§ 2.11 Exam Preparation and Administration
2.11. Exam Preparation and Administration
(a) Exam Preparation and/or Review Courses. Certification committee members and BLSE members may attend or participate in any seminar intended as a preparatory or review course for a certification examination although they may not give instruction regarding, or otherwise comment on, any substantive legal matters relating to the examination. Notwithstanding the foregoing, certification committee members and BLSE members may participate in a preparatory review course for the purpose of discussing, in general terms, the following aspects of the certification process:
(1) How examination questions are developed;
(2) How examinations are generally administered;
(3) How examinations are generally graded;
(4) Examinees' appeal rights and the procedures for appellate review; and
(5) Available resources to study for examinations, such as available bibliographies. Additionally, in connection with the foregoing discussion of the examination process, the certification committee may (but is not required to) provide 1 or more example questions used in past examinations, together with 1 or more model answers to the question. Any such question and answers used may not be used in any subsequent examination.
The sponsor of any such preparatory review course shall also:
(1) advise applicants and attendees in the course brochure and in any materials distributed to attendees that such course is developed and conducted without any endorsement by the BLSE and/or certification committees; and
(2) include a disclaimer in the course brochure and in any materials distributed to applicants and attendees consisting of substantially the following language:
This course is intended to provide a comprehensive review of the subject matter, and it may help candidates prepare for a certification examination. Those who have developed the program, however, have no information regarding the examination content other than the information contained in the exam specifications which are also provided to each examinee. Candidates for certification who take this course should not assume that the course material will cover all topics on the examination or that the examination will cover all topics in the course material.
(b) Exam Dates. Eligible applicants shall successfully complete the exam as follows:
(1) for an August 31 application filing deadline, the exam shall be taken the following March;
(2) for an October 31 application filing deadline, the exam shall be taken the following May;
(3) subsequent examination opportunities shall be subject to the limitations described elsewhere in these policies.
(c) Location. Each area examination shall be conducted annually in such place(s) and on such date(s) as determined by the committees and the BLSE.
(d) Examinee Identification. If requested by the committee conducting an examination, staff is authorized to verify the identity of each examinee by requiring photographic identification upon receipt of the exam materials.
(e) Eligibility. Only applicants deemed by the certification committee to have satisfied the application requirements shall be eligible for examination.
(1) An exam eligible applicant shall have 2 consecutive opportunities to attain a passing grade on the examination. The first opportunity shall be during the cycle in which the application was filed. The second opportunity shall be subject to approval by the committee after review of an abbreviated application accompanied by the reapplication fee. The full exam fee must be paid for each exam taken.
(2) An applicant who does not obtain a passing score on the exam after 2 consecutive attempts is ineligible to reapply the year immediately following the second failure.
(3) The BLSE chair or vice-chair may permit an “ineligible” applicant to sit for an exam in instances in which:
(A) the committee requires additional time to investigate the applicant's qualifications; or
(B) a disciplinary case against the applicant is pending; or
(C) due to time constraints, the BLSE has not had an opportunity to consider the committee's recommendation.
(4) If an “ineligible” applicant is granted permission to take an exam:
(A) the exam fee must be paid in advance and may not be refunded;
(B) the exam results may be released to the applicant but a passing grade may not be used as a basis to justify application approval;
(C) if an applicant is unsuccessful on the exam, the exam may not be reviewed, nor may a petition for grade review be filed, unless the applicant is deemed to be an “eligible” applicant having satisfied all other requirements for certification;
(D) if an applicant is successful on the exam, in lieu of challenging the application denial, the applicant may re-file in the next application filing cycle and, if approved, will not be subject to re-examination; and
(E) the applicant must acknowledge, in written form, understanding of and agreement with the above conditions prior to taking the exam.
(f) Applicant Misconduct. Failure to follow staff or administrator instructions pertaining to the examination or its administration shall disqualify an applicant's examination and application.
(g) Exam Retention. Certification examination booklets and/or bluebooks will be retained for a period of 1 year from the date of certification, at which time they will be disposed of in a confidential manner.
(h) Confidentiality. To ensure and preserve the confidentiality of the certification testing process, all certification examinations, past, current, or proposed, and the model answers to such tests, will not be made available for inspection, copying, or use for any reason, except in those limited circumstances otherwise permitted by BLSE policies consistent with rule 6-3.12, Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.