Following is a small sample of the July 2010 MPT Comparison Bank to illustrate how it works (only 10 side-by-side comparison rows are available in this sample). For the actual July 2010 MPT Comparison Bank available by subscription, there are 1,378 comparison rows based on 51 examinees. In this July 2010 MPT Comparison, any MPT answer with a score above 46.81 is a passing essay.
For each Comparison Bank, there are three columns on the report – a “Matching Words” column, a “Text Comparison” column, and a “PDF Comparison” column. The “Matching Words” column reports the number of perfectly matching words that have been marked in the pair of documents. It includes too-short phrases that require bridging over non-matching words in order to count as matching between the two documents. Each “Matching Words” row item has 3 subparts: (a) the number of matching words; (b) what percentage of the first document is accounted for by these matching words; and (c) what percentage of the second document is accounted for by these matching words. The “Text Comparison” column shows the text matches between the two essays you select. In the reports, perfect matches are indicated by red-underlined words and bridging, but non-matching words are indicated by green-italicized-underlined words. The matching phrases are links. If you click on a matching phrase, you will be taken to the equivalent phrase in the other document of the pair. The “PDF Comparison” column shows the PDFs of the two essays you select side-by-side.
In the tables, the hyperlink naming convention operates as follows: Exam-Essay-Score-Typed or Written-ID
For example, the naming convention “Feb 2010-MPT 01-Score 36.50-Typed-ID 006” means that this is an essay from the February 2010 exam, it was written in response to the MPT, the scaled score of the essay/MPT was 36.50, the examinee typed the essay, and the randomly generated ID of the candidate was 006. You can use the ID to differentiate examinees in instances where multiple examinees have the same score on an essay. In a few instances, the Typed/Written status of an essay is “Typed Edited.” This means that the essay is a typed essay, but it is not in it’s original format because the examinee edited it. For these essays, you must keep in mind that what you are seeing may not be exactly what the bar grader saw in regards to layout or format. If the essay is an above average answer released by NY BOLE, in place of an ID, it appears as “NYBOLE-Above Average Answer 1” or “NYBOLE-Above Average Answer 2.” Please note that these released above average answers do not have scores, but based on my experience, these essays received a score of 75-85.