Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I am full time CA licensed Mortgage Broker who's practiced for the past 18 years. As a result of the mortgage fraud committed and endorsed by Wall Street before the housing crash, banks in an effort to do away with brokers formed the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) which requires brokers to undergo a criminal background check, credit report pull, a state exam and a national exam on a computer. Not surprisingly, banks and their employees are exempt. I took the national exam which had 100 questions but discovered that only 90 are graded and NMLS won't tell you which 90 questions they will grade. I was shocked when the computer results said that I had received 74% (67 of 90) and 75% was the minimum passing score. There was no way that I missed 23 questions. I averaged 96% on my practice exams and knew 85 actual test questions verbatim. I asked to see a copy of my exam and was told that it is not allowed. I'd have to wait 30 days to retake it. I was livid. Test takers of College exams and Bar Exams are allowed to review their tests but I can't? Now I can't practice until I re-take the exam in 30 days. How can they arbitrarily and capriciously tell us that we have received a certain schore without allowing us to review the results and get to select which 90 questions will be graded? This would be similar to the Bar selecting which MBE questions that they will decide to grade. What are my rights to contest the results and request to review my actual exam?
4 Answers from Attorneys
They gave you a -grade-? (California Bar examinees don't get to know their grades, at least those of us who passed the first time.) The answer to your question depends on whether NMLS is government-run or privately run, and the terms of any agreement you might have signed.
Your rights are probably very limited........a more practical approach would be to re-take the exam. Consider the possibility that the exam is cleverly designed to weed out brokers who should be out. Fine-tune your answers to reflect what the banks believe.
They do not "arbitrarily and capriciously" say you did not pass. You did not answer the questions with the answers they determined are correct. There is no automatic right to see test questions and answers. Even if you could get a court to order the questions and answers released in this case, it would take a year and thousands in legal fees. By that time you could retake the exam twelve times.
Next time study better.
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