? RIGHT?

There were multiple versions, so I would presume that some people got a brutal set in the AM, while others got a brutal set in the PM.
Either way, it's scaled, so we'll probably pick up a decent number of points (which is the only thing keeping me from totally freaking out).

SilvermanBarPrep wrote:I'd guess it'll be very hard to distinguish the experimental questions simply because if the test makers allowed test takers to do so it would completely detract from the purpose of the questions. They are trying to determine the difficulty level of these questions for future exams and if people choose to pick any answer knowing the question doesn't count that would entirely skew the data.

That said, if the questions was testing something that is not currently within the scope of the MBE, that would be a tip-off.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

Yes Sean, and I'd also venture that if something is sufficiently different or controversial, anyone who has spent sufficient time here on these boards would have heard rumors about it. Therefore, during the Feb 19, if it smelled foreign to me, I just considered it a pretest questions, took my best shot, and moved on. HOWEVER, they greatly influenced my perceptions of how hard the test was, so there's some advice to pass along to your students. Don't let the alien questions shake your confidence, solve them and move on.