BOSTON

Would-be lawyers get passing grades

About 400 would-be lawyers from Massachusetts who were told that their passing grade on the state bar exam was in question because of a scoring error will soon be told that their passing grades stand.

One would-be lawyer who was originally given a failing grade, had that grade changed to pass, according to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

A spokeswoman for the state Board of Bar Examiners told the newspaper on Friday that the would-be lawyers would be informed of the grade recalculations next week.

A telephone call to the board was not immediately returned after business hours yesterday.

The grading error delayed employment for some people who accepted jobs contingent on them passing the bar exam.

American College Testing, which develops and scores the multiple choice tests used in all but two states, told the National Conference of Bar Examiners earlier this month that an office administrator made a mistake that affected results for more than a third of the 20,204 would-be lawyers who took the test in February.

(Associated Press)