Student exposes Bar exam's failings

Hsu said that a student can't do well on the Bar exam if he or she doesn't understand the laws and regulations taught at university.

"The end goal of the exam is to test students' comprehension of laws. To pass it, you have to learn them by heart and make them part of your knowledge instead of just memorizing all those regulations," Hsu said.

Another NTU law professor, Chan San-lin (詹森林), who has been a Bar examiner several times, said that both professors and students should reflect on the problems of the Bar exam.

"Are the questions on the test practical? I think professors and examiners should think about this question. Do we really need cram schools to help us pass the Bar exam? I think students should ask themselves this question carefully," Chan said.

Chan said that most examiners would avoid unique questions that related to material from famous professors' publications or cram schools.

In a letter to the editor of a local Chinese-language newspaper, however, lawyer Chang Yung-chien (張永健) took exception to some of the things Yang had written about.

Chang said in his letter that sharing class notes had become common practice on campuses and that it was not exclusive to NTU.

Nevertheless, Chang conceded that the Bar exam was not perfect.

"What he said about the Bar exam is something we really have to sit down and think about. As the Judicial Yuan is working on reform of judiciary, I think reform of the Bar exam should be included too," he wrote.