Nedelsky (1954) has suggested a procedure for determining the minimum passing score on a multiple-choice test. In this procedure expert judges estimate the probable score of a minimally competent examinee. The technique does not refer to the students' performance data. The purposes of this paper are: (1) to introduce a modification to the Nedelsky procedure that includes both absolute and relative standard setting procedures through the use of subjective probabilities; and (2) to compare these two procedures. The modified Nedelsky method (i.e., the Bayes Subjective Probability method) uses the students' response patterns on each test item and estimates the minimal item value by taking both the students' performance and the experts' judgments into consideration. The Nedelsky procedure has only discrete probabilities ranging from 0 to 1.0; however, the Bayes Subjective Probability procedure has a continuous distribution ranging from 0 to 1.0. Analysis of variance based reliabilities are both high (0.96 for Nedelsky and 0.94 for Bayes Subjective Probability method). For the Nedelsky method, a higher cutting score value emerges and a higher variability index is found. Data for this study were collected from 186 Indiana University students who took the Spanish version of the Foreign Language Placement Examination and from seven Spanish Department faculty members who judged the test items. Examples of comparative data for five test items are appended. (Author/JAZ)