A group of law students yesterday called for bar exam reform after a new requirement caused last year’s passage rate to drop to the lowest in eight years.
Since the exam underwent a major reform in 2011, the passage rate has remained between 9.87 and 10.64 percent, with 822 to 963 people passing it every year.
However, the percentage last year dropped to 8.58, with only 759 passing the exam, after the Ministry of Examination stipulated a requirement that aims to improve lawyer quality.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
According to the requirement, test takers must score a combined 400 out of 800 points in four major sections covering the Constitution, the Civil Code, the Criminal Code and key laws.
Before that, test takers only had to earn a score in the top 33.3 percent to pass.
Nearly 40 of the 107 people who failed the exam because of the requirement have filed an administrative appeal against the ministry demanding a review of the rule, Fuji University law student Kan Chih-yi (甘知沂) said.
Kan said he hopes that the Examination Yuan would allow academics and legal experts to attend a committee meeting on Monday next week that is to review the administrative appeal.
“The ministry must review the bar exam rule so that no one else would have to suffer from it,” he said.
Tsai Chung-yen (蔡忠晏), 25, a graduate law student at Tunghai University, said he plans to take the bar exam for the fourth time this year.
Last year, he earned a total score of 502.5, which well exceeded the 33.3 percent threshold of 495 points, but his combined score in the four major sections was 15 points short of 400, he said.
Seeing his transcript, “I could not hide how painful it made me feel and I just cried,” he said.
In the three years he spent preparing for the exam, he would barely go out and would not even celebrate the Lunar New Year, he said.
The exam should only determine whether test takers have the basic qualifications for being a lawyer, Tsai said.
“Whether they would really be a great lawyer depends on the work they would put in. If they are not good enough, the market would eliminate them,” he added.
The decision to introduce the requirement was made “behind closed doors” without any prior assessment, New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
“I had repeatedly asked the ministry to provide a report assessing the plan’s viability, but never received it, because they never assessed it,” he said.
All rules regarding the bar exam have been set down according to the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) and other laws, the ministry said.
They do not violate any regulations, it said, adding that the Examination Yuan has emphasized the importance of adhering to procedure.
Additional reporting by CNA
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